John Williams’ touching and humbling speech upon receiving the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in its 44th edition.
Here are some extracts from the translated speech that are real pearls.
About the award:
«When Mr. Howard called me to inform me about this event, the first thing I thought was that he really was too young for something like that»
About George Lucas and Star Wars:
«George Lucas, definitely a genius. George Lucas gave me the great opportunity in a broad way, to write themes to characters. Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Anakin, Luke and Leia, The Force, etc… For the first movie I even wrote, you will remember George, a quite heated love theme, with its melody, its development and its fiery climax, thinking that Luke and Leia were lovers. And I found that, two years later, they were brothers »
He also recounts a conversation he had with Spielberg on the first non-music viewing of Schindler’s List:
«I told him, ‘Steven, it’s a really good movie, and you need a better composer than me for this movie ‘and he said very sweetly’ I know, but they’re all dead ‘»
And to finish:
«Tomorrow morning, when I return to work, I will try to deserve all this. Thank you very much »
I couldn’t help but get excited, haha. What do you think of yourselves?
