De Lift

The 1983 Dutch film De Lift (The Lift) marked the feature film debut of director Dick Maas. The film is about a murderous lift, influenced by Jaws, while adding black humour and other typical personal trademarks. Maas has always been very keen on controlling everything, from directing, producing, writing and composing. I have often wondered why he did not allow others to take the helm when writing an original score, but I suppose as a control freak it makes sense. While self-made composers can certainly write good film scores, Maas is very limited in this department. However, it is surprising to read in interviews that he delegated certain tasks in specific departments to other people whom he felt were more knowledgeable. It raises a lot of questions.

He has written the original score for most of his own feature films, with the exception of the American/Dutch remake of De Lift called Down (2001, composed by Paul M. van Brugge) and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Masks of Evil TV series - segment Transylvania, January 1918, composed by Curt Sobel). For the remake of De Lift, due to a complicated schedule, Down was given to Paul M. van Brugge, who had written numerous scores for films produced by Maas' production company, and was the obvious choice. For the Indiana Jones television series, Maas unsurprisingly had no say in who would compose the score. While in later films he would extend his control over his projects by also producing them, on De Lift he had to deal with a producer who wanted to hire an unknown composer, just in case. Somehow a furious Maas managed to convince him, probably through a combination of his determination, the schedule and the argument of lower costs.

Musically and cinematically, De Lift ties in with the popular themes of the 1970s and 1980s, a period in which synthesised music was very prominent .. Maas' source of compositional inspiration was the multiverse of John Carpenter. While most of the music he has ever written is barely decent, De Lift has some musical merit. He used a Roland Juno 6 and Roland Jupiter 8 synthesiser and wrote an 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to the score.. At the same time, the atmosphere and suspense of the music in this horror thriller is actually quite good. It's certainly not for nostalgic reasons, but some of the older synthesisers produced sounds that had a certain eeriness to them that is still occasionally revived in more modern scores, and it was Pino Donaggio who once told me in person that he liked both the film and its music.

Regarding the remake Down, which is a very different film made in a different time, the music by Paul M. van Brugge is very good. This composer uses an actual orchestra, numerous inspiring solo instruments and synthesised samples. Although I moderately value Maas's efforts on his debut, the score to the remake is an example of someone who knows what he is doing. Every (self-made) composer, past and present, usually invests in advanced technical equipment and learns progressively, but Dick Maas didn't. Over the years he has used more advanced tools, but continued to write negligible scores, although some of them contain attractive themes.

At the time, Dick Maas was the first Dutch film composer to receive an international release (by Milan Records) on vinyl and CD. As a separate listening, the music, like almost all of Maas' work, is negligible, but in context the music to De Lift is semi-appealing.


Tracklist
1. Main Title (03:01)
2. Out Of Breath (02:18)
3. A Little Romance (01:20)
4. Blind Faith (01:30)
5. Someone Is Loosing His Head (02:04)
6. Playtime (01:30)
7. Looking For Clues (01:20)
8. Rising Sun (01:05)
9. Family Problems (01:03)
10. A Terrible Surprise (00:30)
11. The Search (02:32)
12. The Conspiracy (00:31)
13. The Battle (06:56)
14. Together Again (01:39)
15. The Ending (02:50)

Total Duration: 30:09


(27-02-2025)