Quartet has announced four new expanded score releases, all from Oscar-winning films: Howard Shore's brooding score for 1991's classic THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, the most recent film to win all of the "big five" Academy Awards (Picture, Actor, Actress, Directing, Screenplay); Georges Delerue's largely unused score for 1986 Best Picture winner PLATOON; Francis's Lai's 1970 Best Score winner LOVE STORY, featuring a remastered version of the orignial LP tracks plus a restored version of the film's score tracks; and a two-disc edition of Nino Rota's score for Federico Fellini's autobiographical Foreign Language Oscar winner AMARCORD.
The latest CD in Varese Sarabande's limited edition "We Hear You" series is a two-disc set featuring Peter Bernstein's music for the popular undercover cop TV series 21 JUMP STREET, which later spawned two smash hit comedy feature sequels and helped make Johnny Depp a household name.
Alexandre Desplat's score for THE SHAPE OF WATER won BAFTA's award for Original Music.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Early Man - Harry Gregson-Williams, Tom Howe - Mercury (import)
Francis Lai at Universal Pictures - Francis Lai - Music Box
Il Corsaro Nero - Gino Peguri - Digitmovies
L'Allenatore Nel Pallone - Guido & Maurizio DeAngelis - Beat
Revenge - Rob - Music Box
Sono Un Fenomeno Paranormale - Piero Piccioni - Digitmovies
21 Jump Street - Peter Bernstein - Varese Sarabande
IN THEATERS TODAY
Annihilation - Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury
Are We Not Cats - Burn One
Beast of Burden - Tim Jones
The Boy Downstairs - David Buckley
But Deliver Us From Evil - Robert Olieman
The Chamber - James Dean Bradfield - Score CD-R on Sony
Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk - Bryan Byrne
The Cured - Rory Friers, Niall Kennedy
Curvature - Adam Taylor
Days of Power - Paul Lewis
Every Day - Elliott Wheeler
Game Night - Cliff Martinez - Score CD-R on Watertower
Half Magic - Alex Wurman
The Lodgers - Stephen Shannon, Kevin Murphy, David Turpin
November - Jacaszek
7 Guardians of the Tomb - Roc Chen
Survivors Guide to Prison - Sebastian Robertson
The Young Karl Marx - Alexei Aigui - Score CD on Music Box
COMING SOON
March 2
Charlotte's Web - Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman - Varese Sarabande
McMafia - Tom Hodge, Franz Kirmann - Decca (import)
March 9
The Exorcist - Tyler Bates - Milan
Monster Hunt 2 - Leon Ko - Milan (import)
March 16
Tomb Raider - Tom Holkenborg - Sony
March 23
The Alienist - Rupert Gregson-Williams - Lakeshore
B. The Beginning - Yoshihiro Ike - Milan
Croc-Blanc - Bruno Coulais - Universal France
Nostalgia - Laurent Eyquem - Varese Sarabande
March 30
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
Date Unknown
Amarcord - Nino Rota - Quartet
The Blue Planet (remastered reissue) - George Fenton - Silva
El Lienzo En El Espejo - David Bazo - Rosetta
La Guepe - Osvaldo Montes - Rosetta
Love Story - Francis Lai - Quartet
Made in China Napoletano - Marco Werba - Rosetta
Manhunt - Taro Iwashiro - Nippon Columbia (import)
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
February 23 - Allan Gray born (1904)
February 23 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold wins Original Score Oscar for The Adventures of Robin Hood, the first year the award goes to the composer instead of the head of the studio's music department; Alfred Newman wins Score Oscar for Alexander's Ragtime Band (1939)
February 23 - Rachel Elkind born (1939)
February 23 - Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann begin recording their score for The Egyptian (1954)
February 23 - David Buttolph begins recording his score for The Horse Soldiers (1959)
February 23 - Richard Markowitz records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “Live Bait” (1969)
February 23 - Lorne Balfe born (1976)
February 24 - Fred Steiner born (1923)
February 24 - Michel Legrand born (1932)
February 24 - George Harrison born (1943)
February 24 - Rupert Holmes born (1947)
February 24 - Franz Waxman died (1967)
February 24 - Jerry Goldsmith records his score for Crosscurrent (1971)
February 24 - Roy Budd begins recording his score to The Carey Treatment (1972)
February 24 - Walter Scharf died (2003)
February 24 - Mychael Danna wins the Original Score Oscar for Life of Pi (2013)
February 25 - George Duning born (1908)
February 25 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold begins recording his score for The Sea Wolf (1941)
February 25 - Victor Reyes born (1962)
February 25 - Penka Kouneva born (1967)
February 25 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Outland (1981)
February 25 - Haim Mazar born (1983)
February 25 - Laurence Rosenthal records his score for To Heal a Nation (1988)
February 25 - Ennio Morricone wins an Honorary Oscar, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music;" Gustavo Santaolalla wins his second consecutive Best Score Oscar, for Babel (2007)
February 26 - Hagood Hardy born (1937)
February 26 - Bernard Herrmann wins his only Oscar, for the All That Money Can Buy score (1942)
February 26 - John Lanchbery died (2003)
February 26 - Ludovic Bource wins the Original Score Oscar for The Artist (2012)
February 27 - The first score Oscar is awarded, to Victor Schertzinger and Gus Kahn's score to One Night of Love; however, Academy policy at the time awards the Oscar to the head of the studio's music department, Louis Silvers (1935)
February 27 - Leigh Harline, Ned Washington, Paul J. Smith win Best Score Oscar for Pinocchio (1941)
February 27 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score to A Life of Her Own (1950)
February 27 - Mort Glickman died (1953)
February 27 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score for True Grit (1969)
February 27 - Herbert Don Woods records his score for the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode “The Crystals” (1981)
February 27 - George Duning died (2000)
February 27 - Nathan Scott died (2010)
February 27 - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win the Original Score Oscar for The Social Network (2011)
February 28 - Albert Elms born (1920)
February 28 - Pierre Jansen born (1930)
February 28 - Charles Bernstein born (1943)
February 28 - Loek Dikker born (1944)
February 28 - Mike Figgis born (1948)
February 28 - Edward Shearmur born (1966)
February 28 - Murray Gold born (1969)
February 28 - Armando Trovajoli died (2013)
February 29 - Herbert Stothart wins Original Score Oscar for The Wizard of Oz (1940)
February 29 - Mervyn Warren born (1964)
March 1 - Leo Brouwer born (1939)
March 1 - Jose Nieto born (1942)
March 1 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score for The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit (1956)
March 1 - Nino Oliviero died (1980)
March 1 - David Newman begins recording his score for Talent for the Game (1991)
March 1 - Laurence Rosenthal begins recording his score for Inherit the Wind (1999)
March 1 - Lucio Dalla died (2012)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
DISTURBING THE PEACE - Blake Leyh
"'Disturbing the Peace' is a courageous and uplifting film that deservedly earned a rapturous ovation when it screened at Ebertfest this year, in part because two of its subjects, Khatib and Alon, were in attendance. If it lacks a certain urgency in its first two thirds, that is because the events that it covers are recounted through staged flashbacks mixed with archival footage. There are times in which the low voices combined with the melancholy score can cause the mind to wander at the precise moments when one’s attention is most needed. The subject matter itself is so compelling that it practically guarantees that the film will never be dull, though regardless of its material, a documentary is only as good as its editing. In this case, editor Ori Derdikman does a remarkable job of maintaining a brisk pace without ever diminishing the vividly textured humanity observed by Young’s lens. Though he and Apkon do a fine job of laying out the history of the movement, the film really comes to life in its last third as we’re finally enabled to experience events in real time."
Matt Faberholm, RogerEbert.com
THE EAGLE HUNTRESS - Jingle Punks, Jeff Peters
"It also occasions one genuinely scary if brief sequence, when Nurgaiv and her father have to force their horses through treacherous waist-high snow high in the frozen steppes. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of suspense or conflict to 'The Eagle Huntress,' since our heroine seems to easily ace every challenge put before her; the psychological and physical obstacles here seem more constructs of editing (and a mostly conventional, Western orchestral score) than organic observation. The elaborate camerawork (encompassing crane and drone shots) and general high polish suggest that, if not outright manufactured in the tradition of 'Nanook of the North,' much of the pic’s drama has been highly shaped by the filmmakers to fit a narrative and thematic agenda."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
"A 13-year-old girl from Mongolia is ready to train her own eagle to catch foxes in 'The Eagle Huntress,' casually upending two millennia of Kazakh-Mongolian tradition that dictates this practice as the exclusive domain of men. Though billed as a documentary, British-born, U.S.-based filmmaker Otto Bell has made more of a docu-fiction hybrid, with some scenes clearly staged, cut and scored for dramatic effect. Combining an accessible story of social change with ethnographic insight and striking (if often barren) widescreen landscapes, this Sundance Kids title should be of interest in the educational arena, though it might be too obviously manipulative for nonfiction-loving arthouse patrons. That said, the presence of Morgan Spurlock as executive producer, as well as a closing-credits pop anthem from Australian sensation Sia -- whose helmet-like hair incidentally recalls a falconry hood -- can only help get this Huntress noticed by festivals and niche distributors."
Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter
MOTHER'S DAY - John Debney
"The other mom-com storylines fare only mildly better at centering their conflicts around parental relationships, which is like saying a 'Fast and Furious' film includes a single car chase. A bartender and aspiring comic (played with disarming charm by Jack Whitehall) feels flummoxed by his long-time girlfriend’s (Britt Robertson) refusal to marry him, despite the fact that they’re raising a child together. A bearded widower father (Jason Sudeikis) is still mourning the death of his military wife (Jennifer Garner), and we know he’s still mourning because we must watch a karaoke home video where she purrs 'This is for you' into the camera as the soundtrack swells with crocodile tears."
Andrew Lapin, Uproxx
"All those actors must find some degree of well-paid comfort in this numbing stupidity, though by the end of 'Mother’s Day,' it’s worth asking whether Marshall and his cronies constitute some kind of hostage-taking Hollywood mafia, forever calling in favors to get another vanity project running. Maybe it’s time for some of them to start planning exit strategies. Jennifer Garner, a 'Valentine’s Day' veteran, has a cameo here as Sudeikis’ departed wife -- a U.S. Marine, of course, because all three of Marshall’s holiday epics pay mawkish tribute to the troops. (Here, a shot of Garner’s gravestone is tastefully adorned with stirring military drumbeats.) In other words, the sweet release of her character’s death spares Garner the humiliation of appearing in more than one scene of 'Mother’s Day' (though not the humiliation of sentimental onscreen karaoke). Roberts, Aniston, Hudson, Sudeikis, and everyone else should start plotting their characters’ gruesome demises before they get the call for 'Memorial Day.'"
Jesse Hassenger, The Onion AV Club
"'Mother’s Day' is Marshall’s 18th feature film, but it plays like an unpromising debut. Even on the levels of the most basic filmmaking craft, it’s stunningly incompetent: ponderous pacing, gummy camerawork, clumsy ADR, a push-button score under nearly every scene, shots that slam into each other like bumper cars, staging that’d look amateurish at a church Christmas pageant, scenes that are organized seemingly at random, and meander so far after the point is made, you’d swear someone had accidentally left the camera running. And Marshall’s primary auterist flourish seems to be the notion that there’s no scene that can’t be escaped with a zany cutaway; the best/worst is probably getting out of a scene at 'Shorty’s' bar with a shot of the owner, a little person, announcing 'I’m just the owner!'"
Jason Bailey, Flavorwire
"Sure, at this point you can make the argument that fans know what to expect when they enter a Garry Marshall film. But unlike 'Valentine’s Day' and 'New Year’s Eve,' 'Mother’s Day' can’t even manage to establish a cheesy romance worth rooting for. All it manages is a few unintended laughs, some truly awkward musical cues, and forcing Aniston to utter the line 'Thanks, clown.'"
Samantha Highfill, Entertainment Weekly
"John Debney's twinkly score and Marshall's flat, barely-there direction are about what you expect them to be -- and frankly, no one goes to see 'Mother's Day' for the innovative camerawork. The quartet of stars is the main attraction, though they're not playing people as much as broad variations on their own screen (and off-screen) personas: Aniston is warm, self-deprecating and a little bit sad; Roberts is imperious, but with a heart of gold; Hudson is a bohemian-yuppie princess; Sudeikis is dorky-cool, a smart-ass with a soft center. Predictably, Martindale, that miracle of an actress, has sharper timing and more presence than any of her co-stars."
Jon Frosch, Hollywood Reporter
TALE OF TALES - Alexandre Desplat
"Legendary cinematographer Peter Sushchitzky makes good use of what, to my eyes, look like a number of real Italian castles. Composer Alexandre Desplat is also in peak form, and some of the motifs are breathtaking. On several occasion what you'll hear, unfortunately, has far more emotional resonance that what you'll see. I guess one moral you can glean is to always hire good people."
Jordan Hoffman, Vanity Fair
"With some of the best practical effects this side of 'Pan’s Labyrinth,' as well as castle scenery and surrounding forestry that may as well stem from remnants of the 'Into the Woods' set, Garrone’s movie is blatantly derivative while refashioning its material into his own satisfying playground. Despite the discombobulated structure, the filmmaker manages to create a fully involving world. He’s aided to that end by both veteran cinematographer Peter Suschitzky ('The Empire Strikes Back,' 'Mars Attacks'), whose complex color scheme fleshes out the storybook feel, as well as yet another awe-inspiring Alexandre Desplat score. The craftsmanship sustains the story through a series of kooky twists, none more surprising than a finale that expertly pulls all the pieces together at once."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"In each of these stories, there’s a fair share of blood. But the somewhat gruesome storytelling is at the service of an almost innocent craving for our collective youthful fear and delight about ghost stories and fractured fairytales that raise the hair on the back of our neck. 'Tale of Tales' plays with ideas of witches, monsters, castles, heroic kings, even necromancers. But Garrone’s chief objective is the pure pleasure of escapist storytelling -- except, oddly enough, these tales resonate in dark, unanticipated ways. Goosed along by Oscar-winner Alexandre Desplat’s bold, otherworldly score, 'Tale of Tales' is an elaborate, sometimes beautiful bedtime story that’s most determinedly aimed at adults."
Tim Grierson, Paste Magazine
"Each of these narratives has its appeal, and its flaws. Garrone creates an intermittently rich sensory experience with help from cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and composer Alexandre Desplat, yet he stumbles in moving the story along."
T'Cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette
"Everything is ersatz and just a little off in the film, from the stiff staging of an undersea battle to the cut-rate digital effects to the preponderance of empty visual space. Whether or not the movie’s dialogue is intentionally stilted, it feels of a piece with the under-furnished castles and landscapes of scraggly rock that represent its three fairy-tale kingdoms; it sustains an air of otherness better than a sumptuous blockbuster could. Federico Fellini’s claustrophobic and alienated 'Casanova' appears to be the main inspiration, with Alexandre Desplat’s score taking its cues from the ominous tinkling of Nino Rota’s music for the earlier film. Adapting a handful of stories from the 17th century fairy-tale collection 'The Tale Of Tales', Garrone aims for 'Casanova''s detached irony, creepy sexuality, and air of melancholy; he might not be Fellini, but at least he manages to pull off something more captivating than a run-of-the-mill Disney-fied bedtime story."
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
"Taken together, the parables serve primarily to entertain -- an effect that has as much to do with Garrone’s command of the cinematic language as it does the content itself. Backed by producer Jeremy Thomas, that great enabler of lavish period epics, Garrone has created a sumptuous world within the available means. The digital flourishes don’t always work (several CG-'enhanced' landscapes and a phony-looking tightrope rescue sequence border on eyesores), but Peter Suschitzky’s sweeping camera makes the most of gorgeous practical costumes and sets, while Alexandre Desplat’s score elevates the entire experience and further unifies the disparate threads. One can’t help be reminded of Pasolini’s 'Trilogy of Life' with such a project, and though the material is tamer (but only just) and less poetic, Garrone’s technique runs circles around that of his predecessor."
Peter Debruge, Variety
"Doused in luxuriant colors, elaborate costumes and fantasy décor, the scenes are wonderfully integrated into the Baroque architecture of Sicily, Apulia and Lazio, though some of the Escher-like castles clinging to hillsides could be CGI work. Peter Suschitzky’s cinematography ably creates a world of the imagination by blending astonishing (and real) Italian Baroque interiors with Dimitri Capuani’s outstanding production design and Massimo Cantini Parrini’s eccentric and amusing period costumes (some from the Tirelli collection). Underlining the poetic dimension of the film is a haunting original score by composer Alexandre Desplat."
Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter
THE WHOLE TRUTH - Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
"Viewers who’ve spent any time watching TV courtroom dramas will probably believe they’ve figured out 'The Whole Truth' from practically its opening scene, and despite a few minor twists along the way, chances are, they have. The real mystery is what this script must have contained that didn’t make it onto the screen, because at a meager 93 minutes, 'The Whole Truth' feels like a fraction of some larger, more ambitious project, one in which certain roles -- such as the doting mother/long-suffering wife played by Zellweger, or the conflicted young legal aide (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who joins Richard’s team -- surely contributed additional color to this drab-looking drama, whose only energy hails from its agitated piano score. Certainly, the heavy narration by Reeves is a clue to someone’s attempt to simplify and reshuffle things in the editing room."
Peter Debruge, Variety
"The answer to the last question is the flat melodrama that Hunt has wrung from a screenplay credited to Rafael Jackson. The filmmaker’s second feature, after 2008’s 'Frozen River,' is set and filmed in Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish, near New Orleans. It evokes the region’s clinging humidity, but with none of the urgency or narrative power of the earlier film’s frigid New York setting. Amid the story’s lurid peeks behind showy wealth to domestic horrors and marital secrets, the characters barely come to life. Nerve-pinching musical notes and venetian blind shadows don’t churn up even a modicum of noirish suspense."
Sheri Linden, 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, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart and UCLA.
February 23
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (Jean Wiener) [UCLA]
BASKET CASE (Gus Russo), BRAIN DAMAGE (Clutch Reiser, Gus Russo), FRANKENHOOKER (Joe Renzetti) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
BEVERLY HILLS COP (Harold Faltermeyer) [Nuart]
SALESMAN [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
February 24
DESK SET (Cyril J. Mockridge), LOSING GROUND (Michael Minard) [UCLA]
GET OUT (Michael Abels) [Cinematheque: Aero]
IT [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE ROOM (Mladen Milicevic) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SALESMAN [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
WHITE GOD (Asher Goldschmidt) [UCLA]
February 25
BLADE RUNNER (Vangelis) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
HEART OF A DOG (Laurie Anderson) [UCLA]
KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (Joe Hisaishi) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PRINCESS MONONOKE (Joe Hisashi), POM POKO (Shang Shang Typhoon) [Cinematheque: Aero]
February 27
AMADEUS [LACMA]
March 1
A CHILD IS WAITING (Ernest Gold) [LACMA]
JUNIOR BONNER (Jerry Fielding), THE LUSTY MEN (Roy Webb) [Cinematheque: Aero]
RUSHMORE (Mark Mothersbaugh) [Laemmle NoHo]
March 2
THE FACULTY (Marco Beltrami), URBAN LEGEND (Christopher Young) [Cinematheque: Aero]
GIRL 6 (Prince), THE BEST OF EVERYTHING (Alfred Newman) [UCLA]
THEY LIVE (John Carpenter, Alan Howarth) [Nuart]
March 3
DOCTOR DOLITTLE (Leslie Bricusse, Lionel Newman, Alexander Courage) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE PROUD REBEL (Jerome Moross), FOUR DAUGHTERS (Max Steiner) [UCLA]
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