Quartet has announced three new upcoming releases -- George Fenton's score for the 1994 film noir CHINA MOON, starring Ed Harris, Madeleine Stowe, Charles Dance and Benicio Del Toro, and directed by master cinematographer John Bailey (The Accidental Tourist, Groundhog Day, Nobody's Fool);Oscar-winner Nicola Piovani's score for Marco Bellochio's film MARCIA TRIONFALE; and PASCALE GAIGNE: RETROSPECTIVE FILM MUSIC, a collection of film music by Spanish composer Pascal Gaigne. 

Intrada plans to release two new CDs next week, featuring previously unreleased scores.

Buysoundtrax has announced an upcoming CD titled JERRY GOLDSMITH COLLECTION, VOLUME 1: RARITIES, featuring re-recordings (dominated by solo musicians) of such rare Jerry Goldsmith music as the theme from Shamus and a suite from Seven Days in May.

Though my copy is currently in transit through the Southern California branches of the United States Postal Service, I would like to take this opportunity to thank La-La Land Records for releasing their definitive, 3-disc edition of my all-time favorite film score, Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek--The Motion Picture.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Femme Fatales - Joe Kraemer - MovieScore Media
L'Africain - Georges Delerue - Universal France
Le Baron De Munchausen/La Flue a Six Schtroumphs - Michel Legrand - Universal France
Lilies of the Field - Jerry Goldsmith - Perseverance
Lola Versus - Fall on Your Sword - Lakeshore
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted - Hans Zimmer (17 min.), songs - Interscope
Star Trek -- The Motion Picture - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
Topaz - Maurice Jarre - Universal France
Warning Shot - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land

IN THEATERS TODAY

Bel Ami - Lakshman Joseph de Saram, Rachel Portman - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
Lola Versus - Fall on Your Sword
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted - Hans Zimmer - Score (17 min.) and song CD on Interscope
Nobody Else But You - Stephane Lopez
OC87 - Michael Aharon
Peace, Love and Misunderstanding - Spencer David Hutchings
Prometheus - Marc Streitenfeld - Score CD due June 12 on Sony
Safety Not Guaranteed - Ryan Miller

COMING SOON

June 12
Bernie - Graham Reynolds, various - Lakeshore
Deux Heures Moins Le Quart Avant Jeus Christ - Raymond Alessandrini - Music Box
Hemingway & Gellhorn - Javier Navarrete - Varese Sarabande
Le Juge/Le Transfuge - Luis Bacalov - Music Box
Prometheus - Marc Streitenfeld - Sony
Touchback - William Ross - Varese Sarabande
June 19
Brave - Patrick Doyle - Disney
Game of Thrones: Season Two - Ramin Djawadi - Varese Sarabande
People Like Us - A.R. Rahman - Lakeshore
Piranha 3DD - Elia Cmiral - Lakeshore
July 3
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Henry Jackman - Sony
The Amazing Spider-Man - James Horner - Sony
July 10
Cosmopolis - Howard Shore - Howe (U.S. release)
Ice Age: Continental Drift - Varese Sarabande
Soul of the Ultimate Nation - Howard Shore - Howe
The Wicker Tree - John Scott - Silva
July 17
The Dark Knight Rises - Hans Zimmer - Watertower
Date Unknown
Charmed - J. Peter Robinson - Perseverance
China Moon - George Fenton - Quartet
Film Music Spectacular: The Best of Tadlow Music - various - Tadlow
I Married a Monster from Outer Space/The Atomic City - various/Leith Stevens - Kritzerland
Jerry Goldsmith Collection, Volume 1: Rarities - Jerry Goldsmith - Buysoundtrax
Marcia Trionfale - Nicola Piovani - Quartet
Music from the Edge - John Corigliano - Perseverance
Notre Dame de Paris: The Music of Maurice Jarre - Maurice Jarre - Tadlow
Pascal Gaigne: Retrospective Film Music - Pascal Gaigne - Quartet
Seeking Justice - J. Peter Robinson – Perseverance
When a Stranger Calls - Dana Kaproff - Kritzerland

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

June 8 - George Antheil born (1900)
June 8 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score for The Wild North (1951)
June 8 - Jean Wiener died (1992)
June 8 - Herschel Burke Gilbert died (2003)
June 9 - James Newton Howard born (1951)
June 9 - Geir Bohren born (1951)
June 9 - Louis Gruenberg died (1964)
June 9 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Shades of Grey" (1989)
June 10 - Don Costa born (1925)
June 10 - Randy Edelman born (1947)
June 10 - Hugo Friedhofer begins recording his score to Above and Beyond (1952)
June 10 - David Shire begins recording his score to Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
June 11 - Carmine Coppola born (1910)
June 11 - Alexander Balanescu born (1954)
June 13 - Andre Previn begins recording his score for The Fortune Cookie (1966)
June 13 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score for Last Rites (1988)
June 14 - Stanley Black born (1913)
June 14 - Cy Coleman born (1929)
June 14 - Marcus Miller born (1959)
June 14 - Doug Timm born (1960)
June 14 - John Williams begins recording his replacement score for The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
June 14 - David Newman records his score for Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
June 14 - Henry Mancini died (1994)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

FOR GREATER GLORY - James Horner

"Dean Wright, who directed 'For Greater Glory' from a screenplay by Michael Love, was the visual effects wizard behind the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. This movie, which was filmed on many of the actual sites of the conflict, is impressively spacious. The expansive scale and brisk but unhurried editing keep 'For Greater Glory' from stumbling over itself and becoming a bloated, grandiose exhibition of righteous saber rattling. The symphonic score by James Horner confers an inspirational mood that is uplifting without being syrupy."

Stephen Holden, New York Times

"If 'For Greater Glory' were a person, it would be wearing two different socks. It is a scattered mess, as earnest as a folk song, but like a folk song that goes on for two hours and 23 minutes. Not only does it never justify its epic length, it gets even the small things wrong. Five seconds into the opening credits, the soundtrack starts telling you that this is the greatest story ever told, and it never stops telling you. At one point - this is amazing - the camera moves slowly up a hill, and when it reaches the top and looks over the valley, the sound track goes into a rhapsodic swell...before you even know what you're looking at! It's one thing for a soundtrack to tell you how to feel about something, and quite another for a soundtrack to tell you how to feel about something that you don't even know about."

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

"Surely this story could be told in a way that doesn’t force you to bury your face in your hands. How can a movie with so many images of bodies hanging from telegraph poles be so boring? This is the sort of film that thinks it can ratchet up the drama by pouring the score all over every scene. But even a maple tree can have too much sap. So whenever Andy Garcia, playing the paunchy general leading the resistance, uses his gravelly baritone to tell someone he was a military man--he must say a version of 'I’m a veteran of two wars' about 36 times--there’s music to add drama or sweetness or just the illusion of vitality. Is Catalina Sandino Moreno just standing against a wall? Well, pour, maestro, pour!"

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

"Boasting such attributes as a rich, unmined vein of history for its subject matter, the Biblical landscape of northern Mexico for its backdrop, and faith tempered in the fire of battle at its heart, 'For Greater Glory' has all the ingredients of a meaty historical epic laid out for it. Unfortunately, first-time director Dean Wright’s Anglophone Mexican superproduction--a revanchist, Catholic answer to the leftist 'Zapata westerns'--makes a hash of everything: It is plodding, lazily filmed, gassy with James Horner’s score, and pads its runtime only by way of tolling repetition."

Nick Pinkerton, L.A. Weekly

"First-time director Dean Wright mixes heavy violence with martyr melodrama: Scene after scene is either a referendum on devotion--with James Horner’s hammy score routinely wielded like a crescendo cudgel--or a display of brutality that feeds the wearying good versus evil thematic approach."

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNSTMAN - James Newton Howard

"After an overwrought beginning--during which drops of blood fall to the snow with a crash, and James Newton Howard’s score roars and howls like Wagner with a stubbed toe--the movie comes down to earth and springs to life when Mr. Hemsworth shows up. His huntsman, like the dwarfs, is a gruff human presence in a world that might otherwise have been too airily and abstractly fantastical."

A.O. Scott, New York Times

THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.

Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.

June 8
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jean-Marie Senia) [Silent Movie Theater]
DR. NO (Monty Norman), FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (John Barry)  [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL (Bruce Kimmel -- in person!) [Nuart]
FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY [UCLA]
THE GRADUATE (Dave Grusin), THE PRODUCERS (John Morris) [New Beverly]
THE LAST WALTZ, SHINE A LIGHT [New Beverly]
THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS, GODS OF THE PLAGUE (Peer Raben) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS (Toshiro Mayuzumi), THE PORNOGRAPHERS (Toshiro Mayuzumi) [LACMA]
PREDATOR (Alan Silvestri) [Silent Movie Theater]

June 9
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jean-Marie Senia) [Silent Movie Theater]
FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (Joji Yuasa) [LACMA]
GOLDFINGER (John Barry), THUNDERBALL (John Barry) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE GRADUATE (Dave Grusin), THE PRODUCERS (John Morris) [New Beverly]
HAMBURGER: THE MOTION PICTURE (Peter Bernstein) [Silent Movie Theater]
HIGH AND LOW (Masaru Sato) [LACMA]
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (Hans J. Salter) [UCLA]
LOLA (Peer Raben), VERONIKA VOSS (Peer Raben) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Elmer Bernstein) [UCLA]
WILD AT HEART (Angelo Badalamenti) [New Beverly]

June 10
IMITATION OF LIFE, LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? [UCLA]
NIGHTBREED (Danny Elfman) [New Beverly]
THEY LIVE (John Carpenter, Alan Howarth) [New Beverly]
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (John Barry), ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (John Barry) [Cinematheque: Aero]

June11
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jean-Marie Senia) [Silent Movie Theater]
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, BIG NIGHT (Gary De Michele) [New Beverly]

June 12
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jean-Marie Senia) [Silent Movie Theater]
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, BIG NIGHT (Gary DeMichele) [New Beverly]
PHANTOM LADY (Hans J. Salter) [LACMA]

June 13
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jean-Marie Senia) [Silent Movie Theater]
4:44; LAST DAY ON EARTH, THE FUNERAL (Joe Delia) [New Beverly]
STATE FAIR (Richard Rodgers, Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]

June 14
ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL, CHINESE ROULETTE (Peer Raben) Cinematheque: Egyptian]
CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (Jean-Marie Senia) [Silent Movie Theater]
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (John Barry), LIVE AND LET DIE (George Martin) [Cinematheque: Aero]
4:44; LAST DAY ON EARTH, THE FUNERAL (Joe Delia) [New Beverly]

June 15
AIRPORT (Alfred Newman) [UCLA]
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (Max Steiner) [New Beverly]
FROM BEYOND (Richard Band) [Silent Movie Theater]
GHOSTBUSTERS (Elmer Bernstein) [Nuart]
THE LAST WALTZ, COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (John Barry), THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (Marvin Hamlisch), MOONRAKER (John Barry) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE MUPPET MOVIE (Paul Williams, Kenny Ascher), PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (Paul Williams, George Tipton) [Silent Movie Theater]

June 16
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (Max Steiner) [New Beverly]
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (Bill Conti), OCTOPUSSY (John Barry), A VIEW TO A KILL (John Barry) [Cinematheque: Aero]
MILDRED PIERCE (Max Steiner) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (Nigel Godrich) [New Beverly]
THE TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel), TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (Brad Fiedel), TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (Marco Beltrami) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
URBAN LEGEND (Christopher Young) [New Beverly]

June 17
BACK TO THE FUTURE (Alan Silvestri) [UCLA]
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Dee Barton), WINCHESTER ’73 [UCLA]
THE KID [Silent Movie Theater]
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (John Barry), LICENCE TO KILL (Michael Kamen) [Cinematheque: Aero]
LOVE AND DEATH (Sergei Prokofiev), EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (Mundell Lowe) [New Beverly]
MONTEREY POP [SIlent Movie Theater]
ZIEGFELD FOLLIES (Roger Edens, Lennie Hayton) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]