The latest CD from Music Box features two scores by the great Georges Delerue -- an expanded version of his music for the 1986 film CONSEIL DE FAMILLE (aka Family Council), perhaps the only film that can be described as a "Costa-Gavras comedy," and his music for the 1977 thriller LE POINT DE MIRE (Focal Point)
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Bumblebee - Dario Marianelli - La-La Land
Conseil de Famille/Le Point de Mire - Georges Delerue - Music Box
Goldsmith at 20th Vol. 3: The Stripper/S*P*Y*S - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
X-Men - Michael Kamen - La-La Land
IN THEATERS TODAY
Army of the Dead - Tom Holkenborg
The Djinn - Matthew James
Finding You - Timothy Williams, Kieran Kiely
Georgetown - Lorne Balfe
The Grave - Fazle Kadar Shadhina
Los Hermanos/The Brothers - Aldo Lopez Gavilan
The Perfect Candidate - Volker Bertelmann
RK/RKAY - Sagar Desai
Riders of Justice - Jeppe Kaas
Rockfield - Alexander Parsons
Spiral - Charlie Clouser
Spring Blossom - Vincent Delerm
There Is No Evil - Amir Molookpour
Those Who Wish Me Dead - Brian Tyler
Us Kids - FIl Eisler, Brian Reitzell
COMING SOON
May 21
Cesar et Rosalie - Philippe Sarde - Quartet
Le Chat/Le Train - Philippe Sarde - Quartet
May 28
The Midnight Sky - Alexandre Desplat - Abkco
The Prowler - Richard Einhorn - Howlin' Wolf
A Quiet Place, Part 2 - Marco Beltrami - La-La Land
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run - Hans Zimmer, Steve Mazzaro - La-La Land
June 4
Swallow - Nathan Halpern - Ship to Shore
June 11
The Proposal - T. Griffin - Constellation
June 25
The Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann (box set) - Bernard Herrmann, various - Decca
Date Unknown
The Alan Howarth Collection Vol. 2 - Alan Howarth - Dragon's Domain
Belli e brutti ridono tutti - Giacomo Dell'Orso - Beat
Fuga Dal Bronx - Francesco De Masi - Beat
Ghoulies IV - Chuck Cirino - Dragon's Domain
Inseminoid - John Scott - Dragon's Domain
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
May 14 - J.S. Zamecnik born (1872)
May 14 - Kenneth V. Jones born (1924)
May 14 - Tristram Cary born (1925)
May 14 - The Adventures of Robin Hood released (1938)
May 14 - Ken Lauber born (1941)
May 14 - Frank Churchill died (1942)
May 14 - David Byrne born (1952)
May 14 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957)
May 14 - Alex North begins recording his score for Hot Spell (1957)
May 14 - Raphael Saadiq born (1966)
May 14 - John Williams wins the Emmy for his Jane Eyre score, and Pete Rugolo wins for the Bold Ones episode “In Defense of Ellen McKay” (1972)
May 14 - Michael Kamen begins recording his score for Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
May 14 - Michael Kamen begins recording his score for Die Hard 2 (1990)
May 14 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Enterprise episode “The Expanse” (2003)
May 15 - Bert Shefter born (1904)
May 15 - Lars-Erik Larsson born (1908)
May 15 - John Lanchbery born (1923)
May 15 - Freddie Perren born (1943)
May 15 - Brian Eno born (1948)
May 15 - Mike Oldfield born (1953)
May 15 - Andrey Sigle born (1954)
May 15 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score for Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
May 15 - Gordon Parks begins recording his score for Shaft's Big Score! (1972)
May 15 - David Munrow died (1976)
May 15 - Jerry Goldsmith wins his third Emmy, for Babe; Alex North wins his only Emmy, for Rich Man, Poor Man (1976)
May 15 - Rob aka Robin Coudert born (1978)
May 15 - Billy Goldenberg records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Secret Cinema" (1985)
May 15 - John Green died (1989)
May 15 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Learning Curve” (1995)
May 15 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Enterprise episode “Shockwave, Part 1” (2002)
May 15 - Marius Constant died (2004)
May 15 - Alexander Courage died (2008)
May 16 - Jonathan Richman born (1951)
May 16 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score to Hawaii (1966)
May 16 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for The Shadow (1994)
May 16 - Recording sessions begin for David Arnold’s score for Shaft (2000)
May 17 - Taj Mahal born (1942)
May 17 - Joanna Bruzdowicz born (1943)
May 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos died (1959)
May 17 - Trent Reznor born (1965)
May 17 - Ron Grainer begins recording his score for The Omega Man (1971)
May 17 - Joshua Homme born (1973)
May 17 - Hugo Friedhofer died (1981)
May 17 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score for Wild Wild West (1999)
May 17 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Equinox: Part 1” (1999)
May 17 - Ikuma Dan died (2001)
May 17 - Cy Feuer died (2006)
May 18 - Meredith Willson born (1902)
May 18 - Rick Wakeman born (1949)
May 18 - Mark Mothersbaugh born (1950)
May 18 - Jacques Morelenbaum born (1954)
May 18 - Reinhold Heil born (1954)
May 18 - Ruby Raksin died (1979)
May 18 - James Horner begins recording his score for Testament (1983)
May 18 - Hilding Rosenberg died (1985)
May 18 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Menage a Troi" (1990)
May 18 - Kevin Gilbert died (1996)
May 18 - Albert Sendrey died (2003)
May 18 - Philippe-Gerard died (2014)
May 19 - Irving Gertz born (1915)
May 19 - Larry Crosley born (1932)
May 19 - Anton Garcia Abril born (1933)
May 19 - Tom Scott born (1948)
May 19 - James L. Venable born (1967)
May 19 - Kyle Eastwood born (1968)
May 19 - Earle Hagen wins the Emmy for his score for the I Spy episode “Laya” (1968)
May 19 - Jerry Goldsmith wins his second Emmy, for QB VII Parts 1 & 2; Billy Goldenberg wins for the Benjamin Franklin episode “The Rebel” (1975)
May 19 - James Horner begins recording his score for Titanic (1997)
May 19 - Edwin Astley died (1998)
May 19 - Hans Posegga died (2002)
May 20 - Zbigniew Preisner born (1955)
May 20 - Jerry Goldsmith wins his first Emmy, for The Red Pony; Charles Fox wins an Emmy for his Love, American Style music (1973)
May 20 - Lyn Murray died (1989)
May 20 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Sacred Ground” (1996)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
CLIFF WALKERS - Cho Young-wuk
"Every scene in 'Cliff Walkers' will feel familiar: the close calls, the dead drops, the car chases, the poor man’s Hitchcockisms. There’s a fight on a moving train, a meeting in a movie theater (showing 'The Gold Rush,' naturally), and some gruesome, sadistic torture. The difference between this spy film and any other is that almost everyone is dressed the same, basically interchangeable -- which isn’t much of a difference at all. The costumes have an unworn look that, along with some of the decor, makes the oppressive palette seem artificial in a bad way -- phony and cheap -- which unfortunately fits with the movie’s sentimentality, underscored by the globally familiar sound of “the sad harmonica.'"
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES - Mark Mothersbaugh
"None of this would be groundbreaking stuff in a PG-13 teen movie. In a gag-packed animated comedy about an OS coming to Skynet-like life and sending an army of robots to remove humanity from Earth, though, it’s pretty ambitious. No, 'The Mitchells Vs. The Machines' doesn’t confine its screen-time observations to metaphors: As a synth-y score builds and the Mitchells embark on a last-ditch road trip to drop Katie off at college, a new line of robo-helpers rebel against their masters, efficiently creating a (bloodless, family-friendly) apocalypse. By sheer luck, the Mitchells evade capture and become humanity’s last long-shot hope. When other humans are shipped off to the 'rhombus of infinite subjugation' and rogue comic-relief robots voiced by 'SNL' alumni become crucial to the plot, the Mitchells’ animated lineage becomes more clear: This is the latest work godfathered by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, architects of 'The Lego Movie,' 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse,' and 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.'"
Jesse Hassenger, The Onion AV Club
"The film is not without its share of flaws -- Andre is mostly unmemorable (Wikipedia was required to remember his character’s name), and the usually reliable Colman as PAL dances between prototypical villain and downright dullness. Even Mark Mothersbaugh, who provides the score, finds his usually solid music unfortunately buried in the mix, and any moments where he’s allowed to come up for air result in a soundtrack that brings little, if anything, to the table. Luckily, any valleys on the graph are buoyed by the positives -- even the moments of action, highlighted by a mall battle between the family and an army of appliances, help keep the momentum going."
Brian Farvour, The Playlist
"There are amusing touches, like a Colorado mall interlude with shades of Dawn on the Dead, in which anything with a Pal chip becomes weaponized, from marauding Roombas and soda machines to washer-driers with a 'Carnage' cycle. 'Who would’ve dreamed the tech companies wouldn’t have our best interests at heart,' says sweet-natured Linda, whose fierce maternal instincts nonetheless make her a force to be reckoned with. Chubby Monchi also becomes an asset, thanks to the Pal Max brain’s inability to identify him as dog, pig or loaf of bread. And the more advanced Glaxxon 5000 (voiced by Conan O’Brien) is improbably thwarted by Katie and Rick’s ear-splitting version of the T.I.-Rihanna hit 'Live Your Life,' one of many pop tunes interlaced with Mark Mothersbaugh’s crazy-synth score."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
PERCY VS. GOLIATH - Steven MacKinnon
"Walken plays against sentiment here, wisely so. And while there are a few choices that undercut the movie's sensible aesthetic (including a score that's too folksy-adorable for the gravity of the situation) Johnson and his collaborators (including cinematographer Luc Montpellier, who oversaw the widescreen, epic Western-style compositions) acquit themselves honorably, for the most part. Of particular interest are Percy and Jackson's prickly relationship with Rebecca, who begins to seem as if she's more interested in using Percy for fundraising than materially helping him win the case; and Percy's union with his wife Louise (Roberta Maxwell), which walks a fine line between introducing reasonable notes of audience doubt and creating a 'spoiler' character who seems as if she might stand in the way of a crowd-pleasing triumph (there's social collateral damage in town, Louise suffers the brunt of it)."
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"These confrontations have the benefit of taking place outdoors, which seems to be where both Walken and his director appear most comfortable (Johnson has quite a few TV credits to his name, including several episodes of 'The Wire' and 'The Shield'). From the unexpectedly tense opening scene, in which good Christian churchgoer Percy ducks out of Sunday service to face an oncoming storm back in his fields, DP Luc Montpellier’s widescreen lensing contrasts golden-hued horizons with relatively shadowy indoor dealings. Meanwhile, Steven MacKinnon’s folksy string score keeps things from ever getting too dark. From 'Days of Heaven' to 'Inherit the Wind,' it won’t be hard for audiences to identify the many all-American movies that inspired this north-of-the-border production, though they’ll be too busy debating the Monsanto situation to worry about where Johnson plucked the seeds of his aesthetic."
Peter Debruge, Variety
WRATH OF MAN - Christopher Benstead
"Composer Christopher Benstead backs the film's prowling and plan-making with a minor-key, seven-note theme that would be perfect for shots of Godzilla's dorsal fins cutting through waves. It's a brilliant bit of scoring that expresses a truth about H better than dialogue could. When Ritchie cuts to helicopter shots of armored trucks and getaway vehicles driving from point A to point B, Benstead's motif repeats with variations until it seems like an incantation summoning dark forces."
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"For much of the film, Ritchie appears to be getting back to basics he rarely actually practiced in the first place, applying his visual flashiness to longer takes that explore the geography of the armored-car station and depict the opening cash-truck robbery entirely from the inside of the vehicle. (Never one to let things be, Ritchie does later revisit that robbery from multiple angles.) There are other moments that hint menacingly at the somber nonsense of Revolver, the leaden Kabbalah tract that last paired Statham and Ritchie. 'Wrath Of Man' isn’t seeded with any woo-woo numerology -- just a pervasive sense that with enough intertitles, overwritten dialogue, and pounding, ominous notes in the score, its emptiness will somehow achieve greater weight than mere pulp."
Jesse Passenger, The Onion AV Club
"Perhaps the most surprising and satisfying element of the film is the soundtrack. Christopher Benstead, who made his composer debut in Ritchie’s 2019 film 'The Gentlemen,' has reversed decades of the director’s high-octane soundtracks. Gone are the standard assortment of electric guitars and college radio station hits; in their place is Benstead’s simple cello theme repeated throughout the film. Unsurprisingly, this stripped-down soundtrack serves as the perfect counterpoint for Ritchie’s direction, adding an element of the funereal to even the most visceral action sequence."
Matthew Monagle, The Austin Chronicle
"It’s easy enough to see the big idea here, as the movie clearly sympathizes with these men to a certain extent. Ritchie stops short of fleshing them out into actual characters (though Donovan has a day job and an oblivious family he loves with all his heart), but he doesn’t blame them for banding together after the army left them to languish in civilian life with plenty of combat skills, but few viable job prospects. Everyone in 'Wrath of Man' is looking for a mission. They’re all trying to take what they feel is theirs -- wavering between pure survival and personal justice. But for all of the film’s suffocating gravitas and heavy 'Sicario' influence (epitomized by a queasy Christopher Benstead score that sounds like a slowed-down recording of someone’s intestinal tract), it’s never interested in anything beyond finding the 'coolest' way to set up the big heist that brings all of its characters together at the end."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"Ritchie’s own RocknRolla-coaster style has plenty of imitators, but here, it’s refreshing to see him calm down and deliver something that’s intricate without being addled. The production adopts an elegant, almost monochromatic color palette, while composer Christopher Benstead’s undeniably Zimmer-esque double-bassy score steadily saws away at our nerves, keeping audiences just this side of a heart attack for the better part of two hours. Like the H character, 'Wrath of Man' walks into the room confident and secure in its abilities, professional, efficient and potentially lethal."
Peter Debruge, Variety
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: Les Passagers (Bolling/Demarsan), Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing-Off! (various), The Chosen (Morricone), Raintree County (Green), Mille Millards de Dollars/Conte de la folie ordinaire/Le Crabe-Tambour (Sarde), Hop (Lennertz), Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (Miller), The Desert Suite (Herrmann), Lolita, My Love (Barry)
Read: The first 16 stories in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, by Stephen King
Seen: Wrath of Man, About Endlessness, Cliff Walkers, French Exit
Watched: The Man Who Knew Too Much [1934]; Star Trek ("The Alternative Factor"); Looking ("The Movie"); A Perfect Fit; Silicon Valley ("The Cap Table"); On Her Majesty's Secret Service; The New Adventures of Old Christine ("A Long Day's Journey Into Stan"); The Mad Doctor of Market Street; Star Trek ("The City on the Edge of Forever"); Top of the Lake: China Girl ("China Girl")
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