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…
VERGISS MEIN NICHT/FORGET ME NOT – Jessica de Rooij
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Vergiss Mein Nicht is a feature-length German-language documentary about Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, the film looks at the life of Gretel Sieveking, the mother of director David Sieveking, whose diagnosis inspires David to look at both his parents’ marriage – they had been a part of the student movement in the 1960s and led an open relationship – and the German health care system as a whole, which cares for 2 million other Alzheimer’s patients each year. The score is by Jessica de Rooij, best known amongst film music fans for being the composer du jour of controversial director Uwe Böll, but who has been given the chance to turn her hand to something more substantial and meaningful here. Read more…
ZERO DARK THIRTY – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Zero Dark Thirty is the seventh and final score of 2012 from the workaholic composer Alexandre Desplat, whose output this year has ranged from the lush and emotional Cloclo to the quirky Moonrise Kingdom, the sweeping and playful Rise of the Guardians, and the darkly dramatic Argo, for which he received his fifth Academy Award nomination. His work on Zero Dark Thirty, as one would expect, is most closely aligned with his work on Argo, making use of subtle Middle Eastern tones as part of its orchestral makeup, but its overall demeanor is less flashy and less crowd-pleasing than that of Argo, matching the tone and style taken by the film’s director, Kathryn Bigelow, in the movie itself.
I have some serious issues with Zero Dark Thirty as a movie, but I’ll get to those in a minute. The film tells the painstakingly detailed and (allegedly) true story of the way the United States military tracked down Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader responsible for masterminding the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York in 2001, who was eventually killed by elite US special forces during a raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011. Read more…
Movie Music UK Awards 2012
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Read more…
LE VOL DES CIGOGNES/FLIGHT OF THE STORKS – Éric Neveux
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Flight of the Storks (Le Vol des Cigognes) is a French TV mini series starring Harry Treadaway as Jonathan, a young English academic ornithologist who teams up with a colleague to follow storks on their migration from Switzerland to Africa. However, when his colleague is found dead in mysterious circumstances, Jonathan finds himself caught up in an international web of intrigue, travelling through Bulgaria, Turkey, the Middle East, and the Congo along the pathway of the migrating storks, with a dogged Swiss detective hot on his heels. This mini-series was directed by Jan Kounen adapted from the novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé, co-starred Rutger Hauer and Perdita Weeks, and was scored by French composer Éric Neveux. Read more…
NIEDŹWIEDŹ: WŁADCA GÓR/LORD OF THE CARPATHIANS – Bartlomiej Gliniak
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Lord of the Carpathians – Niedźwiedź: Władca Gór in its original Polish – is a feature documentary directed by Krystian Matysek about brown bears living in the Carpathian Mountains of eastern Europe. A well-regarded and well-made film, it won awards at the International Festival of Films on the Environment in Banska Bystrica, and at the International Festival of Nature Films in Lodz in 2012, before recieving a short theatrical release at the beginning of 2013. Read more…
JACK REACHER – Joe Kraemer
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Jack Reacher is a new action-thriller film directed by Christopher McQuarrie, based on the popular character created by author Lee Child. This film is based on the plot of the novel “One Shot”, and stars Tom Cruise in the title role as an ex-military investigator called in to help ambitious defense attorney Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike), who sees something wrong with the apparently open-and-shut case of a former military sniper accused of killing five innocent civilians along Pittsburgh’s Allegheny River waterfront. Helped and hindered by dogged police detective Emerson (David Oyelowo) and district attorney Alex Rodin (Richard Jenkins) – Helen’s father and legal opponent – Reacher discovers that there is much more to the story than meets the eye, and that a shadowy figure known only as The Zec (Werner Herzog) may be behind it all. Director McQuarrie, still best known for winning an Oscar for writing The Usual Suspects in 1996, has crafted a tight, enjoyable, engrossing little thriller with several superb set-pieces and a labyrinthine plot that is both believable and unpredictable, while Cruise’s lead performance is a good one, full of charisma and cockiness, despite him being the physical opposite of the character in the novels. Read more…
Golden Globe Winners 2012
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) have announced the winners of the 70th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2012.
In the Best Original Score category composer Mychael Danna won the award for his score for the fantastical drama Life of Pi. In his acceptance speech, Danna said:
“Thank you Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Well, I felt very very blessed, even before this, and I speak for the whole cast and crew, to be part of the whole Life of Pi experience. A beautiful, special film, a film of a lifetime, and I want to say thank you to Fox for being crazy enough to make this movie. I want to share this award with my director, Ang Lee – there you are! Ang, I will always treasure this voyage we made together. Thank you for guiding us to shore so safely. I want to shout out to my music crew, Rob and Doc, the musicians and singers all over the world that we recorded for this. My mom and dad, the gift of music that you gave me, thank you so much. Everyone at Fox, it’s like working with family, thank you so much. And my agents, Robert Messinger and Vasi Vangelos, my buddies back in Toronto watching, my kids back in Toronto watching, and most of all, in a room full of starlets, the most beautiful woman here, my wife Apurna. Thank you for your years of support and patience and love, it gets me through every day. Thank you. ”
The other nominees were Alexandre Desplat for Argo, Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil for Cloud Atlas, 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 Jon Bon Jovi for “Not Running Anymore” from Stand-Up Guys; Monty Powell and Keith Urban for “For You” from Act of Valor; Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer for “Suddenly” from Les Miserables; and Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams and T-Bone Burnett for “Safe and Sound” from The Hunger Games.
Academy Award Nominations 2012
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2012.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- MYCHAEL DANNA for Life of Pi
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Argo
- DARIO MARIANELLI for Anna Karenina
- THOMAS NEWMAN for Skyfall
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Lincoln
This is the first Oscar nomination for Danna, who also picked up Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Life of Pi. This is the 5th Oscar nomination for Desplat,the 3rdOscar nomination for Marianelli, who won the Award in 2007 for Atonement, the 11th Oscar nomination for Newman, and the 48th Oscar nomination for Williams, who previously won in 1971 for Fiddler on the Roof, 1975 for Jaws, 1977 for Star Wars, 1982 for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and 1993 for Schindler’s List.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- ADELE ATKINS and PAUL EPWORTH for “Skyfall” from Skyfall
- 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
- CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHÖNBERG, ALAIN BOUBLIL and HERBERT KRETZMER for “Suddenly” from Les Misérables
The winners of the 85th Academy Awards will be announced on February 24, 2013.
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