La-La Land announced two new CDs for release this week: a remastered edition of Jerry Goldsmith's action-packed score for the 1975 Western TAKE A HARD RIDE, with an eclectic cast including Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Lee Van Cleef, Barry Sullvan and Dana Andrews; and a greatly expanded version of Arthur B. Rubinstein's score for the 1995 "real time" thriller NICK OF TIME, with Johnny Depp (in perhaps the most normal role he ever played in a feature) as a loving father pressured into performing an assassination, featuring 38 more minutes of score than the original Milan release.
Next week Intrada plans to release one new CD as well as an LP of a previously released CD.
Varese Sarabande plans to announce their latest batch of limited edition releases this coming Monday.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Chocolat - Gabriel Yared - Quartet
Manhattan - Jonsi & Alex - Lakeshore
My All-American - John Paesano - Sony (U.S. release - CD-R)
Nick of Time - Arthur B. Rubinstein - La-La Land
Take a Hard Ride - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
Tordenskjold & Kold - Henrik Skram - Quartet
IN THEATERS TODAY
Fifty Shades of Black - Jim Dooley
The Finest Hours - Carter Burwell
In the Shadow of Women - Jean-Louis Aubert
Jane Got a Gun - Marcello De Francisci, Lisa Gerrard
Mountain Men - Andrew Harris
Rabid Dogs - Laurent Eyquem - Score CD Enrages on Music Box
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
January 29 - Leslie Bricusse born (1931)
January 29 - Leith Stevens begins recording his score for The Atomic City (1952)
January 29 - Alfred Newman begins recording his score to A Man Called Peter (1955)
January 29 - David Robbins born (1955)
January 29 - Georges Van Parys died (1971)
January 29 - Henry Mancini begins recording his score for Condorman (1981)
January 29 - Panu Aaltio born (1982)
January 29 - Rogier Van Otterloo died (1988)
January 29 - Berto Pisano died (2002)
January 30 - Morton Stevens born (1929)
January 30 - Recording sessions begin for Frederick Hollander’s score for The Affairs of Susan (1945)
January 30 - Steve Bartek born (1952)
January 30 - Robert Folk begins recording his score for Police Academy (1984)
January 30 - George Duning begins recording his score for the pilot movie for Then Came Bronson (1969)
January 30 - Jean Constantin died (1997)
January 30 - Manuel Balboa died (2004)
January 30 - John Barry died (2011)
January 30 - William Motzing died (2014)
January 31 - Benjamin Frankel born (1906)
January 31 - Hans Posegga born (1917)
January 31 - Nicholas Carras born (1922)
January 31 - Al De Lory born (1930)
January 31 - Philip Glass born (1937)
January 31 - Andrew Lockington born (1974)
January 31 - Andy Garfield born (1974)
January 31 - Yasushi Akutagawa died (1989)
February 1 - Rick Wilkins born (1937)
February 1 - Herbert Stothart died (1949)
February 1 - Karl Hajos died (1950)
February 1 - Alan Silvestri begins recording his score for The Perez Family (1995)
February 1 - Howard Shore begins recording his score for The Score (2001)
February 2 - Giuseppe Becce born (1877)
February 2 - Mike Batt born (1950)
February 2 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Crisis (1950)
February 2 - Cliff Martinez born (1954)
February 2 - Gerald Fried records his score for Cast a Long Shadow (1959)
February 2 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score to Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
February 2 - Richard Band begins recording his score for Parasite (1982)
February 3 - Paul Sawtell born (1906)
February 3 - Derek Hilton born (1927)
February 3 - Daniele Amfitheatrof begins recording his score for Lassie Come Home (1943)
February 3 - Dave Davies born (1947)
February 3 - Toshiyuki Watanabe born (1955)
February 3 - Ray Heindorf died (1980)
February 3 - Lionel Newman died (1989)
February 4 - Hal Mooney born (1911)
February 4 - Kitaro born (1953)
February 4 - Don Davis born (1957)
February 4 - Bronislau Kaper begins recording his and Heitor Villa-Lobos' score to Green Mansions (1959)
February 4 - Patton premieres in New York City (1970)
February 4 - Joe Raposo died (1989)
February 4 - Von Dexter died (1996)
February 4 - J.J. Johnson died (2001)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
"Though shot in just 20 days, the film looks polished instead of rushed. Unlike other recent entries in the genre, such as 'Warm Bodies,' the general look of the film is sunny and it makes Los Angeles a true character, with Max and Olivia visiting several places that are iconic for genre fans. Joseph Loduca’s score is appropriately old-school, while a mix of loud indie-rock on the soundtrack is effectively used as a kind of counterbalance, especially during a montage sequence that juxtaposes love and death in Max’s living room and Olivia’s car."
Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter
"There are many good things in the swiftly moving narrative, filmed with a handheld camera to give a documentary look. Wandering through the narrow medieval streets of the city, the hero is assailed by ghostly voices and monsters in moments of coked-up paranoia. Harry Escott's score heightens the poetic-exotic atmosphere of Hubert Taczanowski's lensing, particularly in the final scenes, which read more like a tone poem than narrative."
Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter
INFINITELY POLAR BEAR - Theodore Shapiro
"A seriocomic portrait of a family coping with one parent's mental illness, Maya Forbes' autobiographical 'Infinitely Polar Bear' shares with many childhood memoirs a slightly rose-tinted view of its subjects. Forbes doesn't shy away from the hazards and embarrassments faced by two young sisters being cared for solely by their bipolar father (played with empathy by Mark Ruffalo), but she feels honor-bound to balance each scary memory with a happy one in ways one mightn't if not writing about parents one loves. By draping those happy scenes in Theodore Shapiro's aggressively cheerful score, she puts a finger on the scales, pushing us into sharing her view of a child-raising plan we might otherwise find fault with. The result is a feel-good picture that is a little less affecting than it might have been, but is entertaining enough that -- especially with Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana as the adult leads -- it stands a fine chance with mainstream moviegoers."
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
SET FIRE TO THE STARS - Gruff Rhys
"Such missteps aside, Set Fire to the Stars is stylistically assured and tastefully appointed. The costumers and designers did fine work, as did composer Gruff Rhys, whose urbane jazz and chamber-music score is a long way from his work with eclectic Welsh rockers Super Furry Animals."
Mark Jenkins, NPR
"BBC veteran Andy Goddard’s debut feature, 'Set Fire To The Stars,' is an exercise in tasteful pointlessness, shot in flat black and white and scored (by Gruff Rhys, of all people) with tinkling piano and sawing strings that evoke nothing so much as an aura of cut-rate class. "
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
"Writer-director Andy Goddard has enlisted some world class assistance in creating his debut feature film, an account of Dylan Thomas’ 1950 visit to the United States at the behest of literary academic John Malcolm Brinnin. Cinematographer Chris Seager paints the monochrome New York skyline as pretty as a picture before doing similarly beautiful (but slightly more dishevelled) work with Brinnin’s rural retreat, while Thomas’ Welsh countryman Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry fame) supplies a score that flits and flies with delicacy and nuance."
Niki Boyle, The List
"At one point, Brinnin tells Thomas 'you’re scared of your talent.' The movie is equally afraid, because every time Thomas starts reciting that which made him famous, he is drowned out by loud, tinkly piano music on the soundtrack. Sometimes the tinkly piano is accompanied by a shot of Elijah Wood staring at us in rapture. We only hear one poem in its entirety, spoken by the entire cast in montage. Other than that instance, you’ll bring more knowledge of Thomas’ poetry and prose to the theater than you’ll get from this movie. His work hasn’t been this trivially used since Disney replaced rap music with 'Do not go gentle into that good night' in 'Dangerous Minds' 20 years ago. Hell, Rodney Dangerfield’s 'Back to School' has more Dylan Thomas verse than this film."
Odie Henderson, RogerEbert.com
"Several times, Thomas takes the stage to declaim some verse, but the movie reliably drowns him out with tinkly pianos and a mush of strings -- it's the idea of the mad poet that the movies love, not actual poetry. Ridiculousness abounds: Brinnin keeps giving Thomas a letter from Thomas's wife, which Thomas refuses to open until it's dramatically appropriate. And when the crew heads to a diner, it's no surprise when a beautiful, worn-out waitress barks out orders like 'two 55s and a red-eye -- and give it wings.'"
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
"Tech credits are of a uniformly high, handsome standard, with Chris Seager’s digital monochrome lensing exuding veritable patent-leather gloss in the nighttime scenes, though the consistent crispness of the image isn’t always conducive to atmosphere. Edward Thomas’ production design and Francisco Rodriguez-Weil’s rather covetable costumes thankfully resist over-instructive period detailing. Recruiting Gruff Rhys, frontman of the Welsh alternative rock band Super Furry Animals, to compose the score feels like it should have been a bolder creative gambit than its turns out to be, though his jazz-inflected compositions are pretty enough. Less successful are the Rhys-penned original songs scattered across the soundtrack, which can’t help but sound comparatively banal in a film heavy on readings of Dylan Thomas’ most lyrical verses."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"This rollercoaster, platonic bromance exerts a steady appeal, but it's telling that perhaps the most effective single sequence comes when the twosome share the spotlight with a couple of booze-quaffing visitors: Stanley Hyman (Kevin Eldon) and his wife Shirley (Shirley Henderson), the latter better known under her maiden name and nom-de-plume Shirley Jackson ('The Haunting of Hill House,' 'The Lottery', etc). An extended late-night storytelling session involving the quartet is one of few moments where genuine well-springs of the creative process are glimpsed -- otherwise the film talks a lot about artistic processes but ultimately yields little fresh insight. Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys' orchestral soundtrack -- deployed with unfashionable but profitable restraint -- provides welcome counterpoint to and respite from the verbiage, though as with so much else in 'Set Fire to the Stars' it's fundamentally conventional work."
Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter
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, Arclight, Crest, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.
January 29
BLOW-UP (Herbie Hancock) [Nuart]
DUDES (Charles Bernstein) [UCLA]
THE HUNGER (Michel Rubini, Denny Yaeger) [Silent Movie Theater]
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (Ernest Gold) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
KILL BILL VOL. 2 (The RZA, Robert Rodriguez) [New Beverly]
MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN (Geoffrey Burgon) [Crest]
THINGS TO COME (Arthur Bliss), INVADERS FROM MARS (Raoul Kraushaar) [Cinematheque: Aero]
January 30
BEN-HUR (Miklos Rozsa) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
GONE WITH THE WIND (Max Steiner) [Cinematheque: Aero]
LABYRINTH (Trevor Jones) [Silent Movie Theater]
SUPERDAD (Buddy Baker) [New Beverly]
WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
January 31
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (Alfred Newman), BULLDOG DRUMMOND [Cinematheque: Aero]
KEY LARGO (Max Steiner) [Silent Movie Theater]
LABYRINTH (Trevor Jones) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE LIMPING MAN (Arthur Wilkinson), THE MASTER PLAN (De Wolfe) [UCLA]
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (Michael Phillips) [Silent Movie Theater]
NONE SHALL ESCAPE (Ernst Toch) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SUPERDAD (Buddy Baker) [New Beverly]
February 1
DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (Paul Sawtell)[UCLA]
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (Michael Phillips) [Silent Movie Theater]
MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (Ryuichi Sakamoto) [Silent Movie Theater]
February 2
THE HELLBENDERS (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (Michael Phillips) [Silent Movie Theater]
REBECCA (Franz Waxman) [LACMA]
February 3
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (Maurice Jarre) [Arclight Hollywood]
MEAN GIRLS (Rolfe Kent) [Arclight Santa Monica]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
February 4
HARVEY (Frank Skinner), THE GLENN MILLER STORY (Henry Mancini) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE MAN WHO SKIED DOWN EVEREST (Larry Crosley) [Silent Movie Theater]
SPICE WORLD (Paul Hardcastle) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
February 5
THE AMERICAN DREAMER, THE LAST MOVIE (Kris Kristofferson, John Buck Wilkin, Chabuca Granda, Severn Darden) [Silent Movie Theater]
BRANDED TO KILL (Naozumi Yamamoto), YOUTH OF THE BEAST (Hajime Okumura) [UCLA]
MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, THE LONG GOODBYE (John Williams) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (DeWolfe) [Crest]
OKLAHOMA! (Richard Rodgers, Robert Russell Bennett, Jay Blackton, Adolph Deutsch), SHOW BOAT (Jerome Kern, Adolph Deutsch, Conrad Salinger) [Cinematheque: Aero]
SPECIES (Christopher Young) [Nuart]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
February 6
THE AMERICAN DREAMER [Silent Movie Theater]
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (George Gershwin, Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin), THE BAND WAGON (Arthur Schwartz, Adolph Duetsch) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE DEER HUNTER (Stanley Myers) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS (Thom Pace)[New Beverly]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
TOKYO DRIFTER (Hajime Kaburagi), FIGHTING ELEGY (Naozumi Yamamoto) [UCLA]
THE WIZARD OF OZ (Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart) [Cinematheque: Aero]
February 7
THE AMERICAN DREAMER [Silent Movie Theater]
CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (Louis De Francesco), CHANDU ON THE MAGIC ISLE (Abe Meyer) [UCLA]
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS (Thom Pace)[New Beverly]
STAGECOACH (Richard Hageman, Frank Harling, John Liepold, Leo Shuken) [New Beverly]
| 
