The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced this year's winners for the Creative Arts Emmys, including the following music winners:
Outstanding Music Composition For A Limited Series, Movie Or Special (Original Dramatic Score)
FARGO: Aporia - Jeff Russo
Outstanding Music Composition For a Series (Original Dramatic Score)
HOUSE OF CARDS: Chapter 63 - Jeff Beal
Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
STRANGER THINGS - Michael Stein, Kyle Dixon
Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics
"Letter to the Free" (from 13TH) - Common, Robert Glasper, Karriem Riggins
Outstanding Music Direction
TAKING THE STAGE: AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC AND STORIES THAT CHANGED AMERICA - Rickey Minor
Outstanding Music Supervision
BIG LITTLE LIES: You Get What You Need - Susan Jacobs
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
American Assassin - Steven Price - Varese Sarabande
Doctor Who - Survival - Dominic Glynn - Silva (import)
Frankenstein Conquers the World - Akira Ifukube - Cinema-Kan (import)
It - Benjamin Wallfisch - WaterTower (import)
Le Bestiare d'Amour/Mona L'etoile Sans Nom (re-recording) - Georges Delerue - Disques CineMusique
Mr. Robot vol. 3 - Mac Quayle - Lakeshore
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - Edward Shearmur - La-La Land
Taboo - Max Richter - Decca (import)
Thunder Road: The Film Music of Jack Marshall - Jack Marshall - La-La Land
Woodshock - Peter Raeburn - Milan
IN THEATERS TODAY
Against the Night - Rob Houle
American Assassin - Steven Price - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
Brad's Status - Mark Mothersbaugh
Clash - Khaled Dagher
Dayveon - Amman Abbasi
First They Killed My Father - Marco Beltrami
In Search of Fellini - David Campbell
Infinity Chamber - Jacob Yoffee
Justice - Boris Zelkin
Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards - Brian Bennett, Warren Bennett
Mother! - Johann Johannsson ("Music & Sound Consultant")
Ryde - David Wachs, Scott Welch
Strong Island - Hildur Gudnadottir, Craig Sutherland
Till Death Do Us Part - Immanuel Rich
Trophy - Jeremy Turner, Erick Lee
The Unknown Girl - no original score
Vengeance: A Love Story - Frederik Wiedmann
Wetlands - Trevor Gureckis
The Wilde Wedding - P.T. Walkley
Woodpeckers - Freddy Ginebra
Year by the Sea - Alexander Janko
COMING SOON
September 22
Awaken the Shadowman - Douglas Pipes - La-La Land
A Doggone Hollywood - Chuck Cirino - Dragon's Domain
Time Walker - Richard Band - Dragon's Domain
Victoria & Abdul - Thomas Newman - Backlot
September 29
Cello - Randy Kerber - Varese Sarabande
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - John Williams - La-La Land
Game of Thrones: Season 7 - Ramin Djawadi - WaterTower
Hellraiser - Christopher Young - Lakeshore
Loving Vincent - Clint Mansell - Milan
Popeye - Harry Nilsson, Tom Pierson - Varese Sarabande
Super Dark Times - Ben Frost - The Orchard
October 6
Ben-Hur (re-recording) - Miklos Rozsa - Tadlow
Henry May Long - Max Richter - Deutsche Grammophon
Jane - Philip Glass - Sony
Victoria - Martin Phipps, Ruth Barrett - Sony (import)
October 13
Black Mirror: Nosedive - Max Richter - Deutsche Grammophon
Breathe - Nitin Sawhney - Varese Sarabande
Goodbye, Christopher Robin - Carter Burwell - Sony
October 20
Anthology: Movie Themes 1974 - 1998 - John Carpenter - Sacred Bones
The Mountain Between Us - Ramin Djawadi - Lakeshore
Wonderstruck - Carter Burwell - Lakeshore
October 27
All I See Is You - Marc Streitenfeld - Milan
Rage - Ryuichi Sakamoto - Milan
November 3
Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague - Hans Zimmer - Eagle Rock
Murder on the Orient Express - Patrick Doyle - Sony
December 15
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - John Williams - Disney
Date Unknown
Annabelle: Creation - Benjamin Wallfisch - Silva
Fuller at Fox - Leigh Harline, Alfred Newman - Kritzerland
Incompreso, Vita Col Figlio - Fiorenzo Carpi - Music Box
Made in Italy - Carlo Rustichelli - Digitmovies
Scusi, Lei E Favorevole O Contrario - Piero Piccioni - Digitmovies
Tadeo Jones 2: El Secreto Del Rey Midas - Zacarias M. de la Riva - Quartet
The Young Karl Marx/I Am Not Your Negro - Alexei Aigui - Music Box
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
September 15 - Gail Kubik born (1914)
September 15 - Shinichiro Ikebe born (1943)
September 15 - Recording sessions begin for Bronsislau Kaper's score for The Naked Spur (1952)
September 15 - Oliver Wallace died (1963)
September 15 - Sol Kaplan begins recording his score for The Spy Who Came in from The Cold (1965)
September 15 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for The Black Bird (1975)
September 15 - Bruce Montgomery died (1978)
September 15 - Don Davis wins his first Emmy, for the Beauty and the Beast episode score “A Time to Kill; James Di Pasquale wins for the TV movie The Shell Seekers (1990)
September 15 - Aldemaro Romero died (2007)
September 15 - Javier Navarrete wins the Emmy for Hemingway & Gellhorn; John Lunn wins for episode 6 of Downton Abbey; Paul Englishby wins for Page Eight’s main title theme (2012)
September 15 - Bear McCreary wins his first Emmy, for Da Vinci’s Demons’ main title theme; John Lunn wins for episode 3.6 of Downton Abbey; Mychael Danna wins for the World Without End episode “Medieval Life and Death” (2013)
September 16 - J. Peter Robinson born (1945)
September 16 - Alfred Newman begins recording his score to The Best of Everything (1959)
September 16 - Lyn Murray records his score for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Triumph” (1964)
September 16 - Robert Drasnin records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “My Friend, My Enemy” (1970)
September 16 - Bruce Broughton wins his third and fourth Emmys, for The First Olympics: Athens 1896 and for the Dallas episode score “The Letter” (1984)
September 16 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Circle” (1993)
September 16 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Storm Front, Part 1” (2004)
September 17 - Franz Grothe born (1908)
September 17 - Lalo Schifrin records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “The Contender” (1968)
September 17 - Billy Goldenberg wins the Emmy for his King score; Jimmie Haskell wins for See How She Runs (1978)
September 17 - John Barry begins recording his score for The Black Hole (1979)
September 17 - Basil Poledouris wins his only Emmy, for Lonesome Dove Part 4: The Return; Joel Rosenbaum wins his second Emmy, for the Falcon Crest episode score “Dust to Dust”; Lee Holdridge wins his second Emmy, for Beauty and the Beast’s original song “The First Time I Loved Forever” (1989)
September 17 - James Horner begins recording his score for Extreme Close-Up (1990)
September 17 - Georges Delerue begins recording his score for American Friends (1990)
September 17 - Joel Hirschhorn died (2005)
September 18 - Dee Barton born (1937)
September 18 - Vince Tempera born (1946)
September 18 - The Day the Earth Stood Still opens in New York (1951)
September 18 - Dimitri Tiomkin begins recording his score for Wild Is the Wind (1957)
September 18 - Henry Mancini begins recording his score to Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
September 18 - John Powell born (1963)
September 18 - Robert Drasnin records his first Mission: Impossible score, for the episode “The Slave” (1967)
September 18 - Thomas Newman records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Santa '85" (1985)
September 18 - Fred Steiner records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Life on Death Row" (1986)
September 18 - Herbert Spencer died (1992)
September 18 - Arthur B. Rubinstein begins recording his score for Nick of Time (1995)
September 19 - Arthur Benjamin born (1893)
September 19 - Paul Williams born (1940)
September 19 - Vladimir Horunzhy born (1949)
September 19 - Daniel Lanois born (1951)
September 19 - Nile Rodgers born (1952)
September 19 - Johnny Harris begins recording his score for the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode “Planet of the Slave Girls” (1979)
September 19 - Joel McNeely wins the Emmy for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episode “Young Indiana Jones and the Scandal of 1920;” Patrick Williams wins his third Emmy, for Danielle Steel’s Jewels; Dennis McCarthy wins for his Star Trek: Deep Space Nine main title theme (1993)
September 19 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Search - Part 1” (1994)
September 19 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Powder (1995)
September 19 - Willie Hutch died (2005)
September 20 - Frank DeVol born (1911)
September 20 - Frank Comstock born (1922)
September 20 - James Bernard born (1925)
September 20 - John Dankworth born (1927)
September 20 - Mychael Danna born (1958)
September 20 - Fred Steiner's scores to the Star Trek episodes "The Corbomite Maneuver," "Balance of Terror," and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" are recorded (1966)
September 20 - Sidney Cutner died (1971)
September 20 - John Williams begins recording his score for The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
September 20 - Jack Marshall died (1973)
September 20 - Laurence Rosenthal wins his second consecutive Emmy, for Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna; Joel Rosenbaum wins his first Emmy, for the Knots Landing episode “Cement the Relationship” (1987)
September 21 - Chico Hamilton born (1921)
September 21 - Herbert Stothart begins recording his score for Son of Lassie (1944)
September 21 - Mason Daring born (1949)
September 21 - Herman Stein records his score for the Lost in Space episode "There Were Giants in the Earth" (1965)
September 21 - Walter Scharf records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “Old Man Out” (1966)
September 21 - Laurence Rosenthal wins the first of three consecutive Emmys, for Peter the Great; Arthur B. Rubinstein wins the Emmy for his Scarecrow and Mrs. King episode score “We’re Off to See the Wizard” (1986)
September 21 - Geoffrey Burgon died (2010)
September 21 - Roman Vlad died (2013)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
THE ADDERALL DIARIES - Michael Andrews
"With its heavy image processing and injudicious use of slo-mo, there’s a certain student-film quality to 'The Adderall Diaries' that neither masters nor disciplines the complex, eccentric sprawl of the source material. Subtitled 'A Memoir of Moods, Murder and Masochism,' Elliott’s book began as an 'In Cold Blood'-style account of the sensational Nina Reiser murder trial, before turning its gaze inward to the author’s own tortured personal history. If that’s a tricky structural backflip to master on the page, Elliott’s agitated authorial perspective is harder still to convey coherently on film. Romanowsky is to be commended for avoiding the obvious route of copious first-person voiceover in favor of a more impressionistic approach, but emulating a stream-of-consciousness literary format with abrupt flashbacks and ambient interludes isn’t the ideal alternative: As inhabited by Franco, Elliott hasn’t a chance to come into focus as a storyteller before the film begins clouding and questioning his point of view. As his internal chaos peaks, the blue-and-magenta lighting schemes of Bruce Thierry Cheung’s artfully scuzzy lensing reach saturation point, while Michael Andrews’ rock-inflected score buzzes to fever pitch. Human shading, however, remains in short supply."
Guy Lodge, Variety
KILL YOUR FRIENDS - Tom Holkenborg
"That’s the thing about 'Kill Your Friends': It has mood and dark laughs to spare, but no real surprises. Everyone is horrible all the time -- so when they do horrible things to each other, the result is a chuckle rather than a vicious bite. The music business is cutthroat, we get it. But it’s the music itself that makes 'Kill Your Friends' work when it does work. Besides the propulsive score from Junkie XL (whose recent work includes 'Mad Max: Fury Road'), the evocative soundtrack includes unexpected songs from Blur and Oasis, as well as hits from The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy. (Although the use of Radiohead’s 'Karma Police' as Stelfox reaches his lowest point in terms of self-control and substance abuse is way too on-the-nose. He literally crawls on his hands and knees toward the television as Thom Yorke sings on the video: 'This is what you’ll get when you mess with us.')"
Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com
PANDEMIC - Alec Puro
"It does what it does quite capably, however, maintaining a muscular, splattery propulsion that never descends into campily excessive gore or any other silliness despite the occasional flat line and plausibility lapse. The performances are convincingly poker-faced under hectic circumstances, and the L.A. location shooting does manage to pass off the city as a trashed disaster zone. (No wisecracks, please.) Nicholas Larrabure’s editing and Alec Puro’s electronica-flavored score are MVPs among resourceful packaging elements."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
THE WITCH - Mark Korven
"Eggers has worked mostly as a production and scenic and costume designer, in film and in the theater, and his remarkable debut feature looks and feels right and true and certain in its details, from the ashen tone of Jarin Blaschke's cinematography to the exceptional musical score by Mark Korven. The music accompanying Thomasin's wide-eyed transformation from one sort of teenager to another includes the Swedish 'nyckelharpa,' the hurdy-gurdy and a vocal choir straight out of 'The Omen.' It all works. By the end, in a key close-up of pure ecstasy, Eggers reminds modern audiences of the perils of a binary society, where nothing can exist comfortably in between the worlds of Puritan repression and satanic freedom."
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"What dark magic bedeviled so many critics into praising a plodding horror of a film as 'The Witch'? Director Robert Eggers' debut feature about a 17th-century New England family terrorized by unseen forces wowed last year's Sundance Film Festival. But it's mystifying why, given this witches' brew of half-formed subplots, under-baked themes, a grating score and unlikable characters."
Ethan Sacks, New York Daily News
"The less you know going in, the better -- it’s that kind of movie, but the surface story follows a Puritan family cast out of their village for vague, superstitious reasons. Relocating to a barren little farmhouse on the edge of a great and ghastly forest, father William (Ineson), wife Katherine (Dickie, who plays Lysa Arryn on 'Game of Thrones'), and their five children face not only the privations of the wilderness (both geographic and spiritual), but an apparent supernatural threat. Eldest daughter Thomasin (Taylor-Joy) is watching her infant brother Samuel, but she turns away for a moment and realizes the child has vanished. This incurs the wrath of William, and as the eerie first half of the film unspools, there are somnambulant moonlit walks in the foreboding woods, toddlers talking to the family goat, Black Philip, and a Pandora’s box of subtly composed, weird, witchy goings-on. All of this is backgrounded by Mark Korven’s brilliantly paranoiac score."
Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
"All the dour zealotry is enlivened by horror elements that edge 'The Witch' toward a welcome pulpiness -- and greater honesty about what hokum the film actually is. The best: a pair of creepy toddler twins and a horned black goat that just might turn out to be exactly what you suspect it will. Mark Korven’s score boasts some unsettling choral work, plainchant diced into scarifying swirls, but there are also many moments when an orchestra seems to have been instructed to crescendo up a scale, the result of which gets blasted at us as we’re left to study white pines or the family in prayer."
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
"Technically, this film is a marvel. Staying true to the time period, the filmmakers shoot every scene with natural light or candlelight, to the point where you feel like you have to squint sometimes to make out some of the interior evening scenes. Mark Korven’s score is an integral part of supplying the film’s ominous mood. The string-heavy music is accented by a choir that combines with the visuals for a genuine ratcheting up of tension. It also doesn’t hurt that the chosen aspect ratio of 1.66:1 literally boxes us in and adds a subtle undercurrent of feeling trapped in the wilderness."
Matt Shiverdecker, Austin-American Statesman
"A note at the end of the film informs the audience that much of the dialogue was taken from transcripts of trials at that time and, despite the electrifying supernatural charge and dark fairytale imagery, the family's plight is gilded with realism. With a troubled harvest and money basically non-existent, their desperation becomes a pounding agony, with the haunting score by Mark Korven heightening the tension. Eggers delivers a powerfully gripping experience, that writhes around in the wretchedness of despair and sorrow and that's marked by spine-tingling horror. This is nerve-shredding, exquisitely crafted cinema captured by the assured hand of DP Jarin Blaschke, whose lens renders all that unfolds oppressively grey and gloomy."
Katherine McLaughlin, The List
"The writer-director of 'The Witch,' Robert Eggers, began his career as a production designer, and his frames evoke the weight of oppression, both human and demonic. Even when the film is spare, it’s heavy. The palette has been drained of organic life, with low gray skies redolent of suicidally depressed early Ingmar Bergman or else stark chiaroscuro interiors out of Rembrandt. When color comes, it’s with a vengeance, in naked, fleshy female witches who might have leapt from medieval woodcuts (via the delirious Expressionist Scandinavian silent 'Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages') and demons that evoke Goya’s profanely gruesome 'black paintings.' Mark Korven’s score is a wash of dissonant strings mixed with violent atonal chants and unearthly thumps. The music adds malevolence to shots of a rather ordinary-looking goat called Black Phillip. It makes a brown rabbit that sits and stares, motionless but for its nostrils, seem like an agent of Old Scratch himself."
David Edelstein, New York
"Until now, Eggers has worked as a production designer and art director for independent films and TV shows, his visual depth and fluency giving 'The Witch' a look that is both austere and improbably rich. Aided by Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography -- which recalls Vermeer’s most haunting portraits in its candlelit glow and velvety shadows -- and a slashing, dissonant score by Mark Korven, Eggers plunges viewers into a world of icy severity and harsh deprivation, putting the lie to the cozy American myth of resourceful, poor-but-happy settlers. (Viewers could profitably debate the far more novel and sophisticated critique of Manifest Destiny in 'The Witch,' as compared with the overwrought theatrics of 'The Revenant.')"
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
"The delicacy of this balancing act is enabled, to no small degree, by the extraordinary performances. Of particular note are Taylor-Joy, who 'pretends' to be the witch with such chilling verve that she tosses the whole movie up in the air, and Ineson, smashingly effective as one of those men so confident in his judgment and faith that it takes a while to notice how hopelessly ineffectual he is, both as a father and a man of God. And 'The Witch' is one of those films where, looking back, you realize how deliberately and efficiently such conflicts and failures are being teed up. It’s hard to tell exactly where they’re going in those slow-boil early passages, what with all the formal dialogue and nature shots and creepy music… and then, they make it clear. Boy, do they ever."
Jason Bailey, Flavorwire
"Viewers who grew up with the 'Scream' franchise, or with the toothless array of 'Saw' films, will doubtless fidget and sigh at such ambivalence. They will rightly ask if 'The Witch' even deserves to be called a horror flick. Well, it sounds like one; the composer of the score, Mark Korven, doesn’t hold back on the shriek of strings, beefed up by a choir of rising moans. Also, there are just enough jumps to rattle your popcorn. I knew that something was afoot as Caleb approached a mossy hut in the woods, but I didn’t expect an actual foot, bare and tempting, to appear on the threshold. Yet the film is thoroughly stripped of the sniggering ironies that beset, and often wreck, the modern fright fest. You can laugh at the archaism of the dialogue, if you wish, though I happen to like its sturdy lyricism. ('Thou shalt be home by candle-time tomorrow') More important, there is no silliness to undercut the menace -- nothing to let you off the hook of having to think about these folk, about the leathery toughness of their existence, and about the load that their souls are forced to bear. You believe in their belief."
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
"From its first moments, 'The Witch' strands us in a hostile land. We watch (because that’s all we can do, helplessly) as puritan patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) argues stubbornly with a small council, thereby causing his family’s banishment from their 'New England' community. William welcomes the punishment, because it affirms his religious zealotry: We don’t know the cause of the disagreement between William and the other local leaders, but its shades of disagreement over 'proper' Christian practice reawakens the self-righteousness that must have first driven the man and his family from England not long before. Beaming with pride, William packs up his wife, kids, belongings and various farm animals onto their creaking wagon, heading to a foreboding wood outside the quickly shuttered gates of the community. We watch, and writer-director Robert Eggers holds our gaze while a score of strings and assorted prickly detritus -- much like the dialogue-less beginning to 'There Will be Blood' -- rise to a climax that never comes. It’s a long shot, breathing dread: The wagon lurches ever-on into the wilderness, piling the frontier of this New World upon the literal frontier of an unexplored forest. It’s 1620, and William claims, 'We will conquer this wilderness.'"
Dom Sinacola, Paste Magazine
"Instead of crafting a villain whose face the audience comes to see as familiar and iconic, Eggers knows that the true power in this kind of film is what you don’t show. The audience is constantly left in question of just exactly what the witch looks like, and at the same time the brief glances we do get are absolutely chilling. This tease of just enough but not too much is executed to perfection, which not only increases the tension surrounding the witch herself, but keeps the story’s main focus on the family. The key to 'The Witch' is that Eggers deals in dread, not scares. Aided by a striking score from Mark Korven that owes a debt to Stanley Kubrick’s 'The Shining' (many times a shot will linger just a little too long as the music grows louder and louder, becoming more and more terrifying), the audience is constantly watching in trepidation, not sure where the film will go next. Jarin Blaschke’s bleak yet hauntingly beautiful cinematography adds yet another layer to the film’s atmosphere, fully engrossing the audience into the secluded, colonial setting. And the performances, especially young Taylor-Joy, are quite effective, selling the sense of isolation, regret, and deep-seated tension amongst one another."
Adam Chitwood, Collider
"After the initial horror of the baby’s abduction (I mean it, young parents, I’m not joking around here: stay home) the film avoids conventional scares for more than an hour, and while some may find this creates an enticingly moody atmosphere, I found it mostly dull -- a filmmaker striving for significance through withholding. In a way, it’s sort of Puritan itself; Eggers wants a lot of credit for not providing you with what you’re expecting from a horror film, for refusing to grant you such base thrills, but then you look around and wonder why everyone’s supposed to be so compelled by all the butter churns. The film has an effectively creepy score that’s made more creepy by its modernness -- the music is out of sorts with the setting in a way that jars and upsets -- and it lets the sparseness of a New England winter do a lot of the work for it; you do feel throughout that you are in a place forsaken by God, and by everybody else. But the movie is so caught up in its period detail that long stretches go by to little effect. It’s rare you see a horror movie that lets creepy looks from goats and rabbits -- to the extent that a goat or a rabbit can give you a creepy look -- do so much heavy lifting."
Will Leitch, New Republic
"The authenticity of these characters’ struggles is complimented by an expressionistic style that extends their emotional state to the world around them. With its murky, candlelit forest scenery and the mysterious cult antics found within, 'The Witch' calls to mind the similarly disorienting storytelling approach of Ben Wheatley’s 'Kill List' by way of 'The Crucible.' Ultimately, though, Eggers is primarily indebted to Stanley Kubrick for the movie’s haunting cinematic tapestry, with the grey-toned imagery of the menacing woods matched by a shrieking orchestral score and elegant framing strategies that create the sense of a fully defined world."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"With a title like 'The Witch,' you best believe it’s the latter. This isn’t a spoiler. Not really. The image of a cackling old crone bathing in the blood of a newborn in the first few minutes leaves little doubt who’s behind the film’s evil doings. But what makes this chillingly creepy little black-magic folk tale work so beautifully is its evocative sense of time and place (it was shot on a shoestring in Northern Ontario). Well, that and composer Mark Korven’s unsettling soundtrack full of screechy, dissonant strings. Anya Taylor-Joy, who looks like a long-lost, alabaster-complexioned Fanning sister, stands out as the eldest child, Tomasin. Her budding sexuality and wicked sense of humor quickly turn her into an easy scapegoat for the family’s spiralling paranoia and suspicion. But, believe me, these doomed souls have far deeper problems to grapple with than an impertinent daughter."
Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
"Times are hard and Bibles are thumped, and the family isn’t getting enough to eat. We see Thomasin playing with her newborn brother, but then the baby seems to magically disappear. (The editing in this sequence is effectively disorienting.) There is a shot of the baby on its back, and then a withered hand comes in to hover over it before picking up a knife. We see the nude body of an old woman from the back, and the layered musical score by Mark Korven starts to shiver and howl on the soundtrack. What we see suggests the presence of evil, and the music heightens it."
Dan Callahan, The Wrap
"As you might guess, unnerving mood and sinister atmosphere are everything for 'The Witch.' The low-lit cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is top notch; dawn, dusk, and twilight are all rendered with spooky naturalism. Some of the glimmering candlelight photography, redolent of 17th century Dutch paintings, is also quite striking. Not enough can be said by Mark Korven’s spine-chilling and atonal score that employs obscure instrumentation, from hurdy gurdys, nyckelharps and creaky fiddles, to its most disquieting advantage. Discordant, ghostly qualities send tremors through the heart, and the way Korven knowingly references the percussive chain-rattles of Krzysztof Penderecki’s feverish cues is intelligent and remarkably effective."
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
"The hushed intensity of the drama is bolstered at every turn by the precision of the filmmaking, which bespeaks exhaustive research and painstaking execution in all departments, from production designer Craig Laithrop’s sets (detail-perfect down to the oak clapboards and reed-thatched roofs) to the hand-stitched costumes designed by Linda Muir. Blaschke favors carefully framed, naturally lit compositions, while Louise Ford’s sharp editing, though not without its elliptical moments, never lingers at the expense of narrative drive. Crucial to establishing the film’s mood is Mark Korven’s something-wicked-this-way-thrums score, which blends eerie choral performances and dissonant strings into an unnervingly cacophonous whole."
Justin Chang, Variety
"Beholding the director's carefully judged use of symmetrically framed compositions, focus on children who may be in touch with other realms, carefully gauged naturalistic lighting, eerie classically tinged scoring and outbursts of female hysteria, it comes as no surprise to learn that the two most important influences on Eggers here were Kubrick's 'The Shining' and Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers;' from the former come the visual style and the sense of a place possibly haunted long ago, from the latter the spectacle of incipient madness overtaking women. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke's clean, uncluttered compositions, which are resolutely autumnal in their low light levels, evince dedicated study of the masters. Mark Korven's score employs unusual instrumentation in combining 17th century musical motifs with contemporary electronic sounds to sometimes unnerving dissonant effect."
Todd McCarthy, 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, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.
September 15
THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
GRINDHOUSE (Robert Rodriguez, Graeme Revell) [New Beverly]
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS [New Beverly]
SLEEPWALKERS (Nicholas Pike), SILVER BULLET (Jay Chattaway), THINNER (Daniel Licht) [Cinematheque: Aero]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Nuart]
September 16
FIRESTARTER (Tangerine Dream), CARRIE (Pino Donaggio), THE DEAD ZONE (Michael Kamen) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER (Joe Raposo) [New Beverly]
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
REPO MAN (Humberto Larriva, Steven Hufsteter), DEATH WATCH (Antoine Duhamel) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
TORSO (Guido & Maurizio DeAngelis), ZOMBIE (Giorgio Tucci, Fabio Frizzi) [New Beverly]
September 17
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (John Williams) [Arclight Culver City]
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (John Williams) [Arclight Hollywood]
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (John Williams) [Arclight Santa Monica]
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (John Williams) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER (Joe Raposo) [New Beverly]
MACHETE (Chingon), HELL RIDE (Daniele Luppi) [New Beverly]
SPEEDY [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
STAND BY ME (Jack Nitzsche), THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (Thomas Newman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
September 18
MACHETE (Chingon), HELL RIDE (Daniele Luppi) [New Beverly]
September 19
CASTLE OF CALIGOSTRO LUPIN (Yuji Ono) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER (Oliver Nelson) [LACMA]
MACHETE (Chingon), HELL RIDE (Daniele Luppi) [New Beverly]
EAT PRAY LOVE (Dario Marianelli) [Arclight Santa Monica]
September 20
THE GRIFTERS (Elmer Bernstein) [Cinematheque: Aero]
MACHETE (Chingon), HELL RIDE (Daniele Luppi) [New Beverly]
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Bernard Herrmann) [New Beverly]
September 21
1408 (Gabriel Yared) [Cinematheque: Aero]
MACHETE KILLS (Robert Rodriguez, Carl Thiel), THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS (RZA, Howard Drossin) [New Beverly]
September 22
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (Stephen Trask) [Nuart]
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS [New Beverly]
MACHETE KILLS (Robert Rodriguez, Carl Thiel), THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS (RZA, Howard Drossin) [New Beverly]
THE RED SHOES (Brian Easdale) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
September 23
BARE KNUCKLES (Vic Caesar), FEARLESS FIGHTERS [New Beverly]
COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, DEATH OF A SALESMAN [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
ENAMORADA (Eduardo Hernandez Moncada) [UCLA]
MACHETE KILLS (Robert Rodriguez, Carl Thiel), THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS (RZA, Howard Drossin) [New Beverly]
THE MUPPET MOVIE (Paul Williams, Kenny Ascher) [New Beverly]
STILL ALICE (Ilan Eshkeri) [LACMA]
September 24
DUCK SOUP [UCLA]
THE MUPPET MOVIE (Paul Williams, Kenny Ascher) [New Beverly]
NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Santa Monica]
NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
PATHER PANCHALI (Ravi Shankar), APARAJITO (Ravi Shankar), APUR SANSAR (Ravi Shankar) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE REAL BRUCE LEE, LEE LIVES WITHIN (Fu Liang Chou) [New Beverly]
SANTA (Augustin Lara), LA MUJER DEL PUERTO (Max Urban) [UCLA]
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