Archive
CAROL – Carter Burwell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A romantic drama based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, and directed by Todd Haynes, Carol is a melodrama with a very modern slant. The film stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as Carol and Therèse, two women living in New York in the 1950s, both of whom are struggling in their relationships. Carol is estranged from her husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) after she had an affair with another woman, Abby (Sarah Paulson), and Harge is threatening to take away custody of their child. Meanwhile, Therèse is dissatisfied with her relationship with her boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacy), and dreams of something more fulfilling. Their lives intersect when Carol accidentally leaves her gloves at the department store where Therèse works while Christmas shopping; when Therèse returns them, Carol insists on buying her a drink to thank her, and the subsequent sexual tension between them is palpable, but the age gap between the two, as well as their gender, threatens to break the rigid social and moral taboos of the era. Read more…
Best Scores of 2015 – Scandinavia
The second installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Scandinavia. This year’s crop of outstanding scores from the far north of Europe features an animated film from Denmark, a wry comedy-drama from Iceland, a pair of historical dramas from Finland, and a wonderful children’s score from Norway written by one of that country’s most talented young composers! Read more…
OUT OF AFRICA – John Barry
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The winner of seven Academy Awards – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography – Out of Africa is generally considered one of the greatest romantic dramas in cinema history. Directed by Sydney Pollack, it is based on the semi-autobiographical writings of aristocratic Danish author Karen Dinesen, specifically the period in the 1910s when she moved to live on a coffee plantation in colonial Kenya with her then-husband, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, and had an affair with a rugged and handsome big game hunter, Denys Finch Hatton. The film is a sumptuous, visually magnificent love letter to the unspoiled African savannah, reveling in the majestic vistas of the country, and using them as a backdrop to the affair Karen engages in, as her husband becomes increasingly distant and neglectful. Anchored by the three central performances of Meryl Streep as Karen, Robert Redford as Denys, and Klaus-Maria Brandauer as Bror, the film explores such challenging themes as marital fidelity, the expectations and conventions of aristocratic society, the role of women in the 1910s, and the differences between European and African tribal cultures, as well as the threat of World War I that loomed over everything. Read more…
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS – John Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER WAITING UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE DONE SO TO READ IT.
When John Williams first sat down to write the score for the original Star Wars over the winter of 1976, I doubt that even he could have imagined that he would still be writing music for those characters, and that universe, some 39 years later. There aren’t many film scores you can point to as being an actual turning point, a watershed moment in the history of the genre, but Star Wars was unquestionably one of those, and it went on to inspire a generation of filmmakers, composers, and fans. To say that The Force Awakens, the seventh film in the Star Wars franchise, is an eagerly awaited film would perhaps be one of the greatest understatements of all time – I don’t think I have ever seen a film with this much marketing, pre-release hype, and fevered anticipation – and, thankfully, it does not disappoint in any way. More than any installment in the prequels did, The Force Awakens feels like a proper Star Wars movie, a return to the fun and crowd-pleasing filmmaking of the original trio, and director J. J. Abrams should be congratulated for returning the franchise to its roots, and going some way to banishing the ghost of Jar Jar Binks forever. Read more…
PETER AND WENDY – Maurizio Malagnini
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
J. M. Barrie’s story of Peter Pan has inspired numerous adaptations and spin-offs since it was first performed as a stage play in London in 1904. The latest of those is Peter and Wendy, a British TV movie directed by industry veteran Diarmuid Lawrence. Framed within a more contemporary setting, it tells the story of a young girl named Lucy who is about to receive open heart surgery at the famed Great Ormond Street Hospital. To help assuage her fears about her upcoming procedure, Lucy’s mother reads her the classic Peter Pan novel, and the famous story of Neverland, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Lost Boys, and the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up unfolds inside her imagination, with herself as the heroine. The film, which airs in the UK on Christmas Day, stars Stanley Tucci as Captain Hook, Paloma Faith as Tinker Bell, Laura Fraser as Mrs. Darling, and newcomers Zac Sutcliffe and Hazel Doupe as Peter and Wendy respectively. Read more…
THE DANISH GIRL – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Gender identity issues have been a major social topic in 2015, encompassing everything from Caitlin Jenner to the acclaimed TV series Transparent, so it is perhaps unsurprising that a film like The Danish Girl should be released this year. Directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), it looks at the life of Einar Wegener, a young Danish man living in Copenhagen in the 1920s, who became the first ever recipient of male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Lead actor Eddie Redmayne is heavily tipped for a second consecutive Academy Award for his performance as Einar and his alter ego, Lili, and he is ably supported by Alicia Vikander as his wife, Gerda. Also receiving a great deal of critical acclaim has been the score, written by French composer Alexandre Desplat, who has already received Golden Globe and Satellite Award nominations for his work. This is the fifth and final Desplat score of 2015, whose output in general has been disappointing compared to his usual stellar standards: Suffragette came and went without much fanfare, Everything Will Be Fine was barely released in the United States, and neither Il Racconto dei Racconti nor Une Histoire de Fou have been released outside their native countries at all. Read more…
Best Scores of 2015 – Spain and Portugal, Part I
The first installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Spain and Portugal. I have been very vocal in the past about my admiration for the music coming out of the Iberian peninsula, and this year just reinforces my view that some of the best film music in the world right now is being written there. My first look at the area features new scores by some of my favorite contemporary composers, including Federico Jusid and Nuno Malo, and there will be more to come later! Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2015
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2015.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- CARTER BURWELL for Carol
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for The Danish Girl
- ENNIO MORRICONE for The Hateful Eight
- DANIEL PEMBERTON for Steve Jobs
- RYUICHI SAKAMOTO and ALVA NOTO for The Revenant
These are the first major film music award nominations for both Pemberton and Noto, although Pemberton has received two BAFTA nominations for his work in video games. Noto is the stage name of German musician and artist Carsten Nicolai, an influential experimental electronic composer who has worked with Michael Nyman and Blixa Bargeld, among others.
This is the 2nd nomination for Burwell, the 8th nomination for Desplat (who won the Globe in 2006 for The Painted Veil), the 9th nomination for Morricone (who previously won Globes for The Mission in 1986 and The Legend of 1900 in 1999), and the third nomination for Sakamoto (who previously won Globes for The Last Emperor in 1987 and The Sheltering Sky in 1990).
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JUSTIN FRANKS, ANDREW CEDAR, CHARLIE PUTH and CAMERON THOMAZ (WIZ KHALIFA) for “See You Again” from Furious 7
- DAVID LANG for “Simple Song #3” from Youth
- MAX MARTIN, SAVAN KOTECHA, ILYA SALMANZADEH, ALI PAYAMI and TOVE NILSSON for “Love Me Like You Do” from Fifty Shades of Grey
- SAM SMITH and JAMES NAPIER for “Writing’s On the Wall” from Spectre
- BRIAN WILSON and SCOTT BENNETT for “One Kind of Love” from Love and Mercy
The winners of the 73rd Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 10, 2016.
THE SEA HAWK – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
100 GREATEST SCORES OF ALL TIME
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Warner Brothers Studios was very much interested in remakes of author Rafael Sabatini’s two seafaring novels The Sea Hawk (1915) and Captain Blood (1922). After acquiring the Vitagraph company, which produced the earlier Silent Era films, the studio set in motion its plan. Captain Blood (1935) was a stunning success, which propelled Errol Flynn to stardom, however the studio shelved The Sea Hawk in favor of starring Flynn in The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938) and The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex (1939). Upon completion of filming the Studio assigned Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis to produce The Sea Hawk and Michael Curtiz to direct. Howard Koch and Seton Miller were tasked with writing a swashbuckling epic to showcase Flynn’s charisma and talent. Supporting Erroll Flynn as Geoffrey Thorpe would be Henry Daniell as Lord Wolfingham, Brenda Marshall as Doña María, Claude Rains as Don José Álvarez de Córdoba, Donald Crisp as Sir John Burleson, Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth I, Alan Hale as Carl Pitt and Una O’Connor as Miss Latham. Read more…
KRAMPUS – Douglas Pipes
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Having grown up in the UK, Christmas for me has always been a time of joyous innocence, especially for children. Religious considerations aside, the season is dominated by the figure of Santa Claus, that jolly, rosy-cheeked old fellow who drives a magical sleigh pulled by reindeer and brings presents to children who are on his ‘good list’. Not much thought is given here to what happens to those on the ‘naughty list’, but that’s not the case in other parts of the world. In the Netherlands, for example, there is Zwarte Piet, who accompanies Santa around the world, and while the big guy is handing out gifts to the good kids, he is flogging the bad ones with a rod of birch twigs. Then, in the German-speaking areas of Austria and Switzerland, there is Krampus: a terrifying demon-like creature with cloven hooves and the horns of a goat, who carries chains, bells, and a sack on his back, into which he puts naughty children, so that he can eat them later, or transport them to Hell. The new film Krampus transposes this legend to contemporary America, and tells the story of a dysfunctional family who are forced to do battle with Krampus when he comes to visit… The comedy-horror is directed by Michael Dougherty and stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, and Emjay Anthony. Read more…
SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE – Henry Mancini
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The winter of 1985 saw the release of one of the strangest holiday films of all time: Santa Claus: The Movie, which purportedly told the ‘real’ story of the origin of the Santa Claus legend. However, instead of actually going into the history of the Turkish bishop Saint Nicholas, the Sinterklaas story from traditional Dutch folklore, and how the two were blended with elements of Norse and Pagan mythology, and Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ to create the contemporary Christmas icon – a movie I would actually like to see, for real! – the film invents an original story about a kind-hearted 14th century woodcutter and his wife, who are caught in a blizzard while delivering toys to local children. Magically transported to the North Pole, the woodcutter and his wife are greeted by elves, who convince the man that it is his destiny to deliver toys to the children of the world every Christmas Eve, which the elves will make in their large workshops. At the same time, the film also tells a contemporary story set in modern day New York, in which Patch – one of Santa’s elves – decides to strike out on his own and set up his own toy-making business, but unwittingly joins forces with an unscrupulous millionaire who wants to “take over” Christmas for himself. Read more…
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