The latest release from La-La Land is the first CD of Alex North's score for the 1956 evil-child thriller THE BAD SEED, which earned Oscar nominations for actresses Nancy Kelly, Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack. The La-La Land Bad Seed features the original LP tracks plus five additional cues.
The Bad Seed is currently planned to be the label's final release for the year until they close out 2017 with their annual "Black Friday" releases of high-profile and in-demand scores and box-sets, to be announced the day after Thanksgiving (Friday, November 24).
Varese Sarabande plans to announce their latest batch of CD Club releases next week.
On Sunday, November 5 at Santa Monica's Aero theater, the American Cinematheque has scheduled an advance screening (in 70mm!) of Kenneth Branagh's remake of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, and composer Patrick Doyle is currently scheduled to join the film's screenwriter, Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049, American Gods) in a discussion following the film.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
The Bad Seed - Alex North - La-La Land
Battle of the Sexes - Nicholas Britell - Sony
Don't Look Now - Pino Donaggio - Silva
Goodbye, Christopher Robin - Carter Burwell - Sony
Hampstead - Stephen Warbeck - Varese Sarabande
L'Amant Double - Philippe Rombi - Quartet
The Limehouse Golem - Johan Soderqvist - Varese Sarabande
Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature - Heitor Pereira - Varese Sarabande
IN THEATERS TODAY
Aida’s Secrets - Yaniv Fredel, Ofir Shabi
All I See Is You - Marc Streitenfeld - Score CD due Nov. 17 on Milan
Brimstone & Glory - Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin
Crash Pad - Rolfe Kent
Felicite - Kasai Allstars
Gerald's Game - The Newton Brothers
God's Own Country - Dustin O'Halloran, Adam Wiltzie
Jigsaw - Charlie Clouser
The Light of the Moon - David Torn
Maya Dardel - Zachary Cotler
Mr. Roosevelt - Ryan Miller
Novitiate - Christopher Stark
The Square - Music Supervisor: Rasmus Thord
Suburbicon - Alexandre Desplat - Score CD due Dec. 1 on Abkco
The Truth About Lies - Adam Horovitz
COMING SOON
November 3
Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague - Hans Zimmer - Eagle Rock
Rage - Ryuichi Sakamoto - Milan
Roman J. Israel, Esq. - James Newton Howard - Sony (import)
Thank You for Your Service - Thomas Newman - Sony
Tooth and Tail - Austin Wintory - Varese Sarabande
November 10
Coco - Michael Giacchino - Disney
The Film Scores and Original Orchestral Music of George Martin - George Martin - Atlas Realisations
Loveless - Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine - Varese Sarabande
Murder on the Orient Express - Patrick Doyle - Sony
Thor: Ragnarok - Mark Mothersbaugh - Hollywood
November 17
All I See Is You - Marc Streitenfeld - Milan
Molly's Game - Daniel Pemberton - Sony (import)
The Mountain Between Us - Ramin Djawadi - Lakeshore
Only the Brave - Joseph Trapanese - Varese Sarabande
Rat Film - Dan Deacon - Domino
Terence Blanchard: Music for Film - Terence Blanchard - Silva
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Carter Burwell - Varese Sarabande
Wonder - Marcelo Zarvos - Milan
November 24
Mayhem - Steve Moore - Relapse
December 1
Suburbicon - Alexandre Desplat - Abkco
December 8
Justice League - Danny Elfman - WaterTower
December 15
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - Henry Jackman - Sony
Mr. Robot vol. 4 - Mac Quayle - Lakeshore
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - John Williams - Disney
Date Unknown
Dove Non Ho Mai Abitato - Pino Donaggio - Quartet
A Fish Called Wanda - John DuPrez - Music Box
Hammer Horror: Classic Themes (1958 - 1974) - various - Silva
Handia - Pascal Gaigne - Quartet
Horror Rises from the Tomb/The Killer Is One of Thirteen - Alfonso Santisteban, Carmelo Bernaola - Quartet
Killing of the Dolls/Necrophagus - Alfonso Santisteban - Quartet
Knock - Cyrille Aufort - Quartet
Marrowbone - Fernando Velazquez - Quartet
The Night of the Sorcerers/The Witches Mountain - Fernando Garcia Morcillo - Quartet
The Orson Welles/A.F. Lavagnino Collaboration - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Alhambra
Thunderbirds Are Go, Vol. 2 - Ben Foster, Nick Foster - Silva
Via Degli Specchi - Pino Donaggio - Music Box
Wild Geese II - Roy Budd - Caldera
Zombillenium - Eric Neveux - Quartet
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
October 27 - Samuel Matlovsky born (1921)
October 27 - Recording sessions begin for Hugo Friedhofer's score for Ace in the Hole (1950)
October 27 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for The Enforcer (1976)
October 27 - Frank DeVol died (1999)
October 27 - James Newton Howard begins recording his score to Peter Pan (2003)
October 28 - Gershon Kingsley born (1922)
October 28 - Carl Davis born (1936)
October 28 - Howard Blake born (1938)
October 28 - Lalo Schifrin records his score for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Memo from Purgatory” (1964)
October 28 - Jerry Fielding records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “The Exchange” (1968)
October 28 - Lalo Schifrin records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “Submarine” (1969)
October 28 - Oliver Nelson died (1975)
October 28 - Recording sessions begin for James Newton Howard’s score for Eye for an Eye (1995)
October 28 - Gil Melle died (2004)
October 29 - Daniele Amfitheatrof born (1901)
October 29 - Neal Hefti born (1922)
October 29 - George Bassman records his score to Mail Order Bride (1963)
October 29 - Michael Wandmacher born (1967)
October 29 - Irving Szathmary died (1983)
October 29 - Paul Misraki died (1998)
October 30 - Paul J. Smith born (1906)
October 30 - Irving Szathmary born (1907)
October 30 - Teo Macero born (1925)
October 30 - Charles Fox born (1940)
October 30 - Brian Easdale died (1995)
October 30 - Paul Ferris died (1995)
October 30 - Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Little Green Men” (1995)
October 31 - Robert Drasnin records his score for the Lost in Space episode "West of Mars" (1966)
October 31 - Adam Schlesinger born (1967)
October 31 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Patton (1969)
October 31 - John Williams begins recording his score to The Towering Inferno (1974)
October 31 - The Mission is released in the United States (1986)
October 31 - Ian Fraser died (2014)
November 1 - John Scott born (1930)
November 1 - Roger Kellaway born (1939)
November 1 - Keith Emerson born (1944)
November 1 - David Foster born (1949)
November 1 - Jerry Fielding records his first Mission: Impossible score, for the episode “The Coucil” (1967)
November 1 - Leighton Lucas died (1982)
November 1 - Louis Barron died (1989)
November 2 - Gary Yershon born (1954)
November 2 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score for Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
November 2 - k.d. lang born (1961)
November 2 - Felice Lattuada died (1962)
November 2 - Joseph Mullendore's score for the Star Trek episode "The Conscience of the King" is recorded (1966)
November 2 - Alexander Courage records his score for the Lost in Space episode "A Day at the Zoo" (1967)
November 2 - Gary McFarland died (1971)
November 2 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Once More Into the Breach” (1998)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - John Debney, The Newton Brothers
"There are long stretches in the film’s third act where the two leads are nearly forgotten altogether, as the script’s attention suddenly shifts to bickering sessions between an insurance investigator (Kandyse McClure) and the town sheriff (Paul Sorvino). In an attempt to break the woman’s concentration while investigating a murder scene, the sheriff plays a jaunty tune on the piano. The music lasts only seconds, but it’s still my favorite moment in the film, in part because Sorvino is such a skilled pianist, and also because it’s preferable to the laughable score by John Debney and The Newton Brothers. As soon as Lena starts unbuttoning her shirt, the score amps up into full-on softcore porn rhythms appropriate for Cinemax, which perhaps not coincidentally gets name-dropped in the film. The sex and nudity is largely left off-camera, though, and the sanitized erotic encounters are sure to bore those who rent the film for prurient purposes. All we’re left with then is insipid porno foreplay, such as when Doug and Lena are locked out of her house in the pouring rain, and Lena suggests that Doug take off his shirt, wrap it around a rock and throw it through a window. Why? Because his shirt will dull the sound of the rock crashing through the glass (it doesn’t)."
Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com
"Still, Lena teases him, sunning herself in a barely-there bikini and slowly stripping off said two-piece when she showers after a swim. Later, when she locks herself out of the house, she waits for Doug to help her as rain pours down. Soon Lena herself is going down -- to clean up a cut on the high schooler’s stomach -- kneeling before him and looking up at him all porny. Then she literally blows (on) him. During these hawt scenes, a Trent Reznor-ish score plays, ensuring that you understand that Jonas is now grown enough to be involved in something this hardcore. Because even though Doug is pure, Lena can’t get enough. 'Right now, I can’t wait!' she says in one scene, grabbing him in the town’s convenience store as Elliot waits in the car. Doug quickly starts copping a ‘tude with Elliot, whom he spies pushing Lena around one night. 'Maybe you have to treat people right for them to appreciate you,' Doug tells Elliot when the businessman complains vaguely about his wife. Burn!"
Tricia Olszewski, The Wrap
CHEVALIER - Marilena Orfanou
"The film is impeccably shot -- and composer Marilena Orfanou’s electronic score vividly suggests a ticking testosterone time bomb. On your mark. Get set. Go see it."
Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times
"If you've seen Tsangari's 2010 'Attenberg,' Greece's entry for Best Foreign Film, you'll know that in her goofball-noir way, the director loves to keep us guessing. Rapturously photographed by Christos Karamanis, 'Chevalier''s idyllic setting is sumptuous and serene and smacks of an earnest psychological drama to come. The sly soundtrack seems to suggest a thriller, then keeps throwing us elsewhere. The tone is slow and stately throughout, complicating what is essentially a jaundiced black comedy, a woman's-eye vision of male vanity and all manner of impotence."
Ella Taylor, NPR
DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID - Bruno Coulais
"The pervy atmosphere dissipates completely as the movie sinks into a slow parade of incidents, and it begins to seem as though Jacquot is so enamored with Anais Romand’s exquisite costumes that he’s reluctant to have his characters take them off. In fact, this 'Diary of a Chambermaid' could easily be mistaken for a straight-laced costume drama if not for the pitter-patter of Bruno Coulais’ winding score, the frequency of sharp zooms, and the open contempt that the people in Célestine’s social circle seem to have for each other."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"That line of investigation oddly tapers off at the midway point, following Celestine’s lusty but unhappy tryst with an intermediate master, tubercular twentysomething Georges (Vincent Lacoste). The pic’s plottier second half turns on tightly wound schemes and reversals worthy of a James M. Cain potboiler, with Bruno Coulais’ eager, noirish score suggesting that Jacquot may have made the same literary comparison himself."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"Tech credits are highly polished in an almost academic manner, with Jacquot and DP Romain Winding showing less of the handheld verve that was on display in Queen, while the score by Bruno Coulais ('Coraline') jumps between flashes of lightness and wickedness. Production design by Katia Wyszkop ('Saint Laurent') recreates the wealthy but utterly dreary Normand mansion where Celestine is confined throughout much of the film -- a huge stone house filled with massive armoires, silver trinkets and family portraits, but one with no real exit."
Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter
KING JACK - Bryan Senti
"Further complemented by Brandon Root’s sunkissed cinematography, Paul Penczner’s graceful editing and a touching score from Bryan Senti, 'King Jack' might not have the freshest ingredients in the indie kitchen, but it still knows how to stir up something with a kick. And even when it’s in the shadow of other movies that have traversed this territory to greater effect, the talented young performers at hand bring a rooted sense of reality that still makes it sing with rhapsodic gravitas. Thompson’s debut doesn’t necessarily reign supreme, but if nothing else, it crowns Plummer as a talent to watch."
Will Ashton, The Playlist
"Thompson’s script tries to relate us to Jack with episodes of machismo and alternating insecurity that define every stone-faced male adolescent; we cringe as he sends a private picture of himself to a girl and a group of them see it and comment upon his manhood. But this narrow, flat narrative perspective only brings out Thompson's more generic directorial qualities. Innocent passages of Jack acting like a peaceful big brother to the silent Ben playing baseball and then ambling through fields are indie wholesale; a sleepy, atmospheric guitar score and shrugging handheld camerawork reduce the personality this movie might have had. And Plummer’s performance just isn’t strong enough. When Jack shares with Ben how he earned the nickname 'Scab' after once being called 'King Jack,' Plummer only achieves emotional truth with the raspy tone in which he delivers a weak monologue."
Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com
"If the initial outward trappings of Thompson’s filmmaking -- the peachy midsummer glow permeating the frame, the dulcet acoustic scoring -- portend a certain preciousness, the film’s portrayal of modern adolescence is hardly romanticized. The kids in 'King Jack' bristle with uncontained inclinations toward violence and cruel manipulation of sexuality; any parents blissfully unaware of teen 'sexting' conventions may get a rude awakening here. The eponymous protagonist (Charlie Plummer, best known for his recurring role in TV’s 'Boardwalk Empire') is first shown defacing a schoolmate’s family home with obscene graffiti that goes a little beyond boys-will-be-boys prankery. Auds may assume from this that he’s an aggressive delinquent, though it’s not long before Jack’s more vulnerable position in his neighborhood’s hooligan hierarchy is established. D.p. Brandon Roots is as sensitively attuned to the characters as Thompson, framing and lighting them with tender awareness of their contrasting perspectives and projected inner worlds. When the camera gives in to woozy, magic-hour beauty, the technique feels emotionally prompted, not merely decorative. Other tech credits are similarly polished, though Bryan Senti’s pretty, guitar-led score is occasionally a little more mollifying than it needs to be."
Guy Lodge, Variety
THE WAVE - Magnus Beite
"Minus the threat of the mountain collapsing, the first act of 'The Wave' sells Geiranger as a wonderful place to live and an optimal tourist location. The landscape is absolutely breathtaking and everyone’s in good spirits. Cinematographer John Christian Rosenlund shows off one postcard-worthy visual after the next and Magnus Beite’s majestic score enhances the appeal, but he also incorporates just enough darker tones to tease what’s coming, pairing well with the narrative build."
Perri Nemiroff, Collider
“The Wave” hits all of the right beats for its genre. There’s the foreboding score as the camera slowly zooms in on Kristian’s face behind the wheel, stopped in traffic and just realizing what the latest readings meant. There are shots of birds flying in the other direction of the mountain. There’s even a great scene in which one of the analysts is watching a slasher movie on his laptop as lights start to blink red behind him. The Jason Voorhees of “The Wave” is Mother Nature.
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"When you think of disaster movies, you picture the all-star extravaganzas of the 1970s, when a who's-who of famous faces fought to survive four-alarm fires, flash floods, killer-bee swarms, etc. -- essentially a big-screen 'Love Boat' episode with catastrophe sauce drizzled over it. Or you imagine the steroidal post-digital versions we get now, where an A-lister like, say, Dwayne Johnson takes on an earthquake and the seismic waves don't stand a chance. (For the record: The Rock > falling rocks.) This Norwegian import about a small town hit by a gigantic tsunami, however, doesn't try to out-blockbuster Hollywood in the CGI sound-and-fury department. The bombastic score and a soaking-wet centerpiece when the sh*t hits the fjord suggest director Roar Uthaug has studied up on the genre, but what it really wants to be is a waterlogged family drama in extremis."
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"Augmenting an immersive Dolby Atmos-mixed sound design with the bombast of a big orchestral score, Uthaug combines Norway-shot location footage with Romanian stagework, blending the two via handheld camerawork that draws us into the action. The helmer maximizes the few big visual effects shots the deceptively frugal production could afford before ending on a wide shot where our eyes drift from the battered survivors in the foreground to the CG-rendered carnage all around. Good for one last quake is the fun pre-credits factoid that 'experts agree,' with so many unstable mountain in Norway, it’s a matter of when -- not if -- all we’ve just witnessed will actually come to pass. Let’s hope the documentary has a happier ending."
Peter Debruge, Variety
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, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.
October 27
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (Graeme Revell) [New Beverly]
THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (Lionel Newman) [Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts]
GODZILLA (Akira Ifukube), THE H-MAN (Masaru Sato) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Richard O'Brien, Richard Hartley) ( [Nuart]
STILL WALKING (Gonchichi) [UCLA]
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (Wayne Bell, Tobe Hooper), EATEN ALIVE (Wayne Bell, Tobe Hooper) [New Beverly]
October 28
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (Frank Skinner) [New Beverly]
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (Elmer Bernstein), POPCORN (Paul Zaza), THE TINGLER (Von Dexter), HACK-O-LANTERN (Gregory Haggard), SHOCKER (William Goldstein), BRAINSCAN (George S. Clinton), DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS (Ossian Brown, Mike McCoy, Steven Thrower) [Cinematheque: Aero]
DRACULA [AMPAS]
EL VAMPIRO NEGRO (Juan Ehlert), LOS TALLOS AMARGOS (Astor Piazzola) [UCLA]
IT FOLLOWS (Disasterpiece) [New Beverly]
MABOROSI (Ming-chang Chen) [UCLA]
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (Wayne Bell, Tobe Hooper), EATEN ALIVE (Wayne Bell, Tobe Hooper) [New Beverly]
WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? (Cyril J. Mockridge) [Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts]
October 29
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (Frank Skinner) [New Beverly]
CORALINE (Bruno Coulais) [UCLA]
GHOSTBUSTERS (Elmer Bernstein) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE HAUNTING (Humphrey Searle) [Cinematheque: Aero]
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Alan Menken, Miles Goodman) [Laemmle Town Center 5]
THE OLD DARK HOUSE (Benjamin Frankel), THE CAT AND THE CANARY (Ernst Toch), SCARED STIFF (Leith Stevens) [New Beverly]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Santa Monica]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
Octobert 30
AHÍ ESTÁ EL DETALLE (Raul Lavista), CALABACITAS TIERNAS (Rosalio Ramirez, Federico Ruiz) [UCLA]
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (Franz Waxman) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (Hans J. Salter, Frank Skinner), INVISIBLE AGENT (Hans J. Salter) [New Beverly]
PAN'S LABYRINTH (Javier Navarrette) [AMPAS]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Santa Monica]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
October 31
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (Gene Moore) [Cinematheque: Aero]
CAT PEOPLE (Roy Webb) [Laemmle NoHo]
CAT PEOPLE (Roy Webb) [Laemmle Playhouse 7]
CAT PEOPLE (Roy Webb) [Laemmle Royal]
THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON [LACMA]
HALLOWEEN (John Carpenter) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
THE MUMMY [Laemmle NoHo]
THE MUMMY [Laemmle Playhouse 7]
THE MUMMY [Laemmle Royal]
REPULSION (Chico Hamilton), THE TENANT (Philippe Sarde) [New Beverly]
November 1
AUDITION (Koji Endo), CITY OF LOST SOULS (Koji Endo) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
BOULEVARD NIGHTS (Lalo Schifrin), DEFIANCE (Dominic Frontiere), SUNNYSIDE (Alan Douglas, Harold Wheeler) [New Beverly]
TOKYO JOE (George Antheil) [New Beverly]
November 2
BOULEVARD NIGHTS (Lalo Schifrin), DEFIANCE (Dominic Frontiere), SUNNYSIDE (Alan Douglas, Harold Wheeler) [New Beverly]
THE HAPPINESS OF THE KAKATURIS (Koji Endo, Koji Makaino), VISITOR Q (Koji Endo) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA (Larry Adler) [New Beverly]
THE MALTESE FALCON (Adolph Deutsch) [Laemmle NoHo]
November 3
THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR (George Bruns), SON OF FLUBBER (George Bruns) [New Beverly]
AKIRA (Yamashiro Shoji) [Nuart]
LOGAN (Marco Beltrami), MATCH (Stephen Trask) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PULP FICTION [New Beverly]
November 4
THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR (George Bruns), SON OF FLUBBER (George Bruns) [New Beverly]
HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL! [New Beverly]
PIPPI GOES ON BOARD (Christian Bruhn, Konrad Elfers, Jan Johansson) [New Beverly]
ROMANCE TROPICAL (Rafael Munoz) [UCLA]
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Lennie Hayton) [Cinematheque: Aero]
November 5
THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER (Bruce Rowland), THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Piero Piccioni) [New Beverly]
PIPPI GOES ON BOARD (Christian Bruhn, Konrad Elfers, Jan Johansson) [New Beverly]
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