Archive
LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Sometimes, a film comes up with a premise so audacious you cannot help but wonder whether it is genius or madness at work. But Kenneth Branagh, who I will always maintain is the only director who can “do” Shakespeare on film today, has attempted something no-one has ever attempted before – and that is to mix the Bard with Broadway. Taking Shakespeare’s notoriously florid language and setting it to the music of Berlin, Gershwin and Porter, Branagh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is a musical for the modern age, and his own personal attempt to recapture the glory of the MGM spectacular by dishing up a load of star names and hit tunes with a bit of Busby Berkeley and Esther Williams thrown in for good measure. Read more…
Academy Award Winners 1999
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 72nd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 1999.
In the Best Original Score category, American composer John Corigliano won for his score for François Girard’s music-themed drama The Red Violin. In his acceptance speech Corigliano said:
I didn’t think I was going to be here, up here, and I’m really speechless, but I just want to tell you thanks so much. You know, I’m from another world of classical music, and when I write my symphonies and my concertos it’s a very lonely profession. And one thing I have learned about film writing is how communal it is. And the reason people give thanks is because there’s so many people that had so much to do with this film and with the music. From Peter Gelb from Sony Classics who introduced me to François Girard, the wonderful director of this film, and Niv Fichman the producer. But then you have to go to the voice of the violin and say, you know, you can write all the notes you want, but if someone doesn’t play them like a god they’ll never sound that way. And Joshua Bell, the great violinist, played them like a god. Thank you, Josh. Esa-Pekka Salonen, and all my other friends. I would like to thank all my other friends for that. Thank you so much.
The other nominees were Thomas Newman for American Beauty, John Williams for Angela’s Ashes, Rachel Portman for The Cider House Rules, and Gabriel Yared for The Talented Mr. Ripley.
In the Best Original Song category, British singer, songwriter and musician Phil Collins won the Oscar for “You’ll Be in My Heart” from Disney’s Tarzan.
The other nominees were Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman for “Blame Canada” from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut; Diane Warren for “Music of My Heart” from Music of the Heart; Aimee Mann for “Save Me” from Magnolia; and Randy Newman for “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2.
DETERRENCE – Larry Groupé
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite being better known as a regular collaborator on John Ottman’s scores (he conducted and/or orchestrated Apt Pupil, The Cable Guy, Incognito, Snow White: A Tale Of Terror and The Usual Suspects), Larry Groupé is also a composer in his own right, and of considerable talent. Through his website, Larry is making several of his recent scores available for on-line purchase by collectors, one of the few composers who actively promote their own work in this way. Deterrence, a political thriller starring Timothy Hutton and directed by Rod Lurie, is one of these new scores, and is certainly one which deserves to be heard by a wider audience. Read more…
THE NINTH GATE – Wojciech Kilar
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It has been over five years since Roman Polanski’s last movie, the dark and disturbing political thriller Death and the Maiden. Polanski, the creative force behind such classics as Rosemary’s Baby, Tess and Frantic, makes fewer and fewer movies these days but, despite their scarcity, the importance of his films can never be ignored or overlooked. I admit that I know very little about his latest effort, The Ninth Gate (or, to give its proper title, La Neuvième Porte), other than that it stars Johnny Depp, Lena Olin, Frank Langella and Emmanuelle Seigner, is to do with demons and devils and the occult, and has a superb, brooding score by Polish composer Wojciech Kilar. Read more…
MISSION TO MARS – Ennio Morricone
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Mission To Mars has been one of the most critically despised movies of the year – a plotless, senseless would-be space epic that, according to the majority of the reviewers, took a great idea about the first, faltering steps of interplanetary travel and ruined it with bad acting, a terrible screenplay, and hopeless direction by the former wunderkind Brian De Palma. In fact, the only elements of the film to receive generally positive notice have been the special effects and Ennio Morricone’s elegiac score. And while I find myself disagreeing with the movie’s bad press, I couldn’t agree more with the appraisal of Ennio’s efforts. As film music, Mission To Mars is a blockbuster in every respect. Read more…
AGNES BROWNE – Paddy Moloney
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The second film directed by Anjelica Huston (following the acclaimed 1996 TV movie Bastard Out Of Carolina), Agnes Browne is a comedy-drama based on the novel “The Mammy” by Brendan O’Carroll about a working class mother of many from Dublin (Huston) who, upon becoming a widow, finds her life becoming increasingly difficult. Faced with the possibility of poverty, she makes a wrong move by turning to a ruthless local money-lender (Ray Winstone) for help. With the bailiffs closing in on Agnes and her family, a single dreams keeps her on an even keel: the possibility of attending an upcoming Tom Jones concert. Then, when a French baker (Arno Chevrier) arrives on the scene, Agnes’ life finally seems to take an upward turn. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 1999
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 53rd British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 1999.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- RY COODER and NICK GOLD for Buena Vista Social Club
- THOMAS NEWMAN for American Beauty
- MICHAEL NYMAN for The End of the Affair
- GABRIEL YARED for The Talented Mr. Ripley
These are the first nominations for Cooder, Gold, Newman. It is the second nomination for Nyman, and the second nomination for Yared. Yared previously won for The English Patient in 1996.
The winners of the 53rd BAFTA Awards will be announced on April 9, 2000.
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