FILM SCORE FRIDAY 11/01/02

Varese Sarabande will announce four new CD Club releases on November 11th, including one from their Masters Film Music series.

On December 10th, Warner Bros. will release Howard Shore's score to THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS.

The same day, Nonesuch will release Philip Glass's score to THE HOURS. This is the second film from Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry and is based on Michael Cunningham's acclaimed novel, which tells parallel stories of three women in different eras, connected by Virginia Woolf's classic novel Mrs. Dalloway -- Nicole Kidman plays Woolf, writing the novel; Julianne Moore plays a 50s housewife who reads the book and becomes dissatisfied with her own married life (not to be confused with the unhappy 50s housewife she plays in Far From Heaven); and Meryl Streep plays a modern mother whose life parallels the fictional Dalloway. The film also features John C. Reilly, Claire Danes and Ed Harris, in case you were wondering what all the really good actors have been doing lately.

I've avoided writing about the status of the Gangs of New York score, since I haven't yet read anything definitive to indicate whether any of Elmer Bernstein's score will remain in the film. However, Music From the Movies' editor Mikael Carlsson learned this from composer Howard Shore:

I did not score this film but contributed a part of a concert piece called
'Brooklyn Heights' that I have been working on that has never been
premiered. I have licensed this piece for use in the film. I did not record
it as my involvement in composing, orchestrating and conducting 'The Two
Towers' has had me completely absorbed for the last 9 months.

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever - Don Davis - Varese Sarabande
Blow Out - Pino Donaggio - Prometheus CD Club
The Man From Elysian Fields - Anthony Marinelli - Varese Sarabande
White Oleander - Thomas Newman - Varese Sarabande

November 5
Ararat - Mychael Danna - Milan
Far From Heaven - Elmer Bernstein - Varese Sarabande
Ghost Ship - John Frizzell - Varese Sarabande
Punch-Drunk Love - Jon Brion - Nonesuch
Talk to Her - Alberto Iglesias - Milan
November 12
Die Another Day - David Arnold - Maverick
The Emperors' Club - James Newton Howard - Varese Sarabande
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - John Williams, William Ross - Atlantic
XXX - Randy Edelman - Varese Sarabande
November 19
Sunset Boulevard - Franz Waxman - Varese Sarabande
Treasure Planet - James Newton Howard - Disney
November 26
Evelyn - Stephen Endelman - Decca
The Quiet American - Craig Armstrong - Varese Sarabande
Star Trek: Nemesis - Jerry Goldsmith - Varese Sarabande
December 10
The Hours - Philip Glass - Nonesuch
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Howard Shore - Warner Bros.
Date Unknown
About Schmidt - Rolfe Kent - New Line
Alexander's Ragtime Band - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
The Busy Body/The Spirit is Willing - Vic Mizzy - Percepto
Catch Me If You Can - John Williams - Dreamworks
Children of the Century - Luis Bacalov - Decca
Dragonwyck - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
Ivanhoe - Miklos Rozsa - Rhino Handmade
Mussolini: The Untold Story - Laurence Rosenthal - Intrada Special Collection Series
The Swarm - Jerry Goldsmith - Prometheus CD Club
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Max Steiner - Rhino Handmade

Food of Love - Carles Cases
I Spy - Richard Gibbs
Love in the Time of Money - Theodore Shapiro
The Weight of Water - David Hirschfelder

ALL OR NOTHING - Andrew Dickson

"But this is a measure of Mr. Leigh's generosity, a quality that seems to resonate in Andrew Dickson's sweet, melancholy score."

A.O. Scott, New York Times

"Leigh uses a somber cello-rich score to infuse this quotidian suffering with a mystical edge and high-culture gloss -- and yet, thanks to the generally enthusiastic performing, the movie borders on farce."

J. Hoberman, Village Voice

FRIDA - Elliot Goldenthal

"Elliot Goldenthal's score follows Mexican folk music quite closely."

Deborah Young, Variety

GHOST SHIP - John Frizzell

"Frizzell's music is scattershot, ranging from an orchestral sound to bloodless techno."

Robert Koehler, Variety

More opinions on individual scores, from the writings of Pauline Kael:

THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES

And the score, by Dave Grusin, never clues you in; totally distanced from the action, it's in some tinkling world of its own.

(from Movie Love, published by Plume)

The sensitive-important-picture pacing is like a black armband; the refined classical score, by Richard Rodney Bennett, is all too appropriate.

(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt & Co.)

And I think I'd be happier without the Johnny Mandel score, with its antic use of military airs, orchestrated in an unfamiliarly thin way to add a musical layer of irony.

(from Reeling, published by Warner Books)

Bertolucci, who worked on the story of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in The West, has used Leone's composer, Ennio Morricone; his creamy elegiac score heightens the emotion in the first half but suddenly, in the second, takes a dive into Peyton Place schlock-Chopin piano music.

(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt & Co.)

The composer, Philippe Sarde, has really let himself go in the Stravinsky and Wagner department, and the soundtrack provides a mixture of heavenly choir and electronic grunts and howls.

(from Taking It All In, published by Henry Holt & Co.)

The first time the Georges Delerue music commented on the simple joys of life, I forced a smile, but the same music kept coming back with the same comment.

(from Going Steady, published by Marion Boyars)

FROM: "Preston Jones" <pjones@fulpat.com>

SUBJECT: Words heard

Slight quibble this week on your inimitable "Words You Never Heard" segment. This time, the words [the title song "The Greatest Show on Earth"] WERE heard in the film, loud and clear and brassy as only Betty Hutton can sing them, in the flick's finale.

FROM: "Jean-Michel CAVROIS"

SUBJECT: On the no film score department

Belgium movies La Promesse, Rosetta (1999 Palme D'Or in Cannes) and Le Fils by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne feature no music whatsoever.

FROM: "Mark So" <mark_so@hotmail.com>

RE: A lot of Arvo Part in film:
 
Of course, James Horner was years ahead of the game as usual, quoting passages from Part's "Fratres" in scores going back to Sneakers in 1992. Other credited appearances of Part in recent film include last year's Uprising, which used the "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" and "Fratres," I believe, and GusVan Sant's latest film, the wonderful Gerry, which relies exclusively on extant Part material for underscore; indeed, Part gets the "Original Music by" credit, and the audience at a recent preview screening in L.A. applauded generously when Part's name appeared.

Speigel im Speigel -- best use was WIT on HBO, really effective!

FROM: Jostein Hakestad <johake@online.no>

Just a small observation regarding the questionable Classic FM "Greatest Film Scores" list.

First of all, it *is* somewhat of a scandal that Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith aren't even mentioned in the list, while Zbigniew Preisner and Marvin Hamlisch *are*. It does make one wonder.

However, another thing that really puzzled me, is the top spot: Howard Shore's Fellowship of the Ring. What's it doing there? It could be included in a top 100 somewhere, sure, but in the top spot? It's good, but it is not *that* good.

This is obviously just a result of it being a RECENT score, fresh in the voters' memories. That is probably also the reason why Jerry Goldsmith isn't mentioned. The listeners who thought of him, but didn't vote, probably said to themselves: "Jerry, what have you done for me lately?"

Lists are pointless.

FROM: "Preston Jones" <pjones@fulpat.com>

Re: "THE UNITED KINGDOM vs. JERRY GOLDSMITH":

Was Miklos Rozsa on that list of eligible composers? For Horner's MASK OF ZORRO, which cribs from EL CID, to make the cut but nothing from the maestro himself is beyond "inexplicable," it's insulting.

From: Zuvqwyx3@aol.com

Before changing the channel on the seventh game of World Series Baseball, I was taken surprise by the music they used during the opening credits: Joel Goldsmith's theme to Kull The Conqueror! It really is a marvelous piece, infused with melodrama and machismo; and if Joel would continue to score with that level of inventiveness, I can imagine him eclipsing his father in a few years--never mind the other Joel.