Varese Sarabande has announced two new Deluxe Edition CD Club releases - a two-disc expansion of the score for David Lynch's classic BLUE VELVET, which re-introduced Angelo Badalamenti to the world of film scoring (he had scored films in the 1970s as Andy Badale); and an expanded version of John Debney's score for the 21st century Christmas perennial ELF, the first of several scores Debney has composed for director Jon Favreau (Zathura, Iron Man 2, The Jungle Book).
La-La Land was scheduled to announce their latest batch of Black Friday CD releases today. Since I am currently on vacation, you can probably find up to date information about them on our Message Board.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Blue Velvet: The Deluxe Edition - Angelo Badalamenti - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Elf: The Deluxe Edition - John Debney - Varese Sarabande CD Club
The United Way - George Fenton - Gearbox
Zero Zero Zero - Mogwai - Rock Action
IN THEATERS TODAY
Encanto - Germaine Franco (score), Lin-Manuel Miranda (songs) - Song and Score CD on Disney
House of Gucci - Harry Gregson-Williams
The Humans - Nico Muhly
Licorice Pizza - Jonny Greenwood - Song CD due Dec. 10 on Republic
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City - Mark Korven
The Unforgivable - Hans Zimmer, David Fleming
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? - Giorgi Koberidze
COMING SOON
December 3
Ghostbusters Afterlife - Rob Simonsen - Sony (import)
December 17
Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Digitmovies
Encanto - Germaine Franco, Lin-Manuel Miranda - Disney
Lo Chiamavano Trinita - Franco Micalizzi - Beat
The Serpent - Dominick Scherrer - Svart
Zombie Flesh Eaters - Franco Micalizzi - Beat
January 7
The Wheel of Time: The First Turn - Lorne Balfe - Milan
January 28
Without Remorse - Jonsi - Krunk
Date Unknown
Byleth il demone dell'incesto - Vasco Vassil Kojucharov - Beat
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons - Bary Gray - Silva
Colpo Rovente - Piero Piccioni - Quartet
Gabriel Yared: Music for Film - Gabriel Yared - Silva
Gli occhi freddi della paura - Ennio Morricone - Beat
Gli occhiali d'oro - Ennio Morricone - Caldera
The Hitcher - Mark Isham - Silva
Il Dio Sotto La Pelle - Piero Piccioni - Quartet
Le Professionnel/Le Marginal - Ennio Morricone - Music Box
Les specialistes/Moi vouloir toi - Eric Demarsan - Play Time
Matalo! - Mario Migliardi - Beat
Mychael Danna: Music for Film - Mychael Danna - Silva
Shigeru Umebayashi: Music for Film - Shigeru Umebayashi - Silva
Terminal Exposure - Hans Zimmer - Notefornote
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
November 26 - Scott Bradley born (1891)
November 26 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for The Killer Elite (1975)
November 26 - Bernardo Segall died (1993)
November 27 - Alberto Colombo born (1888)
November 27 - Richard Stone born (1953)
November 27 - Lyle Mays born (1953)
November 27 - Arthur Honegger died (1955)
November 27 - Bernard Herrmann marries Norma Shepherd, his third and final wife (1967)
November 27 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score for Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1969)
November 27 - Nick Thorburn born (1981)
November 27 - Filip Kutev died (1982)
November 27 - Stanley Black died (2002)
November 27 - Kunio Miyauchi died (2006)
November 28 - Mario Nascimbene born (1913)
November 28 - Gato Barbieri born (1932)
November 28 - Randy Newman born (1943)
November 28 - Terry Plumeri born (1944)
November 28 - Bernard Herrmann records his score for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Where the Woodbine Twineth” (1964)
November 28 - Joseph Mullendore records his score for the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode “The Return of Blackbeard” (1967)
November 28 - Richard LaSalle records his score for the Land of the Giants episode “Home Sweet Home” (1969)
November 28 - Robert Prince records his score for the Land of the Giants episode “Nightmare” (1969)
November 28 - Laurence Rosenthal begins recording his score to Clash of the Titans (1980)
November 28 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Elementary, Dear Data” (1988)
November 28 - Jerry Goldsmith records his music for the Judge Dredd trailer (1994)
November 29 - Chuck Mangione born (1940)
November 29 - Recording sessions begin on Herbert Stothart’s score for Hills of Home (1947)
November 29 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to Moonfleet (1954)
November 29 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold died (1957)
November 29 - Russell Garcia begins recording his score for Atlantis the Lost Continent (1960)
November 29 - Alexander Courage's score to the second Star Trek pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," is recorded (1965)
November 29 - Carl Stalling died (1972)
November 29 - George Harrison died (2001)
November 29 - Shirley Walker died (2006)
November 29 - Allan Zavod died (2016)
November 30 - Gordon Parks born (1912)
November 30 - Edward Artemyev born (1937)
November 30 - Victor Young begins recording his score for September Affair (1949)
November 30 - Christophe Beck born (1972)
December 1 - Peter Thomas born (1925)
December 1 - Gerald Fried records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “The Diplomat” (1968)
December 1 - John Williams begins recording his replacement score for Rosewood (1996)
December 1 - Stephane Grappelli died (1997)
December 2 - Harry Sukman born (1912)
December 2 - Eddie Sauter born (1914)
December 2 - Milton Delugg born (1918)
December 2 - Cyril Ornadel born (1924)
December 2 - Artie Butler born (1942)
December 2 - Michael Whalen born (1965)
December 2 - Lennie Hayton records his score for the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode “The Monster from Outer Space” (1965)
December 2 - Gerald Fried's score to the Star Trek episode "Shore Leave" is recorded (1966)
December 2 - Richard Markowitz begins recording his music for the three-part Mission: Impossible episode “The Falcon,” his final scores for the series (1969)
December 2 - Francois-Eudes Chanfrault born (1974)
December 2 - John Williams begins recording his score for Midway (1975)
December 2 - Aaron Copland died (1990)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
HALLOWEEN KILLS - John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies
"Seriously, these murders are gory. The shock value is best exemplified when 'Halloween Kills' gives us our first proper look at Michael’s sadistic artistic expression via his grandiose and campy staging of mutilated corpses, which is more disturbing than any Silver Shamrock product. Even John Carpenter's score is darker, slower, and more dramatic than any of his previous Halloween efforts, building up to what can best be described as the 'Empire Strikes Back' of the 'Halloween' franchise. 'Halloween Kills' suffers from being the second chapter in a trilogy, but it still delivers gory fun, fantastic performances, and an electrifying score from John Carpenter. There are enough callbacks to the original film to satisfy Carpenter fans while also expanding the mythology around Michael Myers and the town of Haddonfield in meaningful ways."
Rafael Motomayor, Ign.com
"One poor victim finds themselves on the business end of a broken fluorescent light tube (though it’s troubling how the kill they linger on the most is that of an elderly Black woman). John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies’ throwback synth score is still thrilling, though it plays the same beats as last time and doesn’t offer much appeal beyond the nostalgic."
Clint Worthington, Consequence of Film
"For all the deep and troubling psychoanalysis of this film, it’s also a textbook 'Halloween' movie. Curtis remains the perfect Final Girl, showcasing a range of emotions in a single frame: tired, resilient, resourceful and terrified. The film is expertly shot by returning cinematographer Michael Simmonds, who crafts some memorably chilling images, highly stylized and dimly lit. Carpenter’s score (composed in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter) offers some of the franchise’s Greatest Hits with a couple remixes thrown in to catch you off guard. Green seems less interested in rewriting the 'Halloween' playbook than in giving audiences what they came for, from ghastly scares to a ghoulish score. It’s a strategy that promises to make the series as immortal as Michael Myers himself."
Asher Luberto, The Wrap
"Slabs of electro co-composed by John Carpenter make sure 'Halloween Kills' sounds like the 1978 original, even if it doesn’t feel like it. The body count is high but the scares barely register and it all moves with the mechanical rigidity of its villain, right from an opening that finds itself torn between catering equally for the uninitiated and Halloween devotees. Inelegant dashes back to the first film and that night in 1963 when Michael Myers took his first step to psycho-dom are inserted to get everyone up to speed."
Phil De Semlyen, Time Out
"Perhaps the saddest way in which Green bulldozes the lean-and-mean essence of the Carpenter mold is how far he strays from the latter’s insidious use of music. For those of us who saw the phenomenally successful 1978 indie back before its terrifying power had been diluted by endless riffs and rip-offs, the needling synth notes of Carpenter’s score could plant themselves in our heads whenever we entered a dark empty house. (OK, I’m speaking for myself.) I felt a genuine jolt of excitement as the first gut-churning electronic rumble is heard here over the Universal logo. But as in everything else, restraint has been abandoned. Carpenter’s son Cody and Daniel Davies share composing credit with the master, going big and bombastic, and layering in vocal elements. But instead of getting under your skin, the music hammers you over the head. Call it 'Halloween Overkills.'"
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
THE HARDER THEY FALL - Jeymes Samuel
"But even the missteps here are counterbalanced by seemingly out-of-nowhere choices that make you laugh because of their audacity, then sigh at their rightness, such as the way that both Rufus and Nat often whistle or sing melodies that also appear in Samuel's score or songs, making the movie seem as if it's constantly on the brink of turning into a Western musical: imagine 'Annie Get Your Gun' directed by Hype Williams. Some of the scenes between Mary and Nat, particularly early on when she's shown performing onstage, echo Nicolas Ray's surreal but earnest 'Johnny Guitar'; a David Lynch favorite, and another Western that creates its own universe that is mainly about the storyteller's affinities."
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"They’re accents, not asterisks (which isn’t to diminish the magic of an original soundtrack that also includes new songs by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Alice Smith, Samuel’s brother Seal, and the director himself, who additionally wrote the film’s percussive funk score and deploys all of this music with a finesse that only makes you listen closer to the film’s historical overtones)."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"Making his feature directing debut, Samuel appears most comfortable when mimicking the eclectic influences of spaghetti and revisionist Westerns: overlong credits with a theme song and gunshot sound effects; big close-ups of badmen with ugly teeth; zooms; slow motion; Morricone-esque inflections in the score. (One repeated cue, however, sounds distractingly like 'Egyptian Reggae.') Nonetheless, the film is tonally all over the map. There are, as mentioned, some songs, as well as gags that really wouldn’t be out of place in a Mel Brooks parody. At one point, a character warns Love that the bank he’s planning to hold up is in 'a white town,' only for the next cut to reveal a town square that is actually painted all white."
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
"It’s also a kick to hear Samuel’s mélange of a score -- reggae, Afrobeat, hip-hop -- do its part to freshen up a dusty genre, even if the front-and-center music doesn’t necessarily solve the director’s problems with storytelling rhythm or thematic continuity. Showdowns and surfaces clearly matter more to him than the trajectory of a character or idea, so much so that you’ll be thinking more about the jokey audacity of a briefly visited all-white town that’s literally painted all white than the all-Black town whose imperiled future is supposed to be what’s at stake."
Robert Abele, The Wrap
THROUGH THE GLASS DARKLY - Stephen Webster
"Nonetheless, 'Through the Glass Darkly' (the title’s closeness to Ingmar Bergman’s 1961 classic 'Through a Glass Darkly' doesn’t do the it [sic] any favors) deserves credit for narrative ambition and stylistic audacity. Director Fash brings impressive formal assuredness to the tense goings-on, with the evocative cinematography, editing and musical score strongly contributing to the ominous atmosphere."
Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films in Los Angeles-area theaters.
November 26
ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (Marc Shaiman) [Brain Dead Studios]
AIR FORCE ONE (Jerry Goldsmith) [Los Feliz 3]
AMERICAN GRAFFITI [Los Feliz 3]
APARAJITO [THE UNVANQUISHED] (Ravi Shankar) [Academy Museum]
BODY AND SOUL [Academy Museum]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE FUGITIVE (James Newton Howard) [Los Feliz 3]
KILL BILL VOL. 1 (RZA) [New Beverly]
KILL VILL VOL. 2 (Robert Rodriguez, RZA) [New Beverly]
LOVE ACTUALLY (Craig Armstrong) [Alamo Drafthouse]
ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD [New Beverly]
SHAFT (Isaac Hayes) [Los Feliz 3]
November 27
AIR FORCE ONE (Jerry Goldsmith), THE FUGITIVE (James Newton Howard) [Aero]
BATMAN RETURNS (Danny Elfman) [New Beverly]
BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA (John Frizzell) [Brain Dead Studios]
DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI [Academy Museum]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (Don Ellis) [Los Feliz 3]
GONE IN 60 SECONDS (Trevor Rabin) [Los Feliz 3]
LOVE ACTUALLY (Craig Armstrong) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS [Los Feliz 3]
MOANA (Mark Mancina) [Academy Museum]
ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD [New Beverly]
THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK [Los Feliz 3]
PICCADILLY [Academy Museum]
RIVER'S EDGE (Jurgen Kneiper) [Brain Dead Studios]
ROSEMARY'S BABY (Christopher Komeda) [New Beverly]
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (Dimitri Tiomkin) [Hollywood Legion]
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Nacio Herb Brown, Lennie Hayton) [Aero]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Academy Museum]
SUSPICION (Franz Waxman) [Hollywood Legion]
November 28
BATMAN RETURNS (Danny Elfman) [New Beverly]
THE CONFRONTATION (Paul Arma) [Los Feliz 3]
CRY BABY (Patrick Williams) [Brain Dead Studios]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. [Academy Museum]
IF... (Mark Wilkinson) [Brain Dead Studios]
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW [Brain Dead Studios]
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW [Los Feliz 3]
LOVE ACTUALLY (Craig Armstrong) [Alamo Drafthouse]
ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD [New Beverly]
PARASH PATHAR [THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE] (Satyajit Ray, Ravi Shankar) [Academy Museum]
TAKING OFF [Los Feliz 3]
November 29
BABY FACE, NIGHT NURSE [New Beverly]
JALSAGHAR [THE MUSIC ROOM] (Ustad Vilayat Khan, Robin Majumder) [Academy Museum]
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
November 30
APUR SANSAR [THE WORLD OF APU] (Ravi Shankar) [Academy Museum]
BABY FACE, NIGHT NURSE [New Beverly]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE JUDGE AND THE ASSASSIN (Philippe Sarde) [Los Feliz 3]
December 1
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
December 2
BLAST OF SILENCE (Meyer Kupferman), THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Walter Schumann) [New Beverly]
DEVI [THE GODDESS] (Ostad Ali Akvbar Khan) [Academy Museum]
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Joe Hisaishi) [Academy Museum]
December 3
BLAST OF SILENCE (Meyer Kupferman), THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Walter Schumann) [New Beverly]
DJANGO UNCHAINED [New Beverly]
PONYO (Joe Hisaishi) [Academy Museum]
PRISONERS (Johann Johannsson) [New Beverly]
STEP (Laura Karpman, Raphael Saadiq) [Academy Museum]
December 4
EYES WIDE SHUT (Jocelyn Pook) [New Beverly]
LITTLE WOMEN (Thomas Newman) [Academy Museum]
THE SHINING (Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind) [New Beverly]
WITH DRAWN ARMS (David Wittman) [Academy Museum]
December 5
EYES WIDE SHUT (Jocelyn Pook) [New Beverly]
JINGLE ALL THE WAY (David Newman) [New Beverly]
TEEN KANYA [TWO DAUGHTERS] (Satyajit Ray) [Academy Museum]
WHALE RIDER (Lisa Gerrard) [Academy Museum]
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: Hillbilly Elegy (Zimmer/Fleming), L'assoluto naturale (Morricone), Psycho (Herrmann), The Boys: Season 1 (Lennertz), Whitman (Herrmann), Il Pentito (Morricone), Along Came a Spider (Goldsmith), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Pemberton)
Read: Dr. No, by Ian Fleming
Seen: C'mon C'mon, The Power of the Dog, King Richard, Ghostbusters Afterlife
Watched: Killing Them Softly; Masters of Sex ("Fight")
| 
