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4/29/03 - Nowhere in Africa: (Niki Reiser) "Winning the 2002
Academy Award for "Best Foreign Language Film," Nowhere in Africa is a
true love story that depicts the 20-year tale of a Jewish family who flees
the
Nazi's in 1938 and takes refuge on a farm in Kenya. The film's beauty
blossoms out of the relationships that the parents and their daughter
establish with the people and land of Kenya during their long stay. Directed
by Caroline Link, the acclaimed German film continues her collaboration with
composer Niki Reiser, with whom she has worked on multiple, popular arthouse
projects in the past two decades. American film music fans will likely be
unfamiliar with Reiser, a Swiss composer and flute performer whose formal
musical education includes study with several contemporary stars of the
field. His dozen or so film scores of note are accompanied by his flute
recordings with other well known European artists. The score for Nowhere
in Africa would require a merging of two distinctly different world
sounds; the classical, orchestral lyricism of a European orchestra, and the
ethnic vocal chants and songs of the local Kenyans. Such scores aren't a new
concept, and Reiser produces an enormously effective combination of Western
and African styles..." **** Read the entire
review.
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4/27/03 - Ghost: (Maurice Jarre) --All New Review--
"It's hard to associate anything related to the movie Ghost without
thinking of Demi Moore, sensual pottery, or the "Unchained Melody." Moore and
the pottery aside, the tale of promised love and protection became a hit in
1990 partly because of the use of the "Unchained Melody" during prominent
scenes in the film. As a story, Ghost is not the typical romantic
comedy, hindered by death, melancholy, and remorse. And yet, the mysticism of
Sam and Molly's love story is elevated to cult status by the film's music.
The score is from the depths of Maurice Jarre's long and storied career, and
film music fans will be able to recognize the Jarre theme along with the
major song adaptation. Many people forget that "Unchained Melody" was written
for the film Unchained by composer Alex North, and the offshoot of
that original instrumental writing was the Righteous Brothers performance
that became famous for decades to follow. The use of the Righteous Brothers
song in the film, while definitely the reason why the masses of population
rushed to the stores for ten years to buy the album, is even overshadowed by
Alex North's own instrumental version of the "Unchained Melody" theme..."
*** Read the entire
review.
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4/25/03 - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: (John Williams)
--Updated Review-- "...Because of its immense popularity, the score
for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial has been released many times. From
about 1988 through 1996 the only recording of the E.T. score available
--on LP or CD-- was a 40 minute collection of recordings that weren't
those that originally appeared in the film. Williams recorded those eight
tracks himself at the time of the original recording as well, but meant for
the second recordings to be a concert version of a large portion of the
score. The original albums, which were reprinted several times by MCA, had
many of the cues in the wrong order. Nearly the entire E.T. score, as
it was originally heard in the film, was finally released by MCA in 1996. For
the 20th Anniversary release of the film in 2002, MCA/Universal released the
score again, this time with the complete score of almost 76 minutes.
The added three cues are definitely not necessary, and the 2002 album is not
remastered any better than the 1996 one was. The true benefit of the 2002
album is finally the appearance of the original end titles ("Over the Moon")
performance. An identical SACD version of the 2002 album was also released
concurrently...." ***** Read the entire
review.
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4/24/03 - Winged Migration: (Bruno Coulais) "Among the
contenders for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary Feature" in 2003 was
Winged Migration, a film of several years in the making about the
migration habits of several bird species around the world. The French film
used several pilots and cinematographers, as well as state of the art
technology, to achieve breathtaking visuals and sounds of the birds during
four years of their north/south flights. Following countless species of
birds, the film shifts to each continent during the journey, creating a truly
international flavor for French composer Bruno Coulais to emphasize in his
music for the project. Prolific in Europe, Coulais is likely an unknown for
many American film score fans. His work for Winged Migration, however,
may change that. He has assembled for the project an ensemble of vocal and
instrumental performers greater than those of most other scores, akin to the
kind of collaborative efforts put forth by Hans Zimmer in the same time
period. Coulais' performers include a moderately-sized orchestra, specialized
quartets of strings and woodwind instruments, an Orthodox chorus, several
solo and group vocalists, and an array of sound effects that often feature
bird calls and ocean waves...." *** Read the entire
review.
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4/23/03 - Nicholas Nickleby: (Rachel Portman) "Like Charles
Dickens' writing, Rachel Portman's music is usually highly predictable.
Their pairing in this endeavor exists for the newest adaptation of the
Nicholas Nickleby tale of a young man attempting to cross the
boundaries of social classes in storied London to reunite his family
(despite, of course, the interference from a number of colorful characters).
The film serves up a star-studded cast of names from yesteryear and
tomorrow, and it was touted as an Oscar contender by its studio, which
released the film to coincide with the Academy Awards season. In the end,
however, Nicholas Nickleby didn't gain the widespread praise in
America that was hoped for, and the film sank to the sidelines relatively
quickly. For a project that would seem to be a perfect fit for composer
Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love, A Christmas Carol), an
equally logical choice is Rachel Portman, whose period piece comedy and
drama scores are best known for Academy Award-winning Emma and The
Cider House Rules. With a touch of comedic flair and lavish costumes,
Nicholas Nickleby would require little new from Portman, with the
bulk of the material needing a pleasant tone, playful demeanor, and melodic
heart...." *** Read the
entire review.
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4/21/03 - Filmtracks has renovated its Composer Tribute section
in anticipation of new tributes over the next year. The three different,
traditional styles of tributes have been condensed into two types: expanded
and regular. The Hans
Zimmer and Danny
Elfman tributes have been expanded to the size of those for John
Williams, Jerry
Goldsmith, James
Horner, and John Barry,
and new quotes have been added to many of them ("Guinness is a hell of
a drink!"). The other, regular sized tributes have been updated as well. All composer tributes
contain career summaries, filmographies, biographies, quotes, pictures, links
to Filmtracks reviews, and notes about awards and album availability.
Finally, the Filmtracks Composer
Photo Album has been expanded from 56 black and white photos to 100
color photos, including nearly every popular, active composer today. These
photos exist on most of Filmtracks' review pages as well. See if they look
anything like you thought they would!
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4/14/03 - Unfaithful: (Jan A. P. Kaczmarek) "The scenario isn't
new by any means of the imagination. The director of Fatal Attraction
and 9 1/2 Weeks offers yet another tale of marital infidelity,
obsession, and mental anguish. The plot of Unfaithful is your typical
story of the upper-class, middle-aged couple living the American Dream until
the day that the wife decides to succumb to the mystery, spontaneity, and
charm of a younger man she met on the streets. Alas, unholy acts transpire.
The ensuing investigation and troubling discovery by the husband is followed
by the couple's attempt to reconcile and move on. With a formula so simple,
it's difficult to imagine what the music for the film could accomplish that
hasn't been heard before. The film has lengthy moments of silence, during
which the score would be required to convey the body language of love and
guilt. Polish composer Jan A. P. Kaczmarek was tasked with providing another
lurid layer to the picture, extending the basic, romantic emotions that
dominate the film. Kaczmarek has proven capable of classically inclined
works in a handful of films that have gained attention in America since
1999, and is especially known for the piano performances within his
compositions...." *** Read the entire
review.
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4/11/03 - THX 1138 (Limited Edition): (Lalo Schifrin)
"Known if only for the fact that it was director George Lucas' first large
scale film, the 1971 sci-fi thriller THX 1138 is a reasonably
interesting film about future oppression in 25th Century human culture. It is
a film often hailed as being from the future rather than about the future,
because of Lucas' use of stark dialogue and sets, as well as the juxtaposed
elements of emotional and mechanical operation. The film was received with a
mixed greeting by viewers and critics (perhaps due in part to an anti-drug
message that flew in the face of popular norms at the time), but was elevated
to cult status immediately upon the popularity of Star Wars in 1977.
As sci-fi fans will be quick to point out, there are several aspects of
THX 1138, ranging from costumes and sound effects to the humanization
of machines, that would be addressed to a much greater extent in Star
Wars. Thus, THX 1138 has become a film to study rather than enjoy,
and the same could be said of Lalo Schifrin's music for the project, too.
Schifrin had been known mostly at the time (and still is) for his well
received jazz scores, but the late 1960's and early 1970's had become a time
of musical experimentation for the composer...." ** Read the entire
review.
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4/9/03 - Men in Black II: (Danny Elfman) "Following the
mandatory formula that has come to be expected in Hollywood's last twenty
years, Men in Black II hauls most of the same elements from the first
film in 1997 for this (somewhat tardy) sequel. The second adventures of K and
J didn't do as well as the first, perhaps due to the formula of the second
film being too close to that of the first. Part of that feeling of
continuation is perpetuated by the result of Danny Elfman's involvement with
the project. Elfman is familiar with sequel scoring; his best known such
project was Batman Returns a decade earlier, a score which fans of
the first Batman film criticized as being too dissimilar to the
original. In the case of Men in Black II, Elfman does exactly the
opposite, composing and recording a score that is remarkably identical to
that of the original Men in Black film. The popularity of the goofy
music for Men in Black II would hinge on the talents of the songs
written for Frank the Pug (the take-off of "I Will Survive") and the
lounging group of disgusting worm-like creatures. If not for these specialty
cues, which, along with the obligatory rap song, bookend the album, Elfman's
score would be an entirely uninteresting extension of his first score...."
** Read the entire
review.
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4/7/03 - Jaws: (John Williams) "When composer John Williams
first invited director Steven Spielberg to his studio and played on a piano
the two-note theme he had conjured up to represent the Jaws shark,
Spielberg responded by saying something along the lines of "you're kidding,
right?" Fortunately for both, Williams wasn't kidding, and thus was born a
film music and silver screen legend. Spielberg was still an up and coming
director, with only a few small, successful films under his belt, but
Williams was already an Academy Award winner and the composer of choice for
large-scale disaster films. His popular early 1970's scores for The
Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and most notably, The Towering
Inferno had offered a glimpse of the symphonic rebirth that Williams was
initiating in Hollywood at the time. He would go on to earn Academy Award
wins for both Jaws and Star Wars, elevating him to the status
of "top composer of the 1970's." Jaws itself was a near disaster in
production --mostly due to "Bruce," the mechanical shark that was useless
90% of the time-- and Spielberg was counting on a strong score with a dark
and sweeping theme to help save the production. Such was the reason for
Spielberg's surprise when Williams produced a title theme consisting of two
notes...." ***** Read the entire
review.
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4/4/03 - The One: (Trevor Rabin) "Why do people go to movies
starring Jet Li? Because, as evidence to what some people would call the
spiraling decay of human morality, we love to see Jet Li kick ass. The same
applies to Jackie Chan, but with Jet Li, you get a sense of sophisticated
malice that serves to entertain the malevolent corners of all our
personalities. And what better than to witness a movie in which Li not only
kicks bystanders in the head, but himself as well? The concept of The
One is a unique one, both in its theories about multiple universes, and
in its brilliant scheme to place multiple Li copies in every scene of the
film... proving the best motorcycle-busting, head-smashing Jet Li experience
of them all. Proven rock composer Trevor Rabin was hired for the project
with the anticipation of a heavy touch of electric guitars for Li's ruthless
killing on screen. Coming off of several big-name scores involving the
interpolation of orchestral and rock band elements, Rabin's fast-paced,
authentic rock edge was a sound perfect for The One. He assembled a
rock band with the string section of an orchestra and the usual array of
synthesizers and editing tools. The result of his efforts for the film is a
score that Rabin's rock fans will be much more inclined to enjoy..." *** Read the entire
review.
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4/2/03 - Prince Valiant (Prinz Eisenherz) - 1997: (David
Bergeaud) "Harold R. Foster's Arthurian comic strip has remained popular for
more than half a century, and has inspired both live-action and animated
adaptations onto the screen. The 1954 Fox film, with an impressive cast and
budget, was for a long time the only Prince Valiant representation on
film. The 1990's brought new life to the comic with the animated series that
became a staple of The Family Channel. As could be predicted, the renewed
attention to the series caused more interest to rise for the prospect of
another live-action film. In 1997, director Anthony Hickox, who had
envisioned a Valiant-gone-James-Bond kind of twist on the story, ended up
producing in Germany a more traditional rendering of the tale. In English,
the film was quick in production, short on money, and creative in its special
effects solutions. The task was just as fluid for composer David Bergeaud.
Known best for his work on the television shows Earth 2 and The
Outer Limits, Bergeaud was originally challenged to produce a Prince
Valiant score that melded traditional orchestral elements with modern
rock instrumentation. Yet, as the production of the film focused more on a
straight, non-Bond portrayal of Valiant..." ****
Read the entire
review.
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