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Film Score Friday 2/3/12
Posted By Scott Bettencourt 2/2/2012 - 9:00 PM
Kritzerland has announced two new upcoming releases, which feature four scores for three films by three composers on two discs.

THE MOLLY MAGUIRES was a lavish, downbeat 1970 drama from director Martin Ritt about Pennsylviania coal miners in the 1870s, starring Sean Connery, Richard Harris and Samantha Eggar. It was Oscar-nominated for its Art Direction but the film, with its uncommercial subject matter and ambivalent lead characters, was a box-office flop. Though the film is underrated and still little-seen, one element that did survive is Henry Mancini's score, one of his finest. The score was originally released on LP by Paramount, and decades later the LP tracks were released on CD by Bay Cities. The Kritzerland Molly Maguires, limited to 1500 units, features the complete Mancini score plus alternates, and as an unexpected bonus it also includes the earlier, rejected score by Charles Strouse (Bonnie and Clyde, Bye Bye Birdie, Annie).

The other new Kritzerland CD pairs two previously unreleaed scores by B-movie great Albert Glasser, for two films which today are probably most widely seen as Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. INVASION USA was a Cold War drama from 1952 about a Russian takeover of the U.S. as seen from the point-of-view of a group of bar patrons, while TORMENTED was a change-of-pace project for monster movie director Bert I. Gordon (The Amazing Colossal Man, Empire of the Ants), a supernatural suspense film starring Richard Carlson and Gordon's young daughter Susan (surprisingly, Mr. Gordon is still with us, while Susan passed on last December at the age of 62). This CD is limited to 1000 units.


Buysoundtrax has announced two new upcoming CDs presenting the scores for films made in the late 1970s.

AVALANCHE
was one of the last of the 70s run of disaster movies that saw such blockbuster hits as Oscar winners The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake and The Towering Inferno (as well as less successful films like The Swarm and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure). Avalanche was a Roger Corman production directed by TV veteran Corey Allen (whose resume encompassed everything from an acting role in Rebel Without a Cause to directing duties on the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot), starring Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow and Robert Forster. The film's score was composed by William Kraft, who is best known for his concert work but his other film credits include Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice. The original soundtrack LP was released by Delos, and the Buysoundtrax CD, limited to 1000 units, features the LP tracks followed by a half-dozen bonus cues.

Their other new CD is the first ever release of the soundtrack to the comedy HARDLY WORKING, one of the last director-star vehicles for the legendary Jerry Lewis, with a score by Emmy winner Morton Stevens (Hawaii Five-O, Masada, Police Woman). This CD, limited to 1000 units, features Stevens' complete score as well as source cues.

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THE “TRI” IN TRIBUTE FILM CLASSICS
Posted By Mark Ford 2/1/2012 - 11:00 AM

Number 66

By now the word here and elsewhere has spread about the fantastic new TRIBUTE FILM CLASSICS recording of Bernard Herrmann’s THE BATTLE OF NERETVA / THE NAKED AND THE DEAD. It’s hard to imagine a much better recording both in terms of sonic recording quality and pitch perfect to the spirit execution by both orchestra and conductor, The Moscow Symphony Orchestra and William Stromberg respectively. I feel it has set a new benchmark for re-recordings of film scores for it's outstanding presentation of a score that was not particularly well served in its OST release.

Much praise has been lavished upon Bill Stromberg and John Morgan for this outstanding recording and for which they are both totally deserving of, but they are only two of the members of the team responsible for the artistic quality of the TRIBUTE recordings, the third being Anna Bonn Stromberg. I feel it’s way past time that Anna gets the recognition she deserves for these nothing short of spectacular recordings. She is an integral and equal part of the TRI(for three)BUTE team.

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Aisle Seat Super Bowl Edition
Posted By Andy Dursin 1/31/2012 - 9:00 PM
Some five years after Classic Media brought the Japanese version of the original “Godzilla” to American shores, Criterion has enhanced the property immeasurably with a sterling Blu-Ray edition of GODZILLA [GOJIRA] – and the American GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS – complete with insightful new extras.
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Film Score Friday 1/27/12
Posted By Scott Bettencourt 1/26/2012 - 9:00 PM
Intrada has announced two new CDs featuring recent scores, including one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed films of our time.

TOY STORY 3
won the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Feature of the Year and was Pixar's highest grossing film in the U.S. as well as receiving rave reviews. Randy Newman, who received three Oscar nominations for his work on the first two Toy Story films, won the 2010 Oscar for Original Song for the film's "We Belong Together" and also won a Grammy for his Toy Story 3 score, yet Intrada's release actually the first commercial CD of the score, following their release of other much-desired Disney scores such as Up, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Black Hole. It contains 56 minutes of Newman music, including his rendition of his Oscar-winning song.

Lee Holdridge scored the 2010 documentary WINSTON CHURCHILL: WALKING WITH DESTINY for director Richard Trank, who won an Oscar for producing the documentary The Long Way Home, also scored by Holdridge. The Intrada Signature Edition CD features 77 minutes of Holdridge's score, with the composer conducting the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra.

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Oscar Nominations 2012
Posted By Scott Bettencourt 1/24/2012 - 9:00 PM
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced their nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards, including the following music categories:

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN - John Williams
THE ARTIST - Ludovic Bource
HUGO - Howard Shore
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY - Alberto Iglesias
WAR HORSE - John Williams

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)

"MAN OR MUPPET" - The Muppets - Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
"REAL IN RIO" - Rio - Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, Lyric by Seidah Garrett

This year's song nominees (or virtual lack thereof) were a big surprise; the score nominees, not so much. Williams received two of the five score nominations -- this is the eighth year he has achieved this honor (the previous occasions were in 1972, 1977, 1984, 1987, 1989, 2001 and 2005) and the first time where both scores were for Spielberg films. The only first-time nominee was The Artist's Ludovic Bource, who still seems like the front-runner for the award, especially since War Horse has achieved little award momentum overall. This is the third nomination for Iglesias, and the fourth overall for Shore. Shore won three previous Oscars for two scores and one song for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, while this is not only his first nomination for a Scorsese project but his first non-Lord of the Rings nomination. I was surprised that neither of today's top Oscar-bait composers got in, Thomas Newman and Alexander Desplat. Newman had two films nominated this year, The Help (including Best Picture) and The Iron Lady, while Desplat had five (not counting his contribution to My Week with Marilyn), including two of the Best Picture contenders, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and The Tree of Life.

Recent changes in the Original Song category rules mean that there are no longer five guaranteed nominees, and this year there were only two, and two surprising choices as well, though both at least were from break-into-song musicals. Among the surprising omissions in the category were The Help's "The Living Proof" (its writers included Thomas Newman and Mary J. Blige), Albert Nobbs' "Lay Your Head Down" (lyrics by Glenn Close), Captain America's "Star Spangled Man" (music by Alan Menken) and Gnomeo & Juliet's "Hello Hello" (music by Elton John).
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Aisle Seat 1-24: Picnic, Mockingbird, The Thing (11)
Posted By Andy Dursin 1/23/2012 - 9:00 PM
We’re only a few weeks into the new year but already a variety of marvelous catalog titles have made their HD debuts on Blu-Ray, with Twilight Time kicking things off with a spectacular presentation of the 1955 romantic melodrama PICNIC (***½, 115 mins.).
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Film Score Friday 1/20/12
Posted By Scott Bettencourt 1/19/2012 - 9:00 PM
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts' nominees for Original Music are THE ARTIST (Ludovic Bource), THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross), HUGO (Howard Shore), TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY (Alberto Iglesias) and WAR HORSE (John Williams).

Bource won this year's Golden Globe for Best Score for The Artist. Not that the Globes necessarily have any impact on the Oscars, but either way Bource seems pretty likely to win the Score Oscar as well. And Madonna's song "Masterpiece" from her film W.E. won the Globes' Song award -- perhaps the Hollywood Foreign Press Association enjoyed the irony that one of the worst-reviewed films of the year had a song (co-written and sung by the film's writer-director) titled "Masterpiece," but I doubt that was the reason.

Bource's Artist score also won the Critics Choice award, while most of you probably already know that Vertigo star Kim Novak spoke out publicly decrying the use of a cue from Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo score in The Artist, putting an ad in Variety which compared the film's use of Herrmann's music to "A RAPE." Now, Herrmann himself did not like to hear others re-use his music (so it would be interesting to know what he would have thought of the reworking of his scores for Cape Fear and Psycho in those films' remakes), but I'd like to think even he wouldn't have gone that far.  But you never know. 

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Next FSM ONLINE Issue Is Live!
Posted By Tim Curran 1/16/2012 - 9:00 PM
Happy Day After Martin Luther King Day! The January edition of FSM ONLINE is now live. In this issue, the cover story (or stories) is our annual YEAR IN REVIEW roundup, with multiple articles providing comprehensive coverage of the best and worst in both new scores, soundtrack restorations, the latest film music trends and more. Also in this issue are an incisive interview with rising Polish composer ABEL KORZENIOWSKI on Madonna’s Golden-Globe-winning W.E.; TERENCE BLANCHARD discussing his first stab at “action music” for George Lucas’ RED TAILS; a detailed analysis of JOHN WILLIAMS’ score for THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN; BRIAN BYRNE on balancing the demands of Glenn Close’s ALBERT NOBBS; a concert report from the YOUNG MUSICIANS FOUNDATION performance of debut pieces from TINTIN and WAR HORSE; and ILAN ESHKERI on stripping down to the essentials for Ralph Fiennes' CORIOLANUS; plus lots of embedded audio clips, and more. 

Subscribers, you’ll get notification by email soon, if you haven't already. Or just go here to log in. For those who want to join FSM ONLINE, go here, click on the "Subscribe" link and follow the instructions. And email us if you have any questions. 

Sincerely, 
Your Friends at FSM ONLINE

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Aisle Seat 1-17: 3-D Revisited and More
Posted By Andy Dursin 1/16/2012 - 9:00 PM
I’ve written many times before that I’m not a huge fan of 3-D. In addition to reducing a movie’s inherent brightness, I haven’t found that filmmakers have made particularly good use of the technology and that, in general, it adds little to the theatrical experience. While I’m still not a 3-D convert, now that I have a dedicated 3-D TV at my disposal, I will admit that the home experience is far more satisfying than the 3-D seen in most multiplexes.
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Film Score Friday 1/13/12
Posted By Scott Bettencourt 1/12/2012 - 9:00 PM

Since 2003, when Michael Kamen was taken from us at far too young an age, fans of the composer have bemoaned the fact that, unlike other popular film composers of the last few decades, there have been surprisingly few releases of his expanded or previously unreleased scores. Last year saw a near-instant sell-out of La-La Land's expanded and remastered version of one of Kamen's finest and most popular scores, Die Hard, and this month is practically a Kamen Christmas In January, with three new CDs of previously unreleased Kamen music.

This week Intrada announced two of these, featuring action scores from 1989 that have never been commercially released. ROAD HOUSE was a modern day Western transposing the tropes of the gunfighter genre to the story of a modern-day "cooler" (a head bar-bouncer) who tries to clean up a Missouri dive only to find himself in increasingly deep trouble. The director was Rowdy Herrington, whose other credits include Jack's Back, Striking Distance, and the underrated Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, and the film's star was Patrick Swayze, fresh off the success of Dirty Dancing. The film was produced by Joel Silver, and though it wasn't a franchise-spawning smash like several other Silver productions of the era (such as 48 Hrs., Lethal Weapon, Predator and Die Hard), it arguably has the biggest cult following of all his films (yes, even bigger than Action Jackson). The original soundtrack CD featured only the film's songs, including those performed on screen by the late Jeff Healey, who has a prominent role in the film. The Intrada CD, which can be pre-ordered now and is expected to begin shipping late next week, features nearly all of the music recorded for the film by Kamen -- a pair of cues from the final version of the film are unfortunately lost, but the CD features much music not included in the film including Kamen's original versions of the climactic cues, recorded for a small ensemble. The liner notes are by me.

Coming this week from Intrada is another Kamen action score from 1989, RENEGADES, which reteamed Young Guns co-stars Keifer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips in a thriller from director Jack Sholder, fresh off the sci-fi cult hit The Hidden. This is the first soundtrack release of any kind for the film, and the Intrada CD features 77 minutes of Kamen music.

Kamen was working on the animated feature BACK TO GAYA (aka Boo, Zino & the Snurks) at the time of his death, and the score was completed by his frequent collaborators Steve McLaughlin and Christopher Brooks, who also incoporated previously unused Kamen music composed for other films. MovieScore Media presents the first release of Kamen's Back to Gaya score in a 1000-unit limited edition next week, with a portion of the proceeds going to Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, which was founded by Kamen to support music education.

 

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