Alan Parker's "Origin" of "A Melody" and the filming location of "Origin" that still remains today

"Melody" Synopsis

Public schools in London. Eleven-year-old Daniel meets Melody, a ballet girl who attends the same school as him. Daniel becomes absorbed in the melody. Eventually, the two become attracted to each other, and eventually even wish to marry each other...

Index

• The work continued to be loved, but the director's name was forgotten.
• His talent for fusing video and sound has created numerous masterpieces.
• Tracy Hyde was walking down this road.

The work continued to be loved, but the director's name was forgotten.

``Melody'', released in 1971, is a rare work that captured the hearts of many audiences in Japan at the time, and continues to gain new fans to this day. However, few people remember the director's name accurately. His name is Waris Hussein. The only other work he has directed that has been released in Japan is 1969's ``Fureai'', but he has been a constant director in the British TV industry from ``Doctor Who'' in the 1960s to recent years. However, it can be said that he is almost unknown in Japan.

So, is the charm of "Melody" only due to the cast of Mark Lester, Tracy Hyde, Jack Wilde, and the music of Bee Gees and others? No, that's not true. The first thing I want to focus on is the producer. It's David Putnam. Early in his career, this famous producer, who would go on to create Academy Award-winning masterpieces such as `` Midnight Express ,'' `` The Chariots of Fire Fields'' and `` The Killing Fields ,'' bought the rights to seven Bee Gees songs and began producing them. What they started with was ``A Melody.'' Putnam conceived the idea of ​​a love story between a boy and a girl based on a Bee Gees song, and asked his former ad agency colleague and copywriter Alan Parker to write the script.

Parker, who had never written a movie script before, started by visiting elementary schools in London and interviewing children about their experiences and thoughts at school. The process took several months, and according to Putnam, much of the work was based on these interviews. By the way, the main character Daniel, played by Mark Lester, was inspired by Parker's childhood, and his best friend Tom, played by Jack Wilde, was inspired by Putnam's childhood.

“Melody” © Photofest / Getty Images

Alan Parker participated in the filming as the second team director and was in charge of directing scenes during school recess (the song was `` Spix and Specs '') and the sports day (the song was `` Love Somebody ''). It was done. Both scenes are scenes of ``everyday school life,'' and many students other than the three main characters appear, and their lively, glowing expressions in these two scenes are one of the most appealing aspects of this work. In particular, the humorous production at the sports day (the struggles of athletes who are not good at sports, the facial expressions that reflect the characters of their parents and teachers, etc.) is exquisite, and from there Daniel sprints as fast as he can while thinking about the melody, and sings the song "Love" in the lyrics.・The production that connects the song with “somebody = love someone” has the most dramatic effect in this work in terms of the sense of unity with the song.

His talent for fusing video and sound has created numerous masterpieces.