Tony Palmer’s film-making
credentials have been recognised and
honoured with a string of international
prizes. For me his talents were immortalised
with his wonderful film on the life
and music of William Walton, At the
Haunted End of the Day. It brims
over with atmosphere, honesty and ultimately
poignancy as the failing composer relates
his detestation of growing old and the
feeling that the hard fought results
of his lifetime’s work were largely
unappreciated and unwanted.
Walton and Malcolm
Arnold were close friends for many years,
Arnold being a regular visitor to his
elder colleague’s island home on Ischia.
It is therefore both appropriate and
fitting that Palmer should turn his
attention to Arnold himself, a man whose
often colourful, paradoxical and in
many ways tragic, life lends itself
to the medium of film like few others.
The results are both
fascinating and compelling. Despite
setting out with the original intention
of watching the film in two sittings,
once immersed I found it impossible
to drag myself away.
Palmer has assembled
contributions from a wide variety of
friends, colleagues and family some
of whom may prove slightly surprising.
Amongst them are Richard Attenborough,
John Amis, Rick Stein, Hayley Mills,
Richard Adeney and Stan Hibbert. Both
Katherine Arnold and Robert Arnold,
the composer’s daughter and eldest son,
give remarkably frank accounts of Arnold
as father and family man. Paul Jackson,
Arnold’s biographer and Anthony Day,
his carer of many years, give further
insights into the complexities of Arnold’s
tortured and unquestionably self-destructive
personality.
It is not without its
parallels in terms of the composer’s
personality that Palmer’s film splits
into two clear sections. The first and
longest of these concentrates in equal
measure on biographical and musical
detail, placed in the context of Arnold’s
remarkably extensive compositional output.
The wide-ranging contributions from
individuals are punctuated by numerous
musical sound-bites together with extracts
from interviews with the composer himself
recorded at various times during his
life. What develops is an engaging web
of anecdote and personal recollection
spanning around seventy years. Arnold’s
first music teacher in his hometown
of Northampton tells of the young composer’s
hapless early attempts at the keyboard.
Various close friends including chef
Rick Stein tell of his extreme, even
reckless generosity including lunches
where Arnold would pull bundles of twenty
and fifty pound notes from his pockets.
Colleagues from the film world explain
his incredible propensity for music
written at speed, the most famous example
being the Oscar winning score for Bridge
Over the River Kwai: forty-five
minutes of music written in an incredible
ten days. There is more than one recollection
of Arnold’s activities as a socialite,
rubbing shoulders with the rich and
famous and his weakness for the opposite
sex. This latter was a trait that was
to get him into trouble (quite literally
in the case of his second wife Isobel
who he married hurriedly upon her falling
pregnant) on more than one occasion.
Yet despite the financial
rewards of his film world success, his
champagne lifestyle and the popularity
of Arnold amongst his friends, during
these years there were already warning
signs of the troubles that were increasingly
to haunt him. He was as young as twenty
when he was diagnosed as schizophrenic
and suffered his first major mental
breakdown at around the same time. Periods
of intense work would often be followed
by drinking binges on a major scale,
coupled with bouts of depression that
were to intensify over the years. Palmer
appears to have been careful in not
overstating these aspects of Arnold’s
life during the early part of the film.
Instead he allows the chronology of
Arnold’s life to guide us through the
gradual decline of his mental health
during his years of residence in Cornwall
and Ireland and his eventual incarceration
in a mental hospital for three years.
What is remarkable
here is the utter frankness and honesty
of Palmer’s contributors. It can be
harrowing to listen to. His daughter
Katherine talks of the destruction he
would wreak during his uncontrollable
tempers and his eventual rejection of
his entire family. Friends recall suicide
attempts and the stress caused by concern
over his youngest son Edward who was
born autistic, as well as the insulin
and electric shock treatment he endured
during his many years of psychiatric
treatment. Yet in many ways it is the
words of the composer himself that are
the most poignant of all. His belief
that the sheer quantity of music written
resulted in an output of "uneven"
quality and the personal desperation
felt at the critical and public rejection
of his "serious" music. Despite
the almost unprecedented success of
his film music it was this aspect of
his work that he cared about most deeply.
The fact that his longing to communicate
seemingly failed and was often strongly
derided by the musical establishment
was a cause of ongoing despair.
It may seem incredible
then that Palmer manages to conclude
his film with a note of resolution,
maybe even optimism, although it is
true to say that at long last Arnold’s
work is starting to receive the acclaim
it so richly deserves. In recent years
his life of seclusion in Norfolk has
brought him peace and Anthony Day’s
assertion that the eighty-three year
old composer is happy appears to be
borne out. Most important though is
the feeling that the real Arnold is
the man who loved and lived life to
the full. The geniality of the man captured
in interview and the kindness and generosity
demonstrated to many acquaintances and
friends (watch out for Jon Lord of rock
group Deep Purple describing Arnold’s
contribution and support for his Concerto
for Group and Orchestra)
paint a picture of a man whose true
persona is far removed from the disturbing
alter ego into which his schizophrenia
and alcoholism could transform him.
It would be wrong to
conclude without comment on the RTÉ
National Symphony Orchestra under Robert
Houlihan. Their extracts from various
Arnold symphonies, presumably recorded
specifically for this film, are vividly
captured. Applause too for the Wardle
High School Brass Band although it is
a shame that some of their playing is
over dubbed.
Tony Palmer has created
a film that I have no doubt will attain
legendary status not only amongst Arnold
fans but in the wider musical world
also. You simply cannot afford to miss
it.
Christopher Thomas
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