Alfred Hitchcock
Scoring The Pleasure Garden
Christopher Austin, conductor
“In many ways I think for a first public commission, to write a score of this kind, for this kind of movie, for this director, is one of the most challenging, possibly overwhelming things that could happen for any young composer.”
In July 2011, 23-year-old composer Daniel Patrick Cohen was handed the formidable task of creating a new score for the BFI’s recent restoration of The Pleasure Garden (1925). Being a devoted Hitchcock fan, as well as citing the director’s long term collaborator, Bernard Herrmann, as his favourite composer, Cohen saw this as his perfect challenge.
This short film follows Cohen’s journey from his first ideas to the final rehearsal of the finished score, just days before its world premiere at Wilton’s Music Hall, East London.
This is the final film in a series, specially commissioned by The Space, which explore Hitchcock’s directorial debut, The Pleasure Garden.