This News Friday 6/26/98
Sony's expanded Star Trek: The Motion Picture CD has been delayed
until November. No reason has been given. D'oh!
John Powell is scoring Dreamworks' Antz. Danny Elfman is scoring
A Civil Action; Morricone was originally going to do it but dropped
out.
We got an advance copy of James Horner's Mask of Zorro CD from
Sony Classical in the office. It's pretty good--some annoying pan pipes
but the mariachi stuff is fun. Sort of like mariachi Willow maybe,
but not as big. The CD will be released July 7.
Articles
Feedmag (whatever that is) recently had an article about the new recording
of King Kong:
http://www.feedmag.com/html/feeddaily/98.06.23feeddaily_master.html
The Wed. 6/24/98 Los Angeles Times had an article by Jon Burlingame
on Mark Snow and The X-Files. It may be accessible at http://www.latimes.com/
I Met Irvin Kersher Responses
re: my
column yesterday where I talked about running into the director at
a cocktail party:
From: MaestroJW@aol.com
Your article on Kershner and Empire vs Jedi was an interesting read,
and I very much agree with it, even that your headline was "snooty
and lame." Empire is by far the better picture, but I do think Return
of the Jedi is still a great film, only a lesser film by Star Wars standards.
The directing style is apparently different, but Lucas' story is mostly
at fault. The 2 major problems I have are the Ewoks, and the death of Boba
Fett....
From: Chris Kinsinger <76263.2355@compuserve.com>
Wow, Lukas. . .Irvin Kershner! I've loved this man's films since
A FINE MADNESS in 1966. The following year he directed another movie that
I've always loved, THE FLIM-FLAM MAN, working with Jerry Goldsmith. After
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, he directed NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Seems to me
I remember some trashing of this one in FSM, although maybe you only meant
the score. I happen to think it's a highly entertaining Bond effort that
(at the time) benefitted from a lack of Broccoli. . . What an honor to
meet him! Did he discuss any films he may be working on, or is he retired?
I don't know. I didn't ask. Sorry dudes.
From: Scott McCulloch <cnbr115@lismore.cc.strath.ac.uk>
You name dropper you. Just kidding the Empire Strikes Back retro
was great.....meeting IK would have been awesome. For me this is the best
installment of the Trilogy and still one of my favourite scores.
I've often wondered how Jedi would have turned out if IK had reprised
his directorial duties. Do you know if he was ever offered the movie?...perhaps
Empire Building is the place to look.
From: "Shold, Kyle" <kyles@humongous.com>
I just wanted to drop a note saying, thanks. Thank you for columns
like today's "I met Irvin Kershner Tonight." I enjoy reading
about the experiences that you and Mr. Bond have meeting composers and
other celebrities because I (and I'm sure others) can imagine ourselves
there talking with these people. Other columns like the one where one of
your writers attended the Williams Concert last year are also favorites
of mine. They give a rare perspective of actually meeting someone like
John Williams or Irvin Kershner or Hans Zimmer. I think that's why your
Zimmer interview was so popular. Because it wasn't some boring old Entertainment
Weekly article it was just two guys BS-ing with a well known composer.
That's not to say that reading them doesn't make me envious as hell. But
I enjoy them anyhow. I'm gonna go and get that "Empire Building"
this weekend too.
Thanks for your nice words! Again, I forget the author and publisher
of Empire Building, but it's a new book and should be available
from some of the online bookstores, like amazon.com:
it's the behind the scenes look at the makings of the Star Wars
movies.
Aimee and Jaguar Advance Word
From: "RomanDeppe" <roman.deppe@metronet.de>
Two days ago we had the final screening of AIMEE AND JAGUAR for
the director before the movie gets released to the public, so he could
check the last time whether everything is the way he wants it. Per incident
it ended up that he and I were the only people who attended the screening.
The director was a very kind man and we talked during the reel changes
a lot and discussed the movie on different levels, especially about its
music, its colours and the usage of the sound effects. It was really interesting.
The composer was Jan A.P. Kaczmarek. The director was very concerned about
the music and he tested about 25 (!) composers all over the world and the
two final ones he liked were Rachel Portman and Kaczmarek, and finally
gave Kaczmarek the job. Kaczmarek composed the score in 2 1/2 months and
recorded it in Warsaw.
Both the composer and the director became very good friends, the
director told me, on Sunday he drives to Poland, where Kaczmarek presents
his newest concert work. It was very obvious how mcuh the direcotr liked
the music of Kaczmarek (BLISS made him consider him for AIMEE AND JAGUAR).
The score itself was a very beautiful score, rich strings and very melancholy,
though not depressing. The movie's story is about several (jewish) Lesbians
living in Berlin at the end of World War II. It is in fact a true story
and of course ends very tragically (sometimes a bit similar to TITANIC
I thought, although the movie was finished before TITANIC opened, besides
it took more than 2 years to shoot the movie (it is by far the biggest
movie that was made in Germany for years, I think...). I am sure the movie
will get all awards there are in Europe and probably get an Oscar(-nomination)
for best foreign language movie... it was really an impressive movie, that
tells its a little bit strange appearing story very intense. Kaczmarek
seemed really inspired by it and wrote a really fantastic score, which
probably will be released by Sony Classical. But the movie got delayed
until next year's February, so the album will take a while I think.
Armageddon Report
From: david leavitt <leavitt@jax-inter.net>
I just purchased the Armageddon album, mainly to hear the Rabin
score cut, but also because I liked the Aerosmith song. if you like the
"Zimmer" style of film scoring, then you will love this main
title. if you do not like the synth/rock style, then you will hate this
music and begin the endless raving on how this sounds just like The Rock,
or Crimson Tide, or any other Zimmer action scores. Personally, I like
that type of score and think that it fits in certain types of picures.
After hearing the main title, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the
rest of the score lives up to the power of the opening three minutes.
I've been asked several times if there will be an Armageddon score
album. As of now, I don't think they've decided yet. My personal inclination
is that there won't be one... the movie was just panned by Variety,
by the way.
Edelman/Trailer Comment
From: Greg Burris, CyberKhan@aol.com
I found Chris Tilton's message [last
week] on Edelman's DRAGONHEART being used in trailers interesting.
When it comes to whether scores work better for trailers then for movies,
then sometimes Chris is right, but I believe that if you look around hard
enough, you can find trailer music that would work better in the movie
than the actual score. For example, I'm sure many people were as amazed
as I was when Danny Elfman was announced as an Oscar Nominee for his score
to GOOD WILL HUNTING. I found it amusing when the preview clip for this
Best Picture nominated film aired at the Oscars and they used the trailer
music, which I recognized as Jerry Goldsmith's powerful score to RUDY.
I'm sure Jerry got a kick out of that, and it is my opinion that Goldsmith's
score to RUDY would have suited GOOD WILL HUNTING better than Elfman's
score.
The Greatest Album Ever Sold
From: Doug Raynes <dougraynes@yahoo.com>
I am thrilled to hear that Rykodisc will issue The Greatest Story
Ever told as a 3CD set. Director George Stevens' disgraceful trashing of
much of Alfred Newman's wonderful score was fully documented in Ken Darby's
book Hollywood Holyland (Scarecrow Press) but at least we will all now
have the chance to hear the score as originally intended. Rykodisc certainly
deserve credit for also including in stereo the original soundtrack LP
which, incidentally, was a re-recording and has not been issued in stereo
since the first issue of the LP (subsequent re-issues including the EMI
abbreviated CD were mono). There has been all too little of Newman's music
available, let's hope more follows.
Amen! (sorry)
AFI Moaning
Naturally, everybody disagreed with the AFI 100 Films list announced
this week, as part of a CBS broadcast. I think there were some comments
about it on our message
board. Hey, the important "winners" as far as we're concerned
(as tabulated by Tom DeMary): Williams: 6 movies, and Herrmann and Steiner,
5 each!
From: Tim Sika, "Celluloid Dreams" <cdreams@wenet.net>
Sure, in many respects the list was insubstantial, but there never
will exist one Absolute list that will please everyone. All such compilations
will always reflect the likes, dislikes, biases, prejudices (and agendas)
of the individuals who attach their names to it. The great thing about
so called "best lists" in general is that, hopefully, they will
stimulate thought and discussion (as certainly the AFI's has done). And
what I absolutely LOVED about the AFI TV Special was its emphasis on movie
moments and how these moments affected people. I'm fairly jaded regarding
film retrospectives of this type, but this one reminded me why I love movies
and the music of the movies. Many of the comments were spot on (I actually
found myself muttering things like "Yes!") and not one disreputable
film was among the top 100, though I kept thinking "Where is 'Cabaret',
'Paths of Glory', 'The MIracle of Morgan's Creek', 'Intolerance', 'A Man
For All Seasons?', etc. AFI's agenda may have very well been economically
motivated, but kudos to anyone who can get my film-loving juices flowing
to the extent this special did. Honestly, even though I've seen all the
films on that list countless times, damn if I wasn't plotting how I was
going to make time to look at selected ones again--and for someone as busy
as I am that says a helluva lot!
Composers' Ages
Responding to a column I hastily put together listing how
old composers were when they did their first film or first major film.
From: Phil, Dego19@aol.com
I was just responding to the article about the composer's age when
they scored their first movies. I thought it was really cool but Danny
Elfman actually scored a movie before Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. It was called
The Forbidden Zone. His brother Richard Elfman directed it. It was made
in 1980...five years before Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.
From: jason Frederick <frederjr@muss.CIS.McMaster.CA>
About the composers ages daily, didn't Ken Thorne do Inspector Clouseau
(with Alan Arkin) back in 1968, a considerable amount of time before Superman
II.
In both of these instances, I just arbitrarily chose the latter picture.
Thanks for your info!
2001 Help
From: Wdp321@aol.com
A co-worker of mine owns a ALEX NORTH CD for 2001 (unused score)
but he is not sure were to start and stop playing the cues, etc. He owns
the laserdisc and would love to synchronize the Alex North CD score with
the film itself.
I remember when this CD came out people tried to cue the music up to
the film, and most of it does not fit, because the scenes were later edited
after North wrote music to them. If anybody has some timing and synching
tips, please write in.
Maurice Jarre Blasphemy!
From: "Jerzy Sliwa" <george_s@friko.onet.pl>
Voluntary self-disclosure is not an idiom soundtrack collectors
are at ease with. No-one wants to admit publicly to loathing the flavour
of the month. But FSM has, at least for me, become a powerful form of expiation
and relief; by standing up and proclaiming repentance on these hallowed
pages, I maximise my chances of being absolved.
So here it is: I hate Maurice Jarre with a passion. I have despised
his music for most of the twenty-five years I've been collecting soundtracks.
I am unable to listen to more than five minutes of any of his scores (with
the exception of "Lawrence of Arabia") before the words of the
immortal Page Cook penetrate the music like a brick through a plate-glass
window: "There's not a scrap of musicality in this score," I
hear Cook intoning solemnly, "nor, I dare say, MUSIC."
For a young impressionable soundtrack collector like myself, Cook's
remarks were ex cathedra. What he had to say about Jarre was, as far as
I was concerned, infallibly true. "Jarre is the antichrist!"
boomed the never-changing mantra of my soundtrack guru - an incantation
I repeated every waking hour. Judging by the stream of obeisant letters
to Films In Review, I was not the only one who heard and believed.
For any regular reader of Cook's mesmerizing column, it was - and
most probably still is - nigh on impossible to respond objectively to the
oeuvre of Maurice Jarre. For three decades Cook's excoriating remarks about
this composer burrowed deep into FIR readers' consciousness.
Now, the mere mention of Jarre's name elicits in me a Pavlovian
response; but instead of salivating in anticipation of a tasty musical
meal, I find myself gritting my teeth at the prospect of another Jarre
abomination assaulting my ears.
Mea maxima culpa!
Can anyone out there help me to exorcise these demons and see the
true light?
Horrors! I dunno... can anyone? (See our various recent Jarre columns
acessible via the FSD
archive.) And I was just watching El Condor, too.
Need Advice
Folks, we are working on a Silver Age Classic CD coming up with a handful
of alternates and odds 'n' ends bonus tracks. Now, I want to know what
all of you have to say about this. We want to include the bonus tracks
because they're cool, but they really will not work within the chronological
program. Which leaves three options:
1) Leave them off.
2) Put them at the end.
or
3) Put them at the beginning.
Now, I know this last option sounds weird, but would you guys, as the
listeners, like it? The idea is, this way you can listen to the bonus tracks
whenever you want, but when you want to listen to the actual score in order,
you can pop in the CD, start at track 4 or whatever and then when it's
over, you don't have to rush up to turn it off before the bonus tracks.
Wound that be okay? I just never liked CDs with something added at the
end, because then once the score is for all intents and purposes over,
the CD doesn't naturally stop, and all this other stuff comes right on
and ruins the vibe.
Let us know: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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