Music in Batman Begins
I just came back from “Batman Begins,” a good show even though the men get to have all the fun.
No spoilers here, just two music notes: The opera young Bruce attends with his parents is Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele — the Faust story seems appropriate; and Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill are credited (cached HTML of a .doc) for the “Happy Birthday” sung to Bruce.
I may have to go see that… I haven’t thought about Mefistofele since my college quiz bowl days.
The version of Happy Birthday To You is credited in the credits to a string quartet — was it instrumental? While I’m not surprised that Warner would be willing to pay itself for sync rights, I thought that the music was published pre-1923, while the words were published post-1923. An instrumental version would seem to require no clearance or credit (except for the string quartet arrangement, which appears to be uncredited anyway).
Comment by Joe Gratz — June 16, 2005 @ 5:48 pm
Don’t go just for the Mefistofele — it’s on screen for no more than 30 seconds. Happy Birthday was sung by the on-screen party guests.
Comment by Wendy Seltzer — June 16, 2005 @ 5:58 pm