Film Score Friday 11/5/99

by Lukas Kendall

A Polish newspaper has reported that Wojciech Kilar (Dracula, Portrait of a Lady) will be scoring Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings.

Rhino's Superman: The Movie 2CD set (OST) has been moved up in the schedule -- for a change -- to February 15, 2000.

The vinyl release of The Phantom Menace will be out in the U.S. on November 16, from Sony Classical. See http://www.sonymusic.com/music/newreleases.html.

Bringing Out the Dead

From: Steve Stromberg, Strombates@aol.com

Elmer Bernstein got trashed on "Bringing Out the Dead." Wall to wall rock 'n roll where (naturally) the songs had little to do (recognizably that is) with what was happening on film. When you finally hear Bernstein the stuff is great and would have added positively to a mediocre movie. At least he understood what was going on. Too bad.

From: MHazotte@aol.com

A new film from Martin Scorsese is always a major event. One of the most entertaining thing about his movies are the soundtrack. Scoresese worked with Bernard Herrmann, Howard Shore, Philip Glaas, Peter Gabriel and of course Elmer Bernstein. They collaborated on Cape Fear, recreating the Herrmann score, on The age of innocence and now on Bringing out the dead. Each time, the passion of Scorsese for the music of his movies was confirmed by the edition of a score album.

I was very disapointed learning that the soundtrack for his latest film was in fact a compilation without a cue from Bernstein. Will a score album be editing? I think that a legendary composer like Bernstein deserves more respect (congratulations Varese Sarabande for the Wild wild west score album and i thank the Filmscoremonthly team for the superb Comancheros soundtrack) than a compilation!

I don't know of any plans for a score album on Bringing Out the Dead but I was tremendously disappointed in the movie, which seemed strangely out of touch. Apparently Scorsese rode around with ambulance drivers prior to shooting and observed that they blast rock music, but it was a mistake to recreate that in the movie. Consider Taxi Driver: Travis Bickle would have been listening to crazy punk music or disco, but we never heard any of that -- only Bernard Herrmann's score. (My respects to the fellow who pointed this out to me.) I mean, we didn't need to hear the Kris Kristoffersen record Travis gave to Betsy, but that's the equivalent of what we get in Bringing Out the Dead.

The Messenger

From: "Jean-Michel Cavrois" <jmcavrois@free.fr>

Here are my views on The Messenger: Joan of Arc, the new movie by Luc Besson I've just seen.

Well, it's a long, long picture. Of course, the battles are thunderous and brutal, but how couldn't they be after Henry V and Braveheart? But, before and after these battles, the film is surprisingly talky. It's far from the excesses of The Filth Element. And you know what? Because of that, it's Besson's best achievement since La Femme Nikita.

Besson choses to portray Jeanne as a fanatic, a "God-junkie" rather than a saint, helped by the hysteric and "inhabited" act of Milla Jovovich. Jeanne's visions are some sort of new agy ridiculous kaleidoscope... but at the end of the movie, when Jeanne is confrounted to her conscious (portrayed by Obi-Wan... hum! Dustin Hoffman), we perfectly understand why - don't expect anything more from me! Suddenly, all of this movie becomes quite complex, and develops a new vision of a myth, cleaned from its clichés.

But Eric Serra scores the all thing... And you know... this way, he has chosen to go symphonic. And he wants you to know it. In the theater where I saw the movie, after one particular cue, one of the front speakers litteraly exploded: no sound at all! They had to stop the movie and fix it! Well, sometimes it's the Amistad syndrome: it's as if a 120 piece orchestra and chorus was in the room with the actors (like in this Mel Brooks' movie)! Sometimes, it's a pathetic Carl Orff rip off. But Serra has his moments: for example, he scores the battles with a soft elegiac music, creating a very interesting contrast. But the rest is pathos, without any thematical coherence. And Lukas, don't even tell me it's the "music of the new millenium"!

Greetings from the Kingdom of France!

TV ad music

From: Sean Carpenter <SCarpenter@cpr.org>

From the daily Film Score Monthly column on 10/19, Craig Winter wrote:

Is there any information source for the composers of tv commercial music? For instance, there's a current spot for the Lincoln LS automobile that features some terrific techno music. Sounds like a cross between David Arnold and Cirque du Soleil. I'd love to know if it's from another source or composed for the spot, and by whom.

I too have been taken with this ad and its music, especially while anticipating Arnold's techno score for TWINE. (Everything Chritian Clemmenson said against it in his review on Filmtracks.com makes me want it the more. Love that gitchy orchestra/electronica stuff!) Though I can't find out what the ad music is, I did find a clue on the Ford website. Lincoln is sponsoring Cirque de Soleil's upcoming tour of their new show - Dralion. I'm not familiar enough with their music to identify the piece in the commercial, but it certainly sounds consistent with their most recent album, La Nouba. Here's the page: http://www.lincolnvehicles.com/events.

Main Titles Article

See yesterday's column.

From: Randall Derchan <DSPY007@aol.com>

Can anyone imagine a James Bond film without the famous main titles that proceed the films. Very few films have main titles like that anymore. The worst being television, where shows start without any titles at all and no music.

From: "Dennis Logsdon" <logied@mediaone.net>

My day started out well with a nice cup of coffee and an excellent FSM daily on the need for good Main Title music and visual openings. Is there a Film Producer list that this article with our names on it can be sent to? Must be tough coming up with articles let alone good ones everyday, this one was worth waiting for.

R.I.P. Frank DeVol

See the obituary earlier this week.

From: Randall Derchan <DSPY007@aol.com>

I'm sorry to hear that he died. While reading this obituary, I was surprised to see how many major films and tv shows he had written for. He was pretty prolific and had a wonderful career. Hollywood loses another quality entertainer.

From: Bjmj2000@aol.com

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, for giving an expanded remembrance of Mr. DeVol.

I had the luck of sitting table with him and Helen O'Connell at a Beverly Hilton Society of Singers dinner for Ella Fitzgerald about 8 years ago. It was a star-studded occasion for followers of 40's music. Nearby was Kitty Kallen, Helen Forrest, and Mr. & MRS. Bobby Troupe. The other people at the table knew Helen (from her hosting of the MISS UNIVERSE pageants, no doubt): some 'nonpros' asked Frank what he had done. He mentioned Brady Bunch, My 3 sons ant they were impressed. I then made a complete horse's ass of myself with Mr. DeVol mentioning film scores I loved (like Phoenix, Baby Jane, Charlotte, Dirty Dozen, Cat Ballou). He couldn't understand my passion. I would hum music cues and he was amazed at my admiration. I remember I asked him if there was a way I could get tapes and he looked me in the eye and asked "Why?" I was never able to convince him I was not joking. He was a great talent and a great man.

We were happy to get out DeVol's Flight of the Phoenix score (on our Patton CD). We tried to interview him at that time but he didn't recollect much. It's sad that these guys are leaving us.

Goldsmith Roast Note

Regarding Monday's column...

From: Jeff Thomas, MaestroJW@aol.com

Reading film score monthly on a daily basis is quite an interesting experience. On one day there can be a really insightful review of an upcoming score, or perhaps a retrospective of a classic or perhaps under appreciated score/composer. Then there are days like November 1st, 1999 when I just roll my eyes and wonder why I bothered visting the site.

Jason Alexander included Jerry Goldsmith in a lyric to a song he was using to roast Jerry Stiller. Thats today's headline. Perhaps people have it right when they say film score buffs are geeks. Well, if they visit FSM on a day like today, how can they not think it?

Mr. Weinstein, Jason Alexander singing of Jerry Goldsmith is kind of interesting, but this is the sort of thing one should find being discussed on the messageboard. Who knows why Alexander was singing about Goldsmith, and who cares? It was a joke that perhaps not everyone would get, everyone doesn't always get a joke. Thats partly what makes them so funny. Maybe Alexander is a Goldsmith fan, maybe one of the writers is.

Did it bother you that Goldsmith was included in this song, I truly couldn't tell from your "article" if you were amused or appalled by the joke. And how do you know how many people would have heard of Goldsmith, or any film composer? I've been quite surprised in my life by the amount of people who have heard of and are familiar with film composers.

I did watch some of the roast, but missed Alexander's opening song. If I had seen it, I would have just laughed and thought to myself, "Well, thats cool that they included Goldsmith in that gag," and then let it go. You should have done the same thing.

From: Matmoosmom@aol.com

erm...how about he was just a fan of one of the most prolific talents in film scoring. "Our' little world of moviemusic isn't some exclusive club where anal retentives sneer derision at those less versed in the ways of scores...wait a minute it has become that hasn't it...or is in severe danger of becoming so. Some venerable sage once said "it's about the music" - get over it Weinstein - you sound like some pathetic role playing geek who heard someone pronounce "Golxegoath the Inquisitor"'s name wrong or something - a bit sad, non ? Oh yeah - and just what exactly is wrong with Harold Kloser's score for Thirteenth Floor. This kind of scorist snobbery is whats killing the enjoyment of movie music [and while not the most groundbreaking score to what I'm sure is not a groundbreaking movie, both are, in their own way, most definitely ENTERTAINING] for us slightly less tight arsed film geeks.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Aside from this - most of your columnists are distinctly more informed and eloquant - great rag and most agreeable 'cyber rag' too.

From: Bjmj2000@aol.com

Dear Jesus Weinstein (there must be an oxymoron joke in there somewhere),

I assure you that although Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public may not know the name Jerry Goldsmith, most people in the "industry" are well aware of Mr. Goldsmith's reputation and his body of work. Especially the Friars, of which I believe Jerry may be an honorary member(he sat at a nearby table for lunch once about 10 years ago). After 40 years in this business, Goldsmith is in no way an "unknown." If one were inquiring, "who is Gloria Greene?" then it would be a different story.

To be fair to Mr. Weinstein, he did not mean this to be an entire day's column -- I made that decision. Hey, we've done several hundred daily columns by now, so sorry if there's a stinker once in a while. I thought it was a very cool thing to hear but odd too and worth noting. For example, here's another weird observance:

From: sahutchi@iupui.edu

The other night on _48 Hours_, they were in a casino called Black Billiards in NYC, and they started one shot back from the commercial with a closeup on a jukebox with albums like _Beetlejuice_, _Jurassic Park_, and _Batman_ (Elfman, not Prince). I imagine this is a pretty unusual thing.

"Atypical" Film Scores

From: "Kit Wienert" <wienert@nortelnetworks.com>

In my opinion, Peter Gabriel's score for 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ was one of the more exciting, inventive, and appropriate (to the director's intentions) soundtracks of the past 10-15 years. As Scorcese's film pushed boundaries, so did Gabriel's incorporation and reworking of source music push film scoring boundaries.

With all the discussions in FSM (though I am new to the magazine), I never hear or see anything referring to this. Is FSM too orchestral score focused?

Now, don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate the big scores and the talent required to write them. But what of these other creative endeavors, as legit as anything (if it suits the purpose) coming from Hollywood? Am I just loving the music on the "Passion" CD and, from that appreciation, assuming that it's a great soundtrack?

I don't collect scores, but so you understand my peculiar predilections (the impact of the movie often leads me to appreciate the soundtrack), I'll tell you what I do have:

Last Tango in Paris (first score purchased)

Vertigo

Hermann collection

Passion

Elmer Bernstein collection

Exotica

The Sweet Hereafter

Danny Elfman Volume 2

Nino Rota/Fellini collection

Sirens (sheer beauty in a movie theme)

What's the Lukas Kendall opinion on this? Anyone else?

The Lukas Kendall opinion is that I LOVE Last Tango in Paris -- I am, however, one of the only people who have never heard The Last Temptation of Christ.

We've encountered this time and again in film scores, but there is a huge range in the styles that make up movie soundtracks. To some people "film score" means Korngold -- to others it means Shaft -- to others Star Wars -- and then to others Peter Gabriel's only soundtrack. We keep an open mind about the different genres and love a lot of this stuff.

Comancheros Review

Cinema Concerto now has a review (http://members.aol.com/marcgothic/coman.html) of our FSM CD release, The Comacheros. Check it out, and see you Monday.

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