The latest release from Intrada is a remastered and resequenced release of Jerry Goldsmith's third and final score for the Rambo series, the fittingly titled RAMBO III.
La-La Land has announced some of their upcoming CD releases for the rest of the month -- on March 13, the music for the recent TV series FEUD, starring Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis, which earned composer Mac Quayle (Mr. Robot, American Horror Story) two Emmy nominations; and on March 27, Bear McCreary's score to the recent Netflix sci-fi feature THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX, on McCreary's Sparks & Shadows label.
The latest release from Music Box is an expanded version of Georges Delerue's score for director Philippe De Broca's historical drama CHOUANS!, starring Philippe Noiret, Sophie Marceau and Lambert Wilson.
This last Sunday, Alexandre Desplat won his second Original Score Oscar for Guillermo del Toro's Best Picture winner THE SHAPE OF WATER, while Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez won their second Oscars for COCO's song "Remember Me" (which apparently makes Robert Lopez the first person to win more than one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). More about this year's Oscars at the bottom of this column.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
The Exorcist - Tyler Bates - Milan
Manhunt - Taro Iwashiro - Nippon Columbia (import)
Monster Hunt 2 - Leon Ko - Milan (import)
Rambo III - Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada Special Collection
IN THEATERS TODAY
Bent - Zacarias M. de la Riva
The Death of Stalin - Christopher Willis - Score CD on MKVA (import)
The Forgiven - Zethu Mashika
Goldstone - Ivan Sen
Gringo - Christophe Beck
The Happys - Pat Sansone
The Hurricane Heist - Lorne Balfe
Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy - Fred Frith
Our Blood Is Wine - Gabriel Dib
The Strangers: Prey at Night - Adrian Johnston
Thoroughbreds - Erik Friedlander
COMING SOON
March 16
Feud - Mac Quayle - La-La Land
Tomb Raider - Tom Holkenborg - Sony
March 23
B. The Beginning - Yoshihiro Ike - Milan
Croc-Blanc - Bruno Coulais - Universal France
Nostalgia - Laurent Eyquem - Varese Sarabande
March 30
The Cloverfield Paradox - Bear McCreary - Sparks & Shadows
I Kill Giants - Laurent Perez del Mar - Varese Sarabande
Troy: Fall of a City - Rob - Sony (import)
A Wrinkle in Time - Ramin Djawadi - Disney
April 6
Howards End [U.S. release] - Nico Muhly - Milan
Pacific Rim Uprising - Lorne Balfe - Milan
Ready Player One - Alan Silvestri - WaterTower
April 27
Kings - Nick Cave, Warren Ellis - Milan
May 4
You Were Never Really Here - Jonny Greenwood - Lakeshore
Date Unknown
Amarcord - Nino Rota - Quartet
The Blue Planet (remastered reissue) - George Fenton - Silva
Chouans! - Georges Delerue - Music Box
Love Story - Francis Lai - Quartet
Planet Earth (remastered reissue) - George Fenton - Silva
Platoon - Georges Delerue - Quartet
The Silence of the Lambs - Howard Shore - Quartet
That Good Night - Guy Farley - Caldera
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
March 9 - John Cale born (1940)
March 9 - Arlon Ober born (1943)
March 9 - Mark Mancina born (1957)
March 9 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score for Psycho (1960)
March 9 - Deborah Lurie born (1974)
March 9 - Jane Antonia Cornish born (1975)
March 9 - Bill Conti begins recording his score for Wrongfully Accused (1998)
March 9 - Richard Stone died (2001)
March 10 - Arthur Honegger born (1892)
March 10 - Angela Morley/Wally Stott born (1924)
March 10 - Charles Previn, head of the Universal Music Department, wins the Score Oscar for One Hundred Men and a Girl, for which no composer is credited (1938)
March 10 - Brad Fiedel born (1951)
March 10 - Marc Donahue born (1953)
March 10 - Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen born (1960)
March 10 - Michel Legrand records his score for Summer of ’42 (1971)
March 11 - Gottfried Huppertz born (1887)
March 11 - Astor Piazzolla born (1921)
March 11 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score to Lili (1952)
March 11 - David Newman born (1954)
March 11 - Rob Simonsen born (1978)
March 11 - Paul Dunlap died (2010)
March 11 - Francois-Eudes Chanfrault died (2016)
March 11 - Keith Emerson died (2016)
March 12 - Georges Delerue born (1925)
March 12 - Aldemaro Romero born (1928)
March 12 - Leonard Rosenman begins recording his score for Prophecy (1979)
March 12 - David Shire begins recording his score for Short Circuit (1986)
March 13 - Hugo Friedhofer wins his only Oscar, for The Best Years of Our Lives score (1947)
March 13 - Lionel Newman, Cyril Mockridge and Leigh Harline begin recording their score for River of No Return (1954)
March 13 - Terence Blanchard born (1962)
March 13 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score for Joe Kidd (1972)
March 13 - Carl Davis begins recording his score to The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
March 13 - Bruce Broughton records his score for the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode “Shgoratchx!” (1981)
March 13 - Ustad Vilayat Khan died (2004)
March 14 - Les Baxter born (1922)
March 14 - Quincy Jones born (1933)
March 14 - Roy Budd born (1947)
March 14 - Peter Maxwell Davies died (2016)
March 15 - Jurgen Knieper born (1941)
March 15 - Ry Cooder born (1947)
March 15 - Stomu Yamashta born (1947)
March 15 - Jerry Fielding records his score for the TV pilot Shirts/Skins (1974)
March 15 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
March 15 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Starship Mine” (1993)
March 15 - Arnold Schwarzwald died (1997)
March 15 - Recording sessions begin for Danny Elfman’s score for Restless (2010)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
BEING CHARLIE - Chris Bacon
"For all the emphasis on Charlie’s angst, including a lot of slow, sad strings and several scenes of Charlie staring tragically at himself in a mirror, the film conveys no sense of what drove him to take drugs in the first place, or of the difficulty we’re told that he had in giving them up. And his detours into darkness -- especially one in which he starts out on a dirty mattress in a crack house and winds up beaten, bloodied, and disheveled in a back alley -- feel formulaic and melodramatic, just the sort of thing you might expect from a pampered child of privilege who confuses poverty and peril with authenticity. Maybe Papa Reiner would have done his son more of a favor by taking the tough-love approach than by turning Nick’s adolescent, rebel-without-a-cause fantasies into this callow vanity project."
Elise Nakhnikian, Slant Magazine
HUNTER GATHERER - Keegan DeWitt
"Royo and Sample completely inhabit their childlike characters, tethering even their cutesiest tendencies to a real sense of longing. They’re both noble fools, both tilting at windmills in a place where power is often harnessed by other means. Locy trusts in the purity of their friendship, and doesn’t contrive some flimsy plot device to bring them together. He uses Keegan Dewitt’s lively, erratic score to add a sense of fun to their half-baked adventures, and also to lend the illusion of shape to a plot that doesn’t really have one (and falters whenever it pretends to)."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"Locy paints in stock indie strokes, like having the film’s title suddenly appear in cursive aside Ashley as he blankly stares at a lit candle. Moreover, Keegan DeWitt’s affected, woodwind score punctuates scenes to ironize Ashley’s deluded sense of purpose as he obsessively hauls refrigerators around town as part of a wayward business venture. Whereas Lodge Kerrigan’s 'Clean, Shaven' depicts its schizophrenic protagonist through abstract and elliptical editing while remaining tethered to the character’s pain, 'Hunter Gatherer' is straightforwardly compelled by Ashley’s enigmatic behaviors and finds no urgency in their unfolding beyond a most immediate, scene-by-scene context."
Clayton Dillard, Slant Magazine
Just as Ashley realizes his old friends – including the love of his life – won’t take him back, he meets a new friend, Jeremy (George Sample III). From there, the plot moves swiftly in unexpected ways, which is just one of the risks Locy takes with the film. It also experiments with composite montages and unconventional music. Overall, the film succeeds. The actors’ strong performances contribute to the film’s cohesion, creating a unique look into our shared need for connection. In particular, Royo’s performance stands out in its ability to capture dichotomies in Ashley’s character, like his building loneliness which is tempered by his undeniable cheerfulness.
Ashley Moreno, The Austin Chronicle
THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY - Coby Brown
"But even their largely absorbing rapport can’t ward off the movie’s slow descent into a rhythmically and dramatically plodding cycle of misfortune. Ramanujan’s health steadily worsens, as signaled by a nagging tubercular cough, accompanied by regular cutaways to Janaki despairing from thousands of miles away, with no one except the mother-in-law from hell for company. (Well, that and the soundtrack, which tends toward overly exoticized crooning whenever the movie drifts southward.) 'The Man Who Knew Infinity' builds to a moment of hard-won recognition from Ramanujan’s peers at Cambridge, followed by the sobering acknowledgment that he was taken from the world far too soon; if this towering intellectual had lived, just imagine how many more of his accomplishments might have been relegated to a cursory mention in the closing credits."
Justin Chang, Variety
THE MONSTER - tomandandy
"The low-budget film is generously outfitted with ominous touches, from a stuffed animal that plays the allegedly plague-inspired 'Ring Around the Rosie' to a score that drops slo-mo piano notes like trickles of acid rain. Such mood-setters may not be novel, but they're subtler than the script."
Mark Jenkins, NPR
"Shot in Canada (and largely at night), 'The Monster' is sharply assembled in all departments, wringing the maximum suspense and variety out of what might have easily become a claustrophobically monotonous handful of outdoor and car-interior locations. In addition to Julie Kirkwood’s atmospheric widescreen lensing and Maria Gonzales’ muscular editing, the principal aesthetic contribution comes from the judiciously applied score from tomandandy (aka Tom Hadju and Andy Milburn)."
Dennis Harvey, 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 and UCLA.
March 9
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (Erich Wolfgang Korngold), THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE (Leo F. Forbstein) [UCLA]
LABYRINTH (Trevor Jones) [Nuart]
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (Mark Mothersbaugh), THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (Bernard Herrmann) [Cinematheque: Aero]
March 10
FANTASTIC MR. FOX (Alexander Desplat) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (Mark Mothersbaugh), THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI (Michael Boddicker) [Cinematheque: Aero]
NORMA RAE (David Shire), SWING SHIFT (Patrick Williams) [UCLA]
THE PASSION OF ANNA, THIRST (Erik Nordgren) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
March 11
ALICE SWEET ALICE (Stephen Lawrence), DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (Riz Ortolani) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Alexandre Desplat), S.W.A.L.K. (The Bee Gees) [Cinematheque: Aero]
SPACE JAM (James Newton Howard) [UCLA]
March 12
DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD (David Newman) [UCLA]
THE FIFTH ELEMENT (Eric Serra) [Arclight Culver City]
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (Tom Holkenborg) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
March 13
BLAZING SADDLES (John Morris) [Arclight Culver City]
CRY 'HAVOC' (Daniele Amfitheatrof) [LACMA]
FIGHT CLUB (Dust Brothers) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Alexandre Desplat), TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Werner Heymann) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Jonny Greenwood) [Arclight Santa Monica]
March 14
HAIRSPRAY (Kenny Vance) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
March 15
BOTTLE ROCKET (Mark Mothersbaugh) [Laemmle NoHo]
MIND GAME (Fayray, Seiichi Yamamoto) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
March 16
THE FALLEN IDOL (William Alwyn) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
ROSEMARY'S BABY (Christopher Komeda) [Nuart]
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Leith Stevens) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
YOJIMBO (Masaru Sato), SAMURAI REBELLION (Toru Takemitsu) [Cinematheque: Aero]
March 17
THE FLY (Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
HUNDRA (Ennui Morricone)[Cinematheque: Egyptian]
PLANET OF THE APES (Jerry Goldsmith) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
THE ROOM (Mladen Milicevic) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SEVEN SAMURAI (Fumio Hayasaka) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (Bernard Herrmann) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
TOP HAT (Max Steiner) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (Ray Heindorf), THE SEA WOLF (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) [UCLA]
March 18
BLACK NARCISSUS (Brian Easdale) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
CAPRICORN ONE (Jerry Goldsmith) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
SOYLENT GREEN (Fred Myrow) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
SWORD OF DOOM (Masaru Sato), KILL! (Koichi Sakata) [Cinematheque: Aero]
For me, the happiest moment of Oscar night was cinematographer Roger Deakins winning his first Oscar (after 14 nominations) for his truly remarkable work on Blade Runner 2049. I was greatly worried that despite all the acclaim for his work (and all the press about his long streak of nominations) that he would still be snubbed, probably in favor of The Shape of Water. To translate it into film music terms, it would have been like if Thomas Newman had never won after 13 nominations and received his 14th nomination for one of his greatest scores, like Little Women or WALL-E, and he STILL didn't win. (And for the record, Newman is still sadly Oscar-less after 14 nominations)
While I'm not a huge fan of The Shape of Water's score or the film itself (though I love the idea that such an odd genre film be a Best Picture winner, over a more traditional choice like Darkest Hour or The Post), I absolutely love that one can honestly write the words "two-time Academy Award-winner Alexandre Desplat." And any year where the words "Oscar winner" can be spoken of the likes of James Ivory, Allison Janney, Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell and Kazuhiro Tsuji is okay with me. Kobe Bryant, on the other hand...
The fact that my two favorite films of the year, Blade Runner 2049 and Dunkirk, won a combined five Oscars does warm my heart.
I haven't watched the telecast yet, so I can't vouch for its quality as a TV program, but the criticism of the show that always irks me is the inevitable backlash after the In Memoriam, especially from people who don't seem to understand that it's a montage to honor important people in the international film industry, not just random celebrities who died in the last year. Because there is usually only time to list a few dozen names -- last year it was around 46, this year it was, I think, 51 -- there will always be unfortunate omissions; as far as composers, the 90th Oscars had time for Luis Bacalov and Johann Johannsson but not Dominic Frontiere or (most regrettably) John Morris.
I can accept people bemoaning the ommision of a Tobe Hooper (who has two classic horror films to his credit, along with the more ambivalent joys of Lifeforce), but Glen Campbell? (who had only two major movie roles, one from a forgotten film, and one nominated song) Adam West? (one major movie, a spinoff of his TV series) David Cassidy???!!! (no major movie work I can even think of).
Look at this way -- I can think of at least 48 familiar actors, including some beloved figures and even one Oscar winner, who didn't make the cut this year: Lola Albright, Richard Anderson, Harvey Atkin, Hywel Bennett, Shelley Berman, Powers Boothe, Brent Briscoe, Reg E. Cathey, Don Pedro Colley, Peggy Cummins, Barry Dennen, Bradford Dillman, Roy Dotrice, Nelsan Ellis, Darlanne Fleugel, Stephen Furst, John Gavin, Don Gordon, Kenneth Haigh, Ben Hammer, Ty Hardin, John Hillerman, Clifton James, Anne Jeffreys, Mickey Jones, Sonny Landham, Dahlia Lavi, Curt Lowens, John Mahoney, Elsa Martinelli, Rose Marie, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Heather Menzies, Dina Merrill, Tomas Milian, Dorothy Malone, Michael Nyqvist, Michael Parks, Tim Piggott-Smith, Jean Porter, Jean Rochefort, Peter Sallis, Roger Smith, Elena Verdugo, Ann Wedgeworth, Anne Wiazemsky, Peter Wyngarde and Louis Zorich.
Much as I would love an all-inclusive In Memoriam montage that lasts ten-to-fifteen minutes, in practial terms there simply isn't room for everyone, especially if one is to make space for such unignorable "below-the-line" greats as cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (The Marriage of Maria Braun, Broadcast News, Goodfellas), editor Jerry Greenberg (The French Connection, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Kramer vs. Kramer) and production designer Thomas Sanders (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Saving Private Ryan, Crimson Peak).
Here endeth the lesson.
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