The Artist director upset over Novak's comments

The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius has spoken out to defend his use of Bernard Herrman's classic Vertigo score in the Oscar-favourite film after Hollywood veteran Kim Novak accused the Frenchman of "raping" her "body of work".

Novak, who starred in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, was appalled when she saw a screening of The Artist recently and heard Hermann's famous Love Theme.

Hazanavicius credits the composer at the end of his film but that wasn't enough for the angry actress, who released a statement attacking the director.

She wrote, "I want to report a rape. My body of work has been violated by The Artist. This film took the Love Theme music from Vertigo and used the emotions it engenders as its own."

Hazanavicius was blind sided by the criticism and felt compelled to respond via The Hollywood Reporter.

He says, "I love Bernard Hermann and his music has been used in many different films and I'm very pleased to have it in mine. I respect Kim Novak greatly and I'm sorry to hear she disagrees."