Archive
ABOMINABLE – Lalo Schifrin
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Abominable may have the unique honour of being the first ever film where an established Hollywood composer scored the feature directorial debut of their offspring. Certainly no other filmmaking-children-of-composers spring to mind. The director in question is Ryan Schifrin, the 33 year-old son of Lalo Schifrin, and the film in question is Abominable, a horror-thriller set in the Pacific North-West, where action man Preston Rogers (Matt McCoy) is recovering in an isolated cabin after a climbing accident. His recuperation is put on hold, however, when he sees the legendary Bigfoot – and realises that the supposedly-friendly Sasquatch is in reality a vicious man-eating beast! The only problem is that, after years of hoax sightings, no-one believes Preston’s tale, and it falls on his shoulders to warn everyone before the beast goes on a bloody rampage. The film also stars Lance Henriksen, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace Stone (from ET), the late Paul Gleason, and newcomer Haley Joel, and will be released straight-to-DVD in October 2006. Read more…
V FOR VENDETTA – Dario Marianelli
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot; I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
In the UK, every November the 5th is celebrated as “bonfire night”, a rather odd but very popular tradition which commemorates the events of 5 November 1605, when a group of Catholic conspirators led by a fellow named Guy Fawkes tried to assassinate the Protestant King James I by blowing up the Houses of Parliament with barrels of gunpowder (their ultimate aim was to return a Catholic monarch to the throne). Fawkes was chosen as the one who would physically light the barrels and set off the explosions, but the plot was apparently foiled when he fell asleep in one of the chambers under Parliament and was discovered by guards. He was arrested, confessed under torture, and identified his co-conspirators. Fawkes was subsequently convicted of treason and executed by being hung, drawn and quartered, and as a final ignominy, had his remains burnt in public, a sort of “taste of his own medicine”, to do to him what he would have done to the King. Read more…
Remembering Toru Takemitsu, 1930-1996
Composer Toru Takemitsu died ten years ago today, on February 20, 1996, in Tokyo, Japan, of pneumonia while undergoing treatment for bladder cancer. He was 65.
FULL REMEMBRANCE COMING SOON.
FIREWALL – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s funny how, all of a sudden, a composer comes out of nowhere and becomes one of your favourites. French composer Alexandre Desplat first appeared on the international scene in 2000 with his elegant score for the chess-themed romantic drama The Luzhin Defence; since then, through scores such as Girl With a Pearl Earring, Birth, Hostage, The Upside of Anger and Syriana, he has risen to become arguably the most exciting Gallic composer since Georges Delerue, with the capacity to write both thrilling action music and sensitive orchestral material with equal skill. Two Golden Globe nominations and a recent César Award for ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’ would seem to reinforce his place in the bigger scheme of things. His score for Firewall will hopefully be just as well received, and cement his position as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. Read more…
Academy Award Nominations 2005
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 78th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2005.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- ALBERTO IGLESIAS for The Constant Gardener
- DARIO MARIANELLI for Pride & Prejudice
- GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA for Brokeback Mountain
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Memoirs of a Geisha
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Munich
These are the first Oscar nominations for Iglesias, Marianelli, and Santaolalla, and are the 39th and 40th nominations for Williams. Williams previously won for Fiddler on the Roof in 1971, Jaws in 1975, Star Wars in 1977, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in 1982, and Schindler’s List in 1993.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JORDAN HOUSTON, CEDRIC COLEMAN, and PAUL BEAUREGARD for “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp” from Hustle & Flow
- DOLLY PARTON for “Travelin’ Thru” from Transamerica
- KATHLEEN ‘BIRD’ YORK and MICHAEL BECKER for “In the Deep” from Crash
The winners of the 78th Academy Awards will be announced on March 5, 2006.
NANNY McPHEE – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Peter Simons and Jonathan Broxton
A Mary Poppins fantasy for the modern age, Nanny McPhee is based on Christianna Brand’s successful series of Nurse Matilda children’s books, adapted for the screen by actress Emma Thompson. Thompson herself plays the titular nanny, a hook-nosed, wart-faced, fright-wigged governess who uses magic and good humour to control the children in her charge. Newly-widowed Cedric Brown (Colin Firth) is failing to control his seven children, who have already chased away 17 nannies with their unruly behaviour. However, when a mysterious voice urges Cedric to hire Nanny McPhee, she arrives at the Brown home quickly stamps her authority over hew new charges. Things seem to finally be settling down, until trouble erupts when Cedric’s cantankerous Great-Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury) tells him he must be married by the end of the month, or she’ll cut off his money and separate the children – so Nanny McPhee and the oldest Brown sibling Simon (Thomas Sangster) team up to find a wife for Cedric, thereby keeping the family together. The film, directed by Kirk Jones, has a supporting cast full of heavyweight British thespians (including Derek Jacobi, Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, and Kelly Macdonald), and features a delightful, whimsical score by Patrick Doyle. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 2005
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 59th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2005.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- T-BONE BURNETT for Walk the Line
- GEORGE FENTON for Mrs. Henderson Presents
- ALBERTO IGLESIAS for The Constant Gardener
- GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA for Brokeback Mountain
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Memoirs of a Geisha
This is the first nomination Iglesias. It is the second nomination Santaolalla, the third nomination for Burnett, the sixth nomination for Fenton, and the eleventh nomination for Williams. Santaolalla previously won for The Motorcycle Diaries in 2004. Williams previously won for Jaws and The Towering Inferno in 1975, Star Wars in 1978, The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982, Empire of the Sun in 1988, and Schindler’s List in 1993.
The winners of the 59th BAFTA Awards will be announced on February 19, 2006.
HALF LIGHT – Brett Rosenberg
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the absolute best things in being a film music fan is when a score for a film which no-one has heard of, written by a composer no-one knows, appears out of nowhere and reaffirms your faith that somewhere, out there, great film music is still being written. This is what happened to me with Half Light, an Australian-British co-production starring Demi Moore and directed by Craig Rosenberg, with music by the director’s brother, composer Brett Rosenberg. I first discovered Half Light back in March 2006, when I rented the DVD from Blockbuster purely on the strength of its interesting cover art. The film is a supernatural thriller-cum-romantic drama, which sees Demi Moore playing novelist Rachel Carlson, whose idyllic London life with her family is shattered when her young son Thomas (Beans El-Balawi) drowns in a freak accident. With her already rocky marriage on increasingly unstable ground, and seeking solace to recover from the tragedy, Rachel retreats to an isolated village in a remote part of northern Scotland, where she also plans to finish her latest book. At first everything goes well: the locals, despite being a little unusual, are generally friendly, and she even embarks on a hesitant, illicit romance with local lighthouse-keeper Angus McCulloch (Hans Matheson). However, before long, things start happening which cause Rachel to begin to examine her sanity – not least the fact that she seems to be receiving frightening visits from her son’s ghost… Read more…
SORSTALANSÁG/FATELESS – Ennio Morricone
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Director Lajos Koltai’s film Fateless (Sorstalanság) has finally reached North America cinemas almost a year late, having been an art house and film festival hit across Europe following its initial release in February 2005. A historical drama based on Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz’s semi-autobiographical novel about Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, it stars Marcell Nagy as Gyuri Köves, a young Jewish boy from Budapest who is pulled from a bus on his way to a war labour job and sent to the terrible Buchenwald concentration camp, where he must endure all manner of horrific experiences and harsh living conditions just to survive. Read more…
THE MATADOR – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A rather peculiar buddy movie directed by Richard Shepard and starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, The Matador is about an unlikely friendship between two men who shouldn’t get along, but do. Brosnan plays Julian Noble, a burned-out hitman trying to perform a few last jobs before getting out of the business. One night in a Mexico City hotel bar, he encounters businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), and strikes up a conversation. They click, and the next day Julian takes Danny to a bullfight – hence the movie title. Feeling enough of a connection to be able to open up to one another, Julian reveals to Danny that he’s an assassin. At first horrified, then fascinated, the two men part as friends, but never expect to see each other again – until Julian shows up at Danny’s Denver home a year later with a business proposition… Read more…
MUNICH – John Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The events of 4 September 1972 are forever etched into the memories of those who saw them unfold. At the 20th Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, members of the Palestinian terrorist organisation Black September took hostage eleven members of the Israeli team – wrestlers, weightlifters, and coaches from the shooting and fencing squads – demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and non-Arabs jailed in Israel, and threatened to kill the hostages if their demands were not met, while the horrified world looked on. As the terrorists attempted to escape to Cairo with their prisoners, German police staged a botched rescue attempt at Fürstenfeldbruck airbase: in the ensuing chaos, all the hostages, all but three of the terrorists, and several policemen were killed. Read more…
THE NEW WORLD – James Horner
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
James Horner’s fourth and final score for 2005 is without doubt his most prestigious: The New World, directed by Terrence Malick, tells a new dramatic version of the familiar story of Native American princess, Pocahontas (newcomer Q’Orianka Kilcher), and her first encounter with John Smith (Colin Farrell), the leader of the first English Settlers to land on the shores of what is now the United States of America. Despite the misgivings of Pocahontas’s tribal elders, Smith’s colleagues, and the girl’s age (she was just 14) the pair fall deeply in love – but it soon becomes apparent that their relationship cannot last, and that their forbidden romance will have terrible repercussions for both sides. The film, which also stars Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer, Ben Chaplin, David Thewlis, and Native American character actors Wes Studi, August Schellenberg and Irene Bedard, is about as far from the Disney animated feature as it is possible to be, concentrating on the reality of what life in Virginia in 1607 was like, and the hardships faced by the new settlers in a dangerous and unfamiliar land. Read more…
THE FAMILY STONE – Michael Giacchino
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s a wonderful thing to see the career of Michael Giacchino developing in the way it has. In many ways he is the trailblazer of his generation – a massively successful composer in the video game arena who has made the successful transition over into movies, and is now well on his way to becoming a top name there too, off the back of scores such as The Incredibles and Sky High. The fact that he is now regularly scoring major studio movies is one of the most pleasing developments in years, and one can only hope the trend continues. His latest assignment is the romantic comedy The Family Stone, which is likely to surprise many of his most ardent fans, because for the most part it sounds like nothing he’s ever written before. Read more…
KING KONG – James Newton Howard
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There was much controversy surrounding Peter Jackson’s new version of King Kong from the get-go. Initially, there was surprise that the Oscar-winning director would choose this film as his follow up to the massively successful Lord of the Rings trilogy. Then, there were stories of unrest amongst the cast and crew, the need for re-shoots, and the film not playing well with test audiences. Finally, almost as a final insult, original composer Howard Shore had his score rejected at the eleventh hour, officially as a result of “differing creative aspirations”. This left new composer James Newton Howard with less than six weeks to write a replacement score. Many in the industry were worried as to whether Newton Howard could pull it off – but the truth of the matter is that composers often write their best music when under enormous pressure, and King Kong is very much an example of that. The score is, in my opinion, a qualified success. Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2005
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2005.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Syriana
- HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for King Kong
- GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA for Brokeback Mountain
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Memoirs of a Geisha
These are the first nominations for Gregson-Williams, Howard, and Santaolalla. It is the second nomination for Desplat, and the 20th nomination for Williams. Williams previously won for Jaws in 1975, Star Wars in 1977, and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- MEL BROOKS for “There’s Nothing Like a Show on Broadway” from The Producers
- ALANIS MORISSETTE for “Wunderkind” from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- DOLLY PARTON for “Travelin’ Thru” from Transamerica
- TONY RENIS for “Christmas in Love” from Christmas in Love
- GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA and BERNIE TAUPIN for “A Love That Will Never Grow Old” from Brokeback Mountain
The winners of the 63rd Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 16, 2006.
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