ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW – Abel Korzeniowski
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Unless you attended the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, it’s likely that you don’t know much about Escape from Tomorrow. It’s a low-budget independent drama/fantasy/horror from director Randy Moore about a man (Roy Abramsohn) who starts to gradually lose his grip on sanity and reality during a family trip to a theme park. What’s so interesting about the film is that it was shot entirely on-location at Walt Disney World in Florida, without the permission or knowledge of the Disney corporation, meaning that Moore and his crew had to resort to guerilla-style filmmaking techniques in order to get the film made. Moore even sent his film to be edited in South Korea so that Disney execs would not find out about the film and shut it down for trademark infringements before it was ever seen in public. Apparently, the film has some less-than complementary things about the Magic Kingdom and its anthropomorphic rodents, and despite its success and popularity with audiences at Sundance, it’s unclear whether the film will ever receive a conventional theatrical release. Read more…
THE CROODS – Alan Silvestri
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Croods is the latest animated film from Dreamworks Pictures, about a family of dysfunctional Neanderthals trying to find a new place to live when the cave that has been their home for years is destroyed. The film is directed by Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders – the latter of whom also directed Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon – and has an all-star voice cast featuring Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener and Cloris Leachman. Providing the music for the prehistoric adventure is composer Alan Silvestri, who worked with Sanders on Lilo & Stitch back in 2002, and who is writing his fifth animation score since the turn of the millennium, following The Polar Express, The Wild, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol and the aforementioned Lilo & Stitch. Read more…
LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS/THE LAST DAYS – Fernando Velázquez
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Last Days – “Los Últimos Días” – is a Spanish science fiction-horror-thriller written and directed by David Pastor and Àlex Pastor, which looks at the aftermath of a peculiar epidemic which spreads across the globe, leaving its sufferers to have an irrational fear of open spaces that causes instant death. With the majority of the world population now trapped inside buildings, one young man from Barcelona, Marc (Quim Gutiérrez), tries to find his missing girlfriend, Julia (Marta Etura), without ever going outside – but uncovers something terrifying about the epidemic in the process. Read more…
HEUTE BIN ICH BLOND/THE GIRL WITH NINE WIGS – Johan Hoogewijs
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Heute Bin Ich Blond is a German comedy-drama directed by Marc Rothemund and starring Lisa Tomaschewski as Sophie, a 21 year-old girl in contemporary Germany who learns she has cancer. Rather than letting her diagnosis rule her life, she instead decides to enjoy her life as though she were not sick; pre-empting chemotherapy, she shaves her head and invests in nine different colored wigs, which help her live out nine different aspects of her personality. Together with her best friend Annabel (Karolina Teska), Sophie goes to parties, flirts, has sex, falls in love with her long-time friend Rob (David Rott), and writes her daily blog, while all the while the possibility of her imminent death looms on the horizon. The film was based on the popular autobiography by Dutch author Sophie van der Stap, “Meisje Met Negen Pruiken”, and received generally favorable reviews when it opened in cinemas in March 2013. Read more…
OSTWIND: ZUSAMMEN SIND WIR FREI/WINDSTORM – Annette Focks
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Ostwind: Zusammen Sind Wir Frei is one of those films which, had it been made in America, would have been made by Disney. It tells the story of a rebellious teenager, Mika, who is sent to stay with her stern grandmother, a former champion show jumper, on the family countryside stud farm, in order to “straighten her out”. There she encounters Ostwind, a temperamental old horse whose lack of discipline and bad temper led to the end of Grandmother’s competition career. Naturally, Mika and Ostwind bond, leading to reconciliations all round. The film is directed by Katja von Garnier, stars Hanna Binke, Marvin Linke, Cornelia Froboess and Tilo Prückner, and has a lovely original score by Annette Focks. Read more…
UNSERE MÜTTER, UNSERE VÄTER/GENERATION WAR – Fabian Römer
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter is an ambitious 3-part German mini-series broadcast on the ZDF network in March 2013. The story follows five friends in their 20s, each on different paths through Nazi Germany and World War II: two are Wehrmacht soldiers on the Eastern Front, one is a nurse, one is an aspiring singer, and one is a Jewish tailor. The narrative spans five years in Berlin in the 1940s, beginning when the friends meet up for a last time before embarking on their journeys, enthusiastically vowing to meet up again the following Christmas. The series stars Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein and Ludwig Trepte, was directed by Philipp Kadelbach, and has an original score by composer Fabian Römer. Read more…
BACZYŃSKI – Bartosz Chajdecki
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Baczyński is a film about the life of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, one of Poland’s most celebrated contemporary poets, who wrote powerful, romantic poetry while also acting as a member of a resistance movement against the Nazis during World War II. He was killed by a sniper in Warsaw in August 1944, aged just 23, but remains a popular and influential figure in Polish literature. The film was written and directed by Kordian Piwowarski, stars Mateusz Kosciukiewicz as Baczyński, and features a gorgeous and heartfelt score by Bartosz Chajdecki. Read more…
RUBINROT/RUBY RED – Philipp F. Kölmel
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Rubinrot is a children’s fantasy adventure film based on the first book in the “Liebe Geht Durch Alle Zeiten” series of popular German-language novels written by Kerstin Gier. The story follows a young girl, Gwendolyn Shepherd, who discovers that she and all the other members of her family can travel through time, and explores the opportunities and disadvantages such powers bring. The film is directed by Felix Fuchssteiner, stars Maria Ehrich, Jannis Niewöhner and Laura Berlin, and has a score by 40-year-old Philipp F. Kölmel, yet another composer who was completely unknown to me prior to this project. Read more…
NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON – Annette Focks
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Night Train to Lisbon is a German drama film directed by Bille August and starring Jeremy Irons. Based on the novel “Nachtzug Nach Lissabon” by Pascal Mercier, and written by Greg Latter and Ulrich Herrmann, the film is about a Swiss professor who saves the life of a woman and then abandons his teaching career and reserved life to embark on a thrilling intellectual adventure, following in the footsteps of a doctor who opposed António de Oliveira Salazar’s right-wing dictatorship in Portugal in the 1950s. The score for Night Train to Lisbon is by Annette Focks, who is finally starting to gain some international prominence, having been working tirelessly on films in the German film industry for many years. Read more…
Academy Award Winners 2012
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 85th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2012.
In the Best Original Score category composer Mychael Danna won the award for his score for Life of Pi. In his acceptance speech, Danna said:
“I share this wondrous award with our visionary captain, Mr. Ang Lee – there he is! We’re playing this game again! – who guided a truly global cast and crew in the telling of this wondrous, beautiful story that transcends culture and race and religion. In the same spirit, musicians from around the globe came together to breathe life into this music, and I hold this award on their behalf. I want to thank my beautiful Fox family, my mom who’s in a balcony here watching, my father who’s also watching, and most of all my wife Apurna and our two beautiful boys who remind me every day why stories like this need to be told. Thank you everyone. Thank you, Academy. Thank you.”
The other nominees were Alexandre Desplat for Argo, Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina, Thomas Newman for Skyfall, and John Williams for Lincoln.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Adele Atkins and Paul Epworth for “Skyfall”, the title song from the James Bond film of the same name.
The other nominees were Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayashri for “Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi; Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane for “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted; Joshua Ralph for “Before My Time” from Chasing Ice; and Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer for “Suddenly” from Les Misérables.
SYBERIADA POLSKA/SIBERIAN EXILE – Krzesimir Dębski
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Syberiada Polska is an epic wartime historical drama, directed by Janusz Zaorski, based on the novel by Zbigniew Domino. It tells the story of a family of Polish Jews who are deported to Russia during World War II. It follows the fortunes of one family, specifically the family’s youngest son Staszek, who are sent to Siberia and must struggle for survival against the harsh Siberian winter, and the cruel camp commandant who decides their fate. The film stars Adam Woronowicz, Sonia Bohosiewicz, and Pawel Krucz as Staszek, and is scored by composer Krzesimir Dębski using the Orkiestra Sinfonietta Cracovia. Read more…
KELEBEĞIN RÜYASI/THE BUTTERFLY’S DREAM – Rahman Altin
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There aren’t many Turkish films which attain any sort of international prominence, but director Yılmaz Erdoğan’s film Kelebeğin Rüyası – The Butterfly’s Dream – is one of the rarities. It was Turkey’s official submission to the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film; according to its official press, the film is set in Turkey in the early 1940s, and revolves around two good friends, Rüştü Onur (Mert Firat) and Muzaffer Tayyip Uslu (Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ), who make a living out of publishing poetry. However, with World War II in full swing across the world, and with the social class system and religious barriers of the time giving rise to numerous problems, their story takes a turn when both fall in love. Read more…
IFMCA Award Winners 2012
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION HONORS MULTIPLE FILMS; “LIFE OF PI” TAKES SCORE OF THE YEAR BUT DESPLAT, ELFMAN, GIACCHINO, NEWMAN, VELÁZQUEZ, WILLIAMS ALSO WIN
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2012. Unlike in previous years, where one score has taken multiple victories, the main film prizes are split equally between 11 different movies and composers, the greatest spread in IFMCA history.
The award for Score of the Year goes to Canadian composer MYCHAEL DANNA for his score for director Ang Lee’s vivid shipwreck drama LIFE OF PI. Danna’s dramatic and beautiful score made use of a large number of Indian musical elements in addition to a traditional western orchestra, capturing through music one the film’s key ideas, the collision of different cultures to form the large, ethnic melting pot from which the lead character, Pi Patel, originates. This is the first Score of the Year award from the IFMCA for Golden Globe winner and double-Oscar nominee Danna, who had never previously been nominated in this category, although he did receive five previous nominations in genre categories for scores such as BEING JULIA, THE NATIVITY STORY and THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS.
Hollywood A-lister DANNY ELFMAN was named Film Composer of the Year for his outstanding body of work in 2012, during which he composed music for such popular and successful films as DARK SHADOWS, FRANKENWEENIE, HITCHCOCK. MEN IN BLACK III, PROMISED LAND and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. Elfman’s music in 2012 ran the gamut of styles and genres, from the soft rock of Silver Linings Playbook to the Gothic atmospherics of Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie, to the subtle Bernard Herrmann echoes of Hitchcock, cementing his position as one of the most versatile and sought-after composers working today. This is the second Composer of the Year Award Elfman has received from the IFMCA, having previously been similarly honored for his work in 2008. Read more…
BAFTA Winners 2012
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced the winners of the 66th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2012.
In the Best Original Score category composer Thomas Newman won the award for his score for the smash hit James Bond movie Skyfall. In his acceptance speech, Newman said:
“Thank you so much BAFTA. A big shout-out to Monty Norman and the late John Barry for that iconic theme which always makes everyone get up and smile. Thank you to Michael and Greg Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, to my wife Anne-Marie, everyone at Abbey Road and Sam Mendes – brinksmanship! Thank you so much.”
The other nominees were Mychael Danna for Life of Pi, Alexandre Desplat for Argo, Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina, and John Williams for Lincoln.
IFMCA Award Nominations 2012
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS AWARD NOMINATIONS REVEAL MOST OPEN RACE IN YEARS, WITH MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS FOR DANNA, DESPLAT, VELÁZQUEZ, WILLIAMS
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2012. The largest numbers this year are, for the most part, split evenly between four composers, all of whom received four nominations: MYCHAEL DANNA, ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, FERNANDO VELÁZQUEZ and veteran composer JOHN WILLIAMS.
The nominations for Danna, Velázquez and Williams were each for a single score – director Ang Lee’s vivid shipwreck drama LIFE OF PI, director Juan Antonio Bayona’s harrowing tsunami drama THE IMPOSSIBLE [LO IMPOSIBLE] and director Steven Spielberg’s look at the last months of life of Abraham LINCOLN, respectively.
Desplat’s nominations were for his body of work in 2012 which included writing IFMCA Award-nominated music for the quirky comedy MOONRISE KINGDOM, the storybook animation RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, and the contemporary war thriller ZERO DARK THIRTY, as well as for the 1970s espionage thriller ARGO, the realistic French romantic drama RUST AND BONE [DE ROUILLE ET D’OS], the Italian satirical comedy REALITY, and the French-language biopic CLOCLO.
The other nominees for Film Score of the Year are the ambitious sci-fi drama CLOUD ATLAS by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil (2 nominations), and director Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy prequel THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY by Howard Shore (2 nominations). Read more…
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