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Why ‘May December’s’ Use of ‘The Go-Between’ Score During Viral Hot Dog Scene Is Problematic


During a viral scene from Todd Hayne's 'May December,' Michael Legrand's score is borrowed.

Legrand’s score — classically structured as a theme and 11 variations for two pianos and orchestra, reflecting his training at the Paris Conservatory — is among the greatest works of the French composer, conductor, pianist and singer, who died in 2019. It is a powerful presence throughout the 1971 film as an impressionable schoolboy (Dominic Guard) delivers love notes from an aristocratic woman (Christie) to a tenant farmer (Bates), eventually leading to tragedy. When Michel Hazanavicius did it in “The Artist,” placing Bernard Herrmann’s music from “Vertigo” against a climactic scene, an outraged Kim Novak ran an ad in Variety declaring: “I want to report a rape.

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