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The Hollywood composer (Bullitt, Mission:
Impossible, The Cincinatti Kid, The Liquidator, The Four Musketeers,
Buddy Buddy, Cool Hand Luke, Kelly’s Heroes, Dirty Harry, The
Beguiled etc etc!!!) pipes up from anti-smoking California.
JL: Where did you start smoking?
LS: I started smoking a pipe in my 20s, when I
was a student at the Paris Conservatory.
JL: What do you smoke now?
LS: I smoke only pipes now - I did try
cigarettes and cigars but I find the pipe more relaxing and more
suitable to my personality.
JL: What's your favourite tobacco?
LS: ‘March 93’, by Dunhill.
JL: Where can a pipe-smoker light up in
Hollywood?
LS: The ‘People's Republic of California’ has
a law in which it is forbidden to smoke in restaurants and public
places. However, I am a member of a private club called the Grand
Havana Room, which has a very good and comfortable atmosphere and
excellent French cuisine. Also, I smoke in my home and my friends'
homes
JL: Which musician, or film director (or both!),
alive or dead, would you love to share an ashtray with, and why?
LS: I would like to share an ashtray with the
great Dizzy Gillespie, who was one of my mentors and one of the
greatest trumpet players in jazz history. He also smoked a pipe and
knew the most select pipe stores in the US and Europe. When I was
on tour with him, I remember buying pipes together at the duty-free
shops at the airports. The film director should be Don Siegel, with
whom I worked on many films, including ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The
Beguiled’ - both with Clint Eastwood. Don Siegel was born in the USA
but studied and graduated in Oxford, England. We used to smoke
while planning my music collaboration with him on his films.
JL: Do you smoke your pipe while composing music
for films? If so, and if part of the process involves watching the
silent version of the movie on a screen in front of you, do you ever
have a problem actually seeing the film
through the smoke?
LS: I usually do not smoke the pipe while I am
watching films, but I do smoke while I am composing, either at my
desk, or at the piano. As a matter of fact, there are some
documentary films and television interviews in which I am seen
smoking frenetically while I am composing!
JL: What kind of music do you like to smoke
to?
LS: Usually, I like to smoke to the music of
the French impressionists, Debussy and Ravel, because their music
should be listened to through the fog ...or smoke. It helps to
enhance their subtle textures.
JL: Of all the films or TV shows you have ever
composed for, which was the most smoker-friendly?
LS: ‘Mission: Impossible’ was the most smoker
friendly.
JL: And which was the least smoker-friendly?
LS: ‘The Amityville Horror’ was the least
smoker friendly.....Actually, I have never experienced a non
smoker-friendly film or television show.
JL: Have you ever conducted an orchestra with
your pipe?ì
LS: When I first came to Hollywood, I did
conduct some of my film and television scores while smoking the
pipe. In those days I was a ‘chain smoker’ of pipes! Later on, I
joined my fellow conductor colleagues’ protocol and I made an effort
not to smoke a pipe while conducting. However, now, no one is
allowed to smoke at the studios.
JL: If there was a button that, once pressed,
would remove pipe smokers from every film ever made, would you press
it?
LS: I would not press the button to suppress
pipe smokers from every film ever made. I cannot imagine Sherlock
Holmes without his pipe. More recently, it would be very taxing to
try to eliminate every pipe smoker from ‘The Lord of the Rings’.
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