NOUVELLE-FRANCE/BATTLE OF THE BRAVE – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s been a while, but Patrick Doyle is back. Having been displaying his considerable talents in the arenas of quiet British comedy (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Calendar Girls) and period farce (Gosford Park) since the turn of the millennium, Scottish composer Doyle has finally returned to the romantic soundscapes he created regularly in the early 1990s and applied them to Nouvelle-France, a lavish French-Canadian film which called for the broad themes, lush orchestrations and powerful melodies many of us fell in love with a decade ago. Read more…
NATIONAL TREASURE – Trevor Rabin
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of late-2004’s surprising smash hit movies, National Treasure is a ludicrous but enjoyable action-adventure romp starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Jon Turteltaub. Cage plays Ben Gates, a sort of combination archaeologist/historian/treasure hunter who is carrying on the family legacy by searching for the ‘national treasure’, a hoard of fabulous wealth passed on from generation to generation by Knights Templar and Freemasons, which he believes was hidden in a secret location by the United States’s founding fathers, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Having been double crossed by his former partner Ian Howe (Sean Bean) and left for dead in the Arctic Circle, Ben escapes and returns to home soil, where he teams up with technical whiz Riley (Justin Bartha) and beautiful museum curator Abigail (Diane Kruger). Together, the trio try to locate a map which Ben believes is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence, and find the treasure before Ian does… Read more…
Michel Colombier, 1939-2004
Composer, arranger, conductor and pianist Michel Colombier died at his home in Santa Monica, California, on November 14, 2004, at the age of 65, following a battle with cancer.
One of the most versatile French composers to enjoy a substantial Hollywood career, Colombier wrote music for more than 100 film and television productions while also working extensively in jazz, pop, ballet and concert music.
Colombier was born in Lyon on May 23, 1939, and grew up in Mulhouse, where his father played in the local opera orchestra. He studied piano and violin before entering the Paris Conservatoire and developed an early fascination with American jazz. In 1961 he became musical director for Barclay Records, arranging for Charles Aznavour, and later worked with artists including Serge Gainsbourg and Petula Clark.
His film career began in France during the 1960s, and he subsequently worked with directors including Claude Chabrol, Vittorio De Sica, Marcel Carné and Claude Lelouch. Particularly notable were Jean-Pierre Melville’s austere crime drama Un Flic (1972), Philippe Labro’s The Inheritor (1973), and Jacques Demy’s ambitious all-sung musical Une Chambre en Ville (1982). Colombier’s ability to combine classical technique with jazz, pop and electronic textures quickly distinguished him from more traditionally symphonic composers. Read more…
Carlo Rustichelli, 1916-2004
Composer Carlo Rustichelli died in Rome, Italy, on November 13, 2004, at the age of 87.
One of the most prolific and versatile composers in Italian cinema, Rustichelli wrote music for more than 250 films during a career spanning some five decades, working in virtually every genre from neorealist drama and comedy to horror, historical epics and spaghetti westerns.
Rustichelli was born in Carpi, near Modena, on December 24, 1916, into a musical family. He studied piano in Bologna before continuing his training in composition at Rome’s Santa Cecilia Academy, initially working in opera and theatre. He entered the film industry during the 1940s, but cinema became the focus of his career after meeting director Pietro Germi, beginning a collaboration that would last more than 25 years.
Their first significant collaboration was Lost Youth in 1947, followed by In the Name of the Law (1949) and The Path of Hope (1950). Rustichelli subsequently scored almost every major Germi film, including The Railroad Man (1956), A Man of Straw (1958), The Facts of Murder (1959), Divorce Italian Style (1961), Seduced and Abandoned (1964), The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966), and Alfredo, Alfredo (1972). His music became an essential part of Germi’s cinema, equally comfortable with intimate drama, Sicilian folk influences, sentiment and biting comic irony.
Divorce Italian Style, starring Marcello Mastroianni, was perhaps their most internationally famous collaboration. Rustichelli’s witty, deliberately exaggerated music perfectly complemented Germi’s savage satire of Sicilian morality and helped establish the composer’s reputation outside Italy. His gentler dramatic writing was equally effective, and A Man of Straw earned him his first Nastro d’Argento for Best Music in 1959.
The early 1960s were among Rustichelli’s busiest years. He scored Nanni Loy’s powerful wartime drama The Four Days of Naples (1962), Florestano Vancini’s The Long Night of ’43 (1960), Bernardo Bertolucci’s debut La commare secca (1962), and worked with Pier Paolo Pasolini on Accattone, Mamma Roma, Ro.Go.Pa.G. and The Gospel According to St. Matthew. His ability to draw on folk music, classical traditions and immediately memorable melodies made him exceptionally adaptable to the rapidly changing Italian cinema of the period. Read more…
KINSEY – Carter Burwell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Regular readers of Movie Music UK will know that I have often found Carter Burwell to be a ‘hit and miss’ composer. For as much as I enjoyed his work on things like Fargo, Conspiracy Theory, The Hi-Lo Country and Rob Roy, I was left unimpressed with Gods & Monsters, Hamlet, The General’s Daughter, and many of his more popular and successful scores for the Coen Brothers. I don’t really know what my problem is – he is obviously intelligent, talented, and well-liked by directors such as James Foley, Michael Caton-Jones and Spike Jonze, who return to him time after time to score their films. The only think I can chalk it up to is personal musical taste – his scores just don’t “do” it for me on a regular basis. However, having said all that, I safely say that Kinsey is most definitely one which will join the list of Burwell works I admire – for me, it’s easily his most satisfying score of the last five years. Read more…
THE POLAR EXPRESS – Alan Silvestri
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A film surely destined to be a future Christmas classic, Robert Zemeckis’s film version of Chris Von Allsberg’s children’s tale The Polar Express is one of the most anticipated films of late 2004. Using the revolutionary “motion capture” technique that brought Gollum to life in Lord of the Rings, state-of-the-art animation, and featuring Tom Hanks in a number of vocal roles, The Polar Express brings to life the adventures of a nameless little boy who has come to believe that Santa Claus does not exist. However, late on Christmas Eve night, while the boy is lying in bed listening for the sound of reindeer hooves on the roof, he is amazed to discover a steam engine pulling up outside his bedroom window. The cantankerous but kindly conductor invites the boy on board to accompany several other children on a magical journey to prove that Santa does exist, and that the spirit of the season is alive and well in those who still believe. Read more…
DOGORA: OUVRONS LES YEUX/DOGORA: OPEN OUR EYES – Étienne Perruchon
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A film from the same mold as Godfrey Reggio’s “qatsi” trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqotqatsi), Dogora: Ouvrons Les Yeux is a documentary feature which ruminates on life, a film without narrative which uses the powerful combination of imagery and music to tell its story. Directed by Patrice Leconte, who was inspired to make the film after an eye-opening visit, Dogora is a film about Cambodia: its people, the landscape, and the culture. By focusing on the lives of everyday Cambodians as they go about their daily business – eating, sleeping, working, playing, travelling – Dogora provides the world with an intimate, realistic portrait of a still largely undiscovered culture, which is still best-known to the West for its bloody history under the Khmer Rouge regime, and the iconic images of the beautiful Angkor Wat temple which adorns the nation’s flag. Read more…
THE INCREDIBLES – Michael Giacchino
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Within our little world of film music, Michael Giacchino is already pretty famous. Having written some of the most spectacular game scores in history for Dreamworks’ Medal of Honor series, and having contributed music to the hit ABC series Alias since its debut in 2001, Giacchino has gradually built up a strong fan base of admirers who fully expect him to develop into one of film music’s major players in the next 10 to 15 years. When it was announced that John Barry, the original choice of composer for The Incredibles, was no longer attached to the project, and that Giacchino would be his replacement, a great whoop of delight was heard: finally, a big screen vehicle worthy of his talents! Read more…
RAY – Craig Armstrong
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Ray Charles, who died on 10 June 2004, was inarguably one of the pioneers of “black” music of the 20th century. Born in extreme poverty in Georgia in 1930, and struck blind by glaucoma at the age of six, Charles overcame obstacles which would stop lesser men in their tracks and became a giant of music. By fusing Gospel music with jazz and rock & roll, he virtually invented a new style of music. With his soulful piano playing and unique vocal delivery, he won legions of fans, who bought records such as “Georgia On My Mind” and “What’d I Say” in droves. Jamie Foxx plays Charles in director Taylor Hackford’s biopic of the great man, and has been receiving accolades galore for his realistic, brave portrayal. The film, which also stars Kerry Washington, Regina King and Clifton Powell, looks set to become a major player at the 2004 Academy Awards, with all eyes on Foxx as a potential Best Actor nominee. Read more…
BIRTH – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
French composer Alexandre Desplat saw his stock rise considerably in 2003 following the international acclaim and multiple award nominations he received for Girl with a Pearl Earring. On the back of that success, Desplat was signed to score three fairly major movies in 2004: Hostage, The Upside of Anger, and Birth. A controversial and challenging drama, Birth is director Jonathan Glazer’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed Sexy Beast, and stars Nicole Kidman as Anna, a young woman whose husband Sean dies unexpectedly while out jogging in Central Park. Ten years later, having finally come to terms with her loss and become engaged to the kind and successful Joseph (Danny Huston), Anna’s life is thrown into turmoil once more when a 10-year old boy (Cameron Bright) appears, claiming to be the reincarnation of her dead husband. Read more…
Gil Mellé, 1931-2004
Composer, jazz musician, artist and electronic-music pioneer Gil Mellé died at his home in Malibu, California, on October 28, 2004, at the age of 72, following a heart attack.
One of the most unconventional figures in American film and television music, Mellé wrote scores for more than 125 productions, but remains best remembered for Robert Wise’s The Andromeda Strain and his groundbreaking use of electronic instruments.
Gilbert John Mellé was born in New York City on December 31, 1931. A gifted visual artist as well as a musician, he began playing saxophone as a teenager and was performing in Greenwich Village jazz clubs before he was 16. At 19 he signed with Blue Note Records, becoming the label’s first white musician, and recorded a series of albums including Patterns in Jazz and 5 Impressions of Color. He also designed album artwork for musicians including Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins.
Mellé’s interests increasingly turned toward technology and electronic music. After moving to Los Angeles during the 1960s, he built his own synthesizers and other electronic devices and formed the Electronauts, an all-electronic jazz ensemble which performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival. His 1967 album Tome VI explored electronic jazz at a time when synthesizers were still a novelty.
His defining film assignment was The Andromeda Strain (1971), Wise’s adaptation of Michael Crichton’s science-fiction novel. Mellé created an almost entirely electronic sound world of pulses, oscillations, distorted tones and mechanical textures that perfectly complemented the film’s clinical laboratories and technological paranoia. He even recorded sounds at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory while researching the score. The result was one of the pioneering electronic scores for a major Hollywood film and earned Mellé a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score. Read more…
SIDEWAYS – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Peter Simons
Having received much critical and popular acclaim Sideways can be considered last year’s surprise hit. Being the winning film at the Toronto film festival, it also received seven Oscar nominations in addition to seven Golden Globe nominations of which it won two: for screenplay and film. Combining elements of a romantic comedy and a road movie, Sideways is about the two middle aged men Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) who set off for a week into California’s wine country in search of a good time, lots of wine and women. The chronically melancholy Miles is still recovering from his marital break up from two years ago; while the overly outgoing Jack is about to get wed. Before committing to one woman Jack insists on getting laid during this road trip, though Miles grudgingly disapproves of his friend’s behavior and would rather get drunk on Pinots. However, they meet the mature Maya (Virginia Madsen), who clearly like Miles a lot, and the frisky Stephanie (Sandra Oh) with whom Jack hits it off immediately. Miles’ compulsive obsession with wines and his shy struggle with women; in contrast to Jack’s generally exuberant and overly confident behavior make for many hilarious scenes. The cast perform terrifically and it’s easy to see why moviegoers were surprised by the Oscar’s passing on nominating Giamatti for his lead role. Read more…
SURVIVING CHRISTMAS – Randy Edelman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Containing what is surely one of the most ill-advised premises ever to drive a mainstream studio movie, Surviving Christmas is one those most unfortunate creations: a Ben Affleck comedy. Ben stars as Drew Latham, one of those fabulously wealthy advertising executives who only exists in the movies, who is facing the holiday season alone after being dumped by his girlfriend (Jennifer Morrison). Desperate for companionship, Drew decides to return to his childhood home: now the house of the Valco family – father Tom (James Gandolfini), mother Christine (Catherine O’Hara), son Brian (Josh Zuckerman), and daughter Alicia (Christina Applegate). Being one of those movie characters who is both amazingly rich and slightly mentally unbalanced, Drew does what any normal person would do and offers the Valcos $250,000 if they will “pretend” to be his family over the Christmas period. Hilarity, as they say, ensues – or in this case, not, as the film sank without a trace at the US Box Office. Read more…
THE GRUDGE – Christopher Young
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The story of The Grudge has a long history. Originally conceived as a TV movie in Japan in 2000 by writer/director Takeshi Shimizu, he adapted his own work for the big screen in Ju-On in 2003. Having been earmarked for the American re-make treatment by producers Sam Raimi and Bob Tapert, Shimizu was once again approached to give life to his subject, thereby putting him in the unique position of being the director of the remake of the remake of his own original film! Essentially a haunted house story, The Grudge tells the tale of Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an American nurse in Japan who, after visiting a seemingly catatonic patient in a everyday suburban neighborhood, finds herself experiencing terrible visions: a pallid, fish-eyed little boy named Toshio, who is virtually silent except when he meows like a cat, is hiding in a cupboard upstairs – and worse still, a ghastly, shadowy specter is hovering over the prone body of the old woman. Despite Karen fleeing the house, she – and everyone else who it comes into contact with – find themselves being haunted by these unearthly presences. Could it be that the house itself is causing these manifestations? And, if so, does it have anything to do with the murder of a mother and son at the hands of their husband/father there years previously? Read more…
BEING JULIA – Mychael Danna
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A period drama with theatrical overtones, Being Julia is the latest film from respected Hungarian director István Szabó. Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, and set in London during the 1930s, the film focuses on the popular and successful stage actress Julia Lambert (Annette Bening), a woman in her 50s whose youthful elegance allows her to play roles 20-30 years her junior. Bored with her marriage to theatre director Michael Gaslin (Jeremy Irons), and with her stage career, Julia embarks on a passionate affair with Tom Fennell (Shaun Evans), and young and ambitious American abroad. However, when Julia’s stage performances begin to flounder in the wake of her new ‘interest’, Michael replaces her with up-and-coming actress Avice Crichton (Lucy Punch) – who also happens to be Tom’s girlfriend. Intent on becoming the “next Julia”, Avice shines in her performances – but the current Julia isn’t ready to be replaced, and carefully plots her revenge. Read more…
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