A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – Simon Boswell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A film score that opens with the entire 11-minute Overture from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream can’t be all bad, and in fact this album from Decca is one of the finest examples I have heard with regards to combining true classical music with modern film music into a satisfying, enjoyable whole. Director Michael Hoffman restaged Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in renaissance-era Tuscany, allowing him to shroud his film in the sights and sounds of one of the history’s most romantic periods. As a result, the images on screen glow with vivid shades of green and gold, reveling in the opulence of luxurious production design, glittering costumes and natural, healthy beauty. For those who don’t know the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows the fortunes of four bickering lovers: Helena (Calista Flockhart), who loves Demetrius (Christian Bale), who loves Hermia (Anna Friel), who loves Lysander (Dominic West). One midsummer’s night, the four venture into the woods near their home and become embroiled in the war of words between Oberon (Rupert Everett), the king of the fairies, and his bride Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer). Receiving instructions from Oberon, the mischievous sprite Puck (Stanley Tucci), casts a spell which causes the four to fall regularly in and out of love with each other, turns an innocent weaver named Bottom (Kevin Kline), who is rehearsing a play in the same woods, into an ass, and causes Titania to fall in love with him. Read more…
THE CASTLE – Edmund Choi
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Initially, the music for the quirky Australian comedy The Castle consisted of a few original cues by composer Craig Harnath and a multitude of “library cues” picked arbitrarily to fill the gaps in the dialogue. It was released across most of the world in this original format but when the might Miramax corporation bought the film for distribution in the USA, the head honchos decided that a new musical approach was needed. Enter Edmund Choi, a young, talented 28 year old, whose remit was to take the orchestration of the original score, but write his own new themes to fit the bill. Choi, whose only previous scoring work was for Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan’s earlier features Praying With Anger and Wide Awake, responded with a lovely, lush orchestral work which pegs him as a talent to watch. Read more…
THE MUMMY – Jerry Goldsmith
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Jerry Goldsmith’s first effort of 1999 is a barnstorming action score of epic proportions. The density of the orchestrations and the complexity of the melodic lines put you in mind of vibrant works such as First Knight, Deep Rising, and especially The Wind and the Lion with its intoxicating ethnic percussion and pervading sense of Arabic mystique. A loose remake of Boris Karloff’s 1932 horror classic, The Mummy is an old-fashioned, tongue-in-cheek Saturday matinee flick with more than a few passing resemblances to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Universal Pictures and director Stephen Sommers hope it will be the first big action movie to smash the box office in a summer market already dominated by the imminent release of The Phantom Menace. It stars Brendan Fraser as a treasure-seeker who travels to 1930s Egypt searching for lost artefacts. What he finds, though, is far worse – the mummified body of the ancient Egyptian priest Imhotep, who was buried alive in disgrace by the then Pharaoh, and who unleashes a terrible vengeful power on those who disturbed him from his slumber. Read more…
ENTRAPMENT – Christopher Young
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Entrapment is Chris Young’s second big-budget action score in as many years and is an ideal comparison to the work he undertook for Hard Rain because, if nothing else, it effectively demonstrates Young’s ability to tackle similarly-themed movies in vastly different ways. Whereas Hard Rain was firmly rooted firmly in the musical traditions of the American midwest, Entrapment is a fluid, hi-tec action score which combines efficient, modern orchestral grooves with the some unexpected textures and styles. The film itself is a flawed, but audience-friendly thriller about a beautiful insurance investigator who teams up with an aging breaking-and-entering expert with the express intent of fingering him for the high-profile robbery she thinks he has committed. Things become a little more complicated, though, when he persuades her to join him in undertaking a final, ambitious break-in, and then get even worse when she inexplicably finds herself falling for him in a big way. Disregarding the unlikely love interest between sixty-something Sean Connery and twenty-something Catherine Zeta-Jones, Entrapment works well as an “event picture”, providing the right combination of thrills, spills and technobabble to keep increasingly touchy viewers happy. Most of all, though, it is highly satisfying to finally see Young getting a much-deserved and long overdue shot at the Hollywood big time. Read more…
EXISTENZ – Howard Shore
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
David Cronenberg inspires Howard Shore to compose some of his best and most memorable movie music. Through such notable works as The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, M. Butterfly and Crash, Cronenberg had always allowed Shore plenty of room to manoeuvre and stretch his musical muscles. eXistenZ is probably the most approachable and, from a soundtrack fan’s perspective, enjoyable work that has resulted from their collaboration to date. An original science fiction tale, eXistenZ is a film which again merges humanity and technology and blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as the designer of a virtual reality video game played through a genetically modified organism known as a “Game Pod”, which inserts an umbilical cord into a special socket inserted into the base of the player’s spinal column and taps into the player’s mind. When the game’s first demonstration goes wrong, Leigh and her bodyguard Jude Law are forced to run for their from various violent factions, all of whom want to stop eXistenZ from becoming a reality. Read more…
THE RED VIOLIN – John Corigliano
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It is very rare for a soundtrack to be embraced wholeheartedly and celebrated loudly by aficionados of both classical music and film music, but this is what has happened to John Corigliano’s The Red Violin. Despite being arguably one of the most brilliant and talented American composers of his generation, this is only John Corigliano’s third film score – his others being the wildly impressionistic, abstract, Oscar-nominated Altered States (1980) and the largely unknown Revolution (1985). Instead, Corigliano became an established member of the New York musical circle, writing original pieces, ballets, operas and suchlike, and it has taken fourteen years to tempt Corigliano back to the podium. It has been worth the wait for, as well as his own musical genius, he has brought with him some of the best and brightest talents of the classical world, including the brilliant Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the incredibly talented virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 1998
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 52nd British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 1998.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- DAVID HIRSCHFELDER for Elizabeth
- BARRINGTON PHELOUNG for Hilary and Jackie
- STEPHEN WARBECK for Shakespeare In Love
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Saving Private Ryan
These are the first nominations for Pheloung and Warbeck. It is the third nomination for Hirschfelder, and the ninth nomination for Williams. Hirschfelder previously won for Strictly Ballroom in 1992. 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 52nd BAFTA Awards will be announced on April 11, 1999.
Academy Award Nominations 1998
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 71st Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 1998.
In the Best Original Dramatic Score category, the nominees are:
- DAVID HIRSCHFELDER for Elizabeth
- RANDY NEWMAN for Pleasantville
- NICOLA PIOVANI for Life is Beautiful
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Saving Private Ryan
- HANS ZIMMER for The Thin Red Line
In the Best Original Musical or Comedy Score category, the nominees are:
- JERRY GOLDSMITH, MATTHEW WILDER, and DAVID ZIPPEL for Mulan
- RANDY NEWMAN for A Bug’s Life
- MARC SHAIMAN for Patch Adams
- STEPHEN WARBECK for Shakespeare in Love
- HANS ZIMMER and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for The Prince of Egypt
These are the first Oscar nominations for Piovani, Warbeck, Wilder, and Zippel, and is the second nomination for Hirschfelder. These are the 6th and 7th nominations for Newman, the 32nd nomination for Williams, the 5th nomination for Zimmer, the 17th nomination for Goldsmith, the 3rd nomination for Shaiman, and the 3rd nomination for Schwartz.
Goldsmith previously won for The Omen in 1976. Schwartz previously won for Pocahontas in 1996. 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. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- CAROLE BAYER SAGER, DAVID FOSTER, TONY RENIS, and ALBERTO TESTA for “The Prayer” from Quest for Camelot
- ALLISON MOORER and GWIL OWEN for “A Soft Place to Fall” from The Horse Whisperer
- RANDY NEWMAN for “That’ll Do” from Babe: Pig in the City
- STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt
- DIANE WARREN for “”I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from Armageddon
The winners of the 71st Academy Awards will be announced on March 21, 1999.
Golden Globe Nominations 1998
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 56th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 1998.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- BURKHARD DALLWITZ and PHILIP GLASS for The Truman Show
- JERRY GOLDSMITH for Mulan
- RANDY NEWMAN for A Bug’s Life
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Saving Private Ryan
- HANS ZIMMER and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for The Prince of Egypt
These are the first nominations for Dallwitz and Schwartz. This is the second nomination for Glass, the second nomination for Newman, the second nomination for Zimmer, the ninth nomination for Goldsmith, and the seventeenth nomination for Williams. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994. 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:
- CAROLE BAYER SAGER, DAVID FOSTER, TONY RENIS, and ALBERTO TESTA for “The Prayer” from Quest for Camelot
- CHRIS DIFFORD, MARTI FREDERIKSEN, and MICK JONES for “The Flame Still Burns” from Still Crazy
- ALANIS MORISSETTE for “Uninvited” from City of Angels
- STEPHEN SCHWARTZ and KENNETH EDMONDS (BABYFACE) for “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt
- GORDON SUMNER (STING) for “The Mighty” from The Mighty
- MATTHEW WILDER and DAVID ZIPPEL for “Reflection” from Mulan
The winners of the 56th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 24, 1999.
John Addison, 1920-1998
Composer John Addison died on December 7, 1998, at his home in Bennington, Vermont, after a short illness. He was 78.
John Mervyn Addison was born in Chobham, Surrey, England, in March 1920, and studied composition at the Royal College of Music. His education was interrupted by service in World War II, where he served with distinction in the British Army, seeing action in Normandy and the Netherlands, and participating in Operation Market Garden. The experience would later inform one of his best-known works: the rousing score to A Bridge Too Far (1977), a film about the Allied operation that Addison survived.
Addison’s breakthrough in film came in 1950 with the British thriller Seven Days to Noon, and over the course of the subsequent decade he wrote scores for popular British films such as The Man Between (1953), The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), Reach for the Sky (1956), Three Men in a Boat (1956), Lucky Jim (1957), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962).
It was Addison’s sparkling, Oscar-winning score for Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones in 1963 that brought him international recognition. The music’s vivacious period stylings, full of energy and wit, became a defining element of the film’s success. Following his Oscar win Addison split his time between the UK and Hollywood, and in the years thereafter he composed scores for films such as Smashing Time (1967), The Honey Pot (1967), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Sleuth (1972, his second Oscar nomination), Swashbuckler (1976), and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), earning both critical acclaim and popular success. Notably, Addison also composed the replacement score for Alfred Hitchcock’s film Torn Curtain in 1966, which is now remembered as the film which ended Hitchcock’s relationship with Bernard Herrmann. Read more…
AMERICAN HISTORY X – Anne Dudley
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Tony Kaye, the director of American History X, was so incensed when New Line Pictures re-edited his film against his wishes, he threatened to remove his name from the final cut and replace it with Humpty Dumpty. He believed that the core of the film, its very essence, had been stripped away by the barbarous production company, and that the finished product was now only half the movie it used to be. Having seen New Line’s end result, I can only wonder just what Kaye’s original cut was like, because as it stands American History X is still one of the most emotionally shattering, intellectually stimulating, totally amazing movies I have seen in years. Read more…
ARMAGEDDON – Trevor Rabin
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In the all-spectacle, no-brains world of the Hollywood summer blockbuster, Armageddon became the antithesis of everything that people find wrong with commercial film making. Even the title – “commercial” film making – smacks of financial return being held in higher esteem than artistic merit. Everyone hated it, from the critics at Cannes who laughed during the premiere, to the newspaper hacks who decried the banal dialogue, Bruce Willis’ wooden lead performance, and the glaring implausibilities in the plotline. Despite this, audiences loved it. For all its shortcomings, Armageddon was an out-and-out crowdpleaser, with genuinely spectacular special effects, plenty of action and romance and, in the shape of Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, two cover-story attractive protagonists. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 1997
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 51st British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 1997.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- ANNE DUDLEY for The Full Monty
- JERRY GOLDSMITH for L. A. Confidential
- NELLEE HOOPER, CRAIG ARMSTRONG, and MARIUS DE VRIES for William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
- JAMES HORNER for Titanic
These are the first nominations for Armstrong, De Vreis, Dudley, and Hooper. It is the third nomination for Horner, and the fourth nomination for Goldsmith.
The winners of the 51st BAFTA Awards will be announced on April 19, 1998.
Academy Award Nominations 1997
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 70th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 1997.
In the Best Original Dramatic Score category, the nominees are:
- DANNY ELFMAN for Good Will Hunting
- PHILIP GLASS for Kundun
- JERRY GOLDSMITH for L.A. Confidential
- JAMES HORNER for Titanic
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Amistad
In the Best Original Musical or Comedy Score category, the nominees are:
- ANNE DUDLEY for The Full Monty
- DANNY ELFMAN for Men in Black
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for My Best Friend’s Wedding
- DAVID NEWMAN, STEPHEN FLAHERTY, and LYNN AHRENS for Anastasia
- HANS ZIMMER for As Good As It Gets
These are the first and second Oscar nominations for Elfman, the first Oscar nomination for Glass, the first Oscar nomination for Dudley, and the first nominations for Newman, Flaherty, and Ahrens. This is the 5th nomination for Horner, the 16th nomination for Goldsmith, the 31st nomination for Williams, the 3rd nomination for Howard, and the 4th nomination for Zimmer
Goldsmith previously won for The Omen in 1976. 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. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- STEPHEN FLAHERTY and LYNN AHRENS for “Journey to the Past” from Anastasia
- JAMES HORNER and WILL JENNINGS for “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic
- ALAN MENKEN and DAVID ZIPPEL for “Go the Distance” from Hercules
- ELLIOTT SMITH for “Miss Misery” from Good Will Hunting
- DIANE WARREN for “How Do I Live” from Con Air
The winners of the 70th Academy Awards will be announced on March 23, 1998.
Golden Globe Nominations 1997
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 55th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 1997.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- PHILIP GLASS for Kundun
- JERRY GOLDSMITH for L.A. Confidential
- JAMES HORNER for Titanic
- MICHAEL NYMAN for Gattaca
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Seven Years in Tibet
This is the first nomination for Glass, the second nomination for Nyman, the fourth nomination for Horner, the eighth nomination for Goldsmith, and the sixteenth 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:
- SHERYL CROW and MITCHELL FROOM for “Tomorrow Never Dies” from Tomorrow Never Dies
- STEPHEN FLAHERTY and LYNN AHRENS for “Journey to the Past” from Anastasia
- STEPHEN FLAHERTY and LYNN AHRENS for “Once Upon a December” from Anastasia
- JAMES HORNER and WILL JENNINGS for “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic
- ALAN MENKEN and DAVID ZIPPEL for “Go the Distance” from Hercules
The winners of the 55th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 18, 1998.
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