FILM SCORE FRIDAY 12/20/02

Award season continues! The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced their nominations for the Golden Globes:

ORIGINAL SCORE
Elmer Bernstein, "Far From Heaven"
Terence Blanchard, "25th Hour"
Peter Gabriel, "Rabbit Proof Fence"
Philip Glass, "The Hours"
Elliot Goldenthal, "Frida"

ORIGINAL SONG
"DIE ANOTHER DAY"- Die Another Day, Music by: Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzai, Lyrics by: Madonna
"FATHER AND DAUGHTER"- The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Music & Lyrics by: Paul Simon
"THE HANDS THAT BUILT AMERICA" - Gangs of New York, Music & Lyrics by: U2
"HERE I AM"- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Music by: Hans Zimmer, Lyrics by: Bryan Adams/Gretchen Peters
"LOSE YOURSELF"- 8 MILE, Music & Lyrics by: Eminem

Having already been named best score of the year by the National Board of Review, Elmer Bernstein's acclaimed score to FAR FROM HEAVEN has just won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award as well, beating out runner-up THE HOURS, scored by Philip Glass. Heaven also won best actress (Julianne Moore) and cinematography. Other major L.A. winners include About Schmidt (film, screenplay, actor - Jack Nicholson), Gangs of New York (actor - Daniel Day-Lewis, production design), and Talk to Her (director). The New York, Boston, and San Francisco critics' associations, on the other hand, don't give out score awards.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association has released their own "Critic's Choice" nominations. Up for best composer are Philip Glass (The Hours), Howard Shore (The Two Towers) and John Williams (Catch Me If You Can, Harry Potter, Minority Report). The B.F.C.A.'s categories also include "Best Digital Acting Performance," where one can only hope the remarkable Gollum handily trounces Dobby and Yoda. However, they also nominated My Big Fat Greek Wedding for Best Screenplay, thus destroying any credibility their awards might have. If you haven't seen Wedding, trust me that it's a film for people who find The Golden Girls too edgy.

The third Shore score is for Spider, David Cronenberg's newest film, starring Ralph Fiennes as a schizophrenic visiting the neighborhood he grew up in and reliving his childhood. This film is opening only in major cities for Oscar consideration, and is scheduled to return for a wider release in late February after the nominations are announced.

However, if you want to see Spider, I recommend you see it now. Though it is Cronenberg's best film since Dead Ringers, with a first rate Shore score and a superb title sequence, it is a bleak, demanding moviegoing experience which is not likely to remain in theaters for very long. This is not the kind of Oscar-friendly movie where the schizophrenic lives happily ever after with Jennifer Connelly.

In a related story, though Miramax has already screened its upcoming movie version of the Broadway musical CHICAGO for critics and Academy members, they are adding a brand new Kander & Ebb song over the end credits (performed by Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who were in different countries when they recorded it) before the film's theatrical release to qualify it for a Best Original Song nomination. Somewhere, Dimitri Tiomkin is smiling.

English composer/conductor Stanley Black died in London on November 26th of natural causes. Black began studying the piano at age seven, and his first composition, written at age twelve, was broadcast by the BBC Symphony. He performed with dance bands throughout the 1930s, and after serving in the RAF during World War II, he became conductor of the BBC Dance Orchestra.

His film scores covered a wide variety of genres, including several sci-fi and horror films such as The Crawling Eye, The Flesh and the Fiends, War Gods of the Deep and Jack the Ripper (released in the U.S. with a new score by Jimmy McHugh and Pete Rugolo).

His name is probably most familiar to American film music fans from the "Film Spectacular" series of movie music collections he recorded for Decca's Phase 4 label. His final score was for Ken Russell's Valentino biopic, and he is survived by his wife and two children.

8 Women - Krishna Levy - Rhino
Gangs of New York - various inc. 3 Howard Shore cues - Interscope

January 14
25th Hour - Terence Blanchard - Hollywood
January 28
The Recruit - Klaus Badelt - Varese Sarabande
Two Weeks Notice - John Powell - Varese Sarabande
February 11
Diamonds Are Forever - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
Live and Let Die - George Martin - EMI/Capitol
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
February 18
The Guys - Mychael Danna - Sony Classical
February 25
Goldfinger - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
Thunderball - John Barry - EMI/Captol
You Only Live Twice - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
Date Unknown
Amerika - Basil Poledouris - Prometheus
The Big Sky - Dimitri Tiomkin - Screen Archives/BYU
The Busy Body/The Spirit is Willing - Vic Mizzy - Percepto
Fear No Evil - Frank LaLoggia - Percepto
Gods and Generals - Randy Edelman, John Frizzell - Sony Classical
Mighty Joe Young, etc. - Roy Webb, et al - Monstrous Movie Music
The Package - James Newton Howard - Prometheus CD Club
The Swarm - Jerry Goldsmith - Prometheus CD Club
This Island Earth - Herman Stein, et al - Monstrous Movie Music

Antwone Fisher - Mychael Danna - Score CD on Superb
Gangs of New York - Howard Shore et al - Soundtrack CD on Interscope featuring 3 Shore cues
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Howard Shore - Score CD on Warner Bros.
Narc - Cliff Martinez - Score CD due on TVT
Spider - Howard Shore
25th Hour - Terence Blanchard - Score CD due Jan. 14 Hollywood
Two Weeks Notice - John Powell - Score CD due Jan. 28 from Varese Sarabande

MAID IN MANHATTAN - Alan Silvestri

"The relentless, vaguely Latin guitar score doesn't help any."

Laura Sinagra, Village Voice

STAR TREK: NEMESIS - Jerry Goldsmith

"The spectacle is often rousing, and composer Jerry Goldsmith has done a bang-up job weaving Alexander Courage's original Star Trek horn-call, his own splendid Next Generation theme, and a disco-y new action motif into an irresistible pastiche."

David Edelstein, Slate.com

Our final installment of Pauline Kael's opinions on film scores spotlights a review which is bound to rile film music aficionados. However, as a Christmas treat next week I will introduce a new segment, "Did John Simon Mention the Music?" in which the Scrooge of critics expresses opinions that will make Pauline Kael seem like Doug Fake (who, if you didn't already know, is probably the nicest man in film music).

TAXI DRIVER

The Bernard Herrmann score is a much bigger problem; the composer finished recording it on December 23rd, the day before he died, and so it's a double pity that it isn't better. It's clear why Scorsese wanted Herrmann: his specialty was expressing psychological disorder through dissonant, wrought-up music. But this movie, with its suppressed sex and suppressed violence, is already pitched so high that it doesn't need ominous percussion, snake rattles and rippling scales. These musical nudges belong back with the rampaging thrillers that Taxi Driver transcends.

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

In a recent column, Cary Wong tried to usurp my hard-earned title as Film Score Monthly's resident Oscar obsessive. Personally, I found Wong's predictions to be pretty sensible, though I doubt that Elfman's contribution to Chicago (which I expect will otherwise sweep the nominations) will even be eligible. Here are some responses to his article:

FROM: "johnbarchibald" <johnbarchibald@cox.net>

SUBJECT: Oscar Thoughts

Personally, I would at least nominate Klaus Badelt for THE TIME MACHINE, and Stephen Warbeck for CHARLOTTE GRAY. Neither one made a lot of money, which, sadly is always a factor with Academy attention. I don't think there's ever been a film to win Best Picture that didn't make a lot of money first. (As far as I know, ANNIE HALL is the only film to win that did not make a lot of money after winning, and that's because most of the country really just doesn't identify with New York Jewish humor. Woody Allen's films have consequently never done well outside of big cities.)
 
As for personal favorites, I'd opt for Elmer Bernstein. FAR FROM HEAVEN is a great score for a thought-provoking, even startling film. And, besides, he may get the sentimental nod, especially since his only previous win was for the score (!) to THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, which I still find more or less incomprehensible, even though that was during the 60's, when a lot of incomprehensible things were going on. He, and Goldsmith, by the way, should both get Tribute Oscars, just for their body of work.
 
James Newton Howard should at least get nominated for SIGNS; it was a thrilling, thoughtful score, and it contributed more than its share to the overall effect of the film. It's a brilliant piece, and, were it not in competition with FAR FROM HEAVEN, I'd be likely to give it the award.
 
I'd also nominate Williams, certainly for MINORITY REPORT, but probably also for AOTC. They're both brilliant. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN still remains an unknown commodity, though, from previews, it seems less spectacular. One never knows, though, with holiday films; it could just jump ahead of everything else. There is precedent.
 
As for Philip Glass, well, I never did care for his repetitious claptrap. I can't even listen to it for longer than a few minutes at a time. If they want to nominate him, so be it, but I honestly doubt that will happen, since I can't imagine that any film he scored will be financially viable enough to hold their attention.

And as far as Best Picture winners inevitably being high grossers, Amadeus, The Last Emperor, Braveheart and The English Patient all had less than remarkable grosses relative to their budgets.

FROM: Originalthinkr@aol.com

SUBJECT: "GENRE PIECES"

In his early Best Original Score Academy Award-race handicapping, Cary Wong writes:

Signs-- James Newton Howard

The one big question mark. This Herrmannesque score was a major factor to the movie's success, but will Academy members be daring enough to nominate such a genre piece. Howard's scores to The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, much more daring efforts, were not nominated.

The real question is, have times changed that much over the last twenty-five years? I seem to recall that the Oscar gracing Jerry Goldsmith's mantel was won for a film called THE OMEN -- decidedly a genre piece -- though, unlike Howard's, Goldsmith's score had the benefit of not being an obvious third-rate Herrmann homage.

Well, as an "ardent" fan of the Oscar spectacle -especially in the score category-, I simply have to put my two coins in here. So, here goes:

 First off, I'd like to name my personal nominees for Best Original Score 2002:

 - Far from Heaven (Elmer Bernstein)
 - The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Howard
 Shore)
 - Road to Perdition (Thomas Newman)
 - Star Wars - Attack of the Clones (John Williams)
 - Treasure Planet (James Newton Howard)

Of these choices, I'd probably go with -after a very long debate with myself- The Two Towers. I thought that The Fellowship of the Ring was the best score to be bestowed on us in many a year, but The Two Towers might even be better. I have to experience it in the movie to make my final cast. It's a stunning work.

Until then, I award Bernstein's Far from Heaven the Best Score Award. I dearly hope that he will get nominated, and looking on the widespread crticial acclaim this movie has already gathered, he will definitely have a chance. And it would be highly deserved.

From my other nominees, I think we will certainly see Thomas Newman in the audience next March. It's one of his best scores ever, and if the movie sweeps the board (something that really might happen!), he will get the Oscar as well. Here, too, it would be highly deserved.

As for Attack of the Clones. Well, it is simply my favorite Williams score of the year, so no more needs to be said about it.

And I chose to nominate JNH's Treasure Planet over Elfman's Spider-Man simply because I like it more. But it was a close race between those two. And Treasure Planet has the better choral parts.

But as for the scores that I expect to be nominated by the Academy, this is the list:

 - Catch me if you can (John Williams)
 - Far from Heaven (Elmer Bernstein)
 - The Four Feathers (James Horner)
 - The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (Howard
 Shore)
 - Road to Perdition (Thomas Newman)

CMIYC because it is a) a John Williams score for a b) Steven Spielberg movie. Minority Report falls in the same category, but given the fact that CMIYC is being released at the year's end, I expect to see this one getting the nomination for Williams.

The Four Feathers, because -- well, Cary, didn't you say something about the lack of an epic picture this year. This one COULD fall into this category, and possibly this get Horner another nomination.

As for the score that will eventually win the Oscar, it's kinda hard to predict. I need to see the Golden Globes nominations (due in two weeks) to see more clearly about this affair. But here's what I think:

 - Williams get nominated, but won't win.

 - Bernstein -- well, he really did a magnificent score with Far from Heaven and maybe -just as "a gesture to an old man"- will get the Oscar.

 - Shore will, as Cary already said, probably not win, simply because of the sequel status of The Two Towers. This is highly unfortunate (since the same will then happen with Return of the King as well), but cannot be changed by me. But if the Academy even doesn't NOMINATE this score, it is time for some major butt-kicking in L.A. Whatever.

 - Newman -- a definite chance to see him winning, don't be surprised if he does.

So, to sum it up in a few words:

PERSONAL WINNER: The Two Towers

REAL WINNER: I go with Road to Perdition.

All we can do is to wait until February 11th to see the nominations. I'm looking forward it, although with some queasy feeling in my stomach. Just as all the last years.

And if you were wondering the best way to pad out website columns, here's MY method: don't edit the letters.
 
FROM: "Corey Caudill" <ccaudill@zoominternet.net>

SUBJECT: A Goldsmith Oscar Question

I was just wondering if the cue on The Sum of All Fears album entitled "The Mission" could be nominated as best song. It's the Yolanda Adams song "If We Could Remember" sung in Latin by the LA Opera. (I think that's right.) Anyway, I think it's one of the best songs but the opera version in particular.