FILM SCORE FRIDAY 5/16/08
By Scott Bettencourt
Intrada will announce their
next two limited edition releases next Monday.
The latest release from La-La
Land is a limited edition (1000 discs) of the score to the 2006 fantasy
film AQUAMARINE, about two teenage girls who befriend a young mermaid.
The score for Aquamarine was composed by David Hirschfelder, who,
despite two Oscar nominations (for Shine and Elizabeth) has
yet to maintain a major presence in American film scoring (though he does
have a new film due this month, The Children of Huang Shi, which
reunites Crouching Tiger stars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh).
On June 17th, Varese
Sarabande will release Trevor Rabin's score to the feature film
version of GET SMART, starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne
Johnson (aka The Rock), Alan Arkin as The Chief, and Terence Stamp as Siegfried.
Randall Larson's latest Soundtrax column
features an interview with Bill Conti as well as reviews of the
scores for Iron Man, American Gangster, and The Abandoned.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Aquamarine - David Hirschfelder - La-La Land
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Harry Gregson-Williams
- Disney
The Wreck of the Mary Deare/Twilight of Honor - George Duning/John
Green - Film Score Monthly
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Harry Gregson-Williams
- Score CD on Disney
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer - Alina Gandini
Noise - Phillip Johnston
Reprise - Ola Flottum
Roman de Gare - Gilbert Becaud, Alex Jaffray - Soundtrack CD
on EMI (import)
Turn the River - Clogs
COMING SOON
May 20
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - John Williams
- Concord
May 27
The Film Music of Constant Lambert and Lord Berners - Constant
Lambert, Lord Berners - Chandos
Son of Rambow - Joby Talbot - Bulletproof
Staccato/Paris Swings - Elmer Bernstein - DRG
June 3
The Happening - James Newton Howard - Varese Sarabande
Kung Fu Panda - Hans Zimmer, John Powell - DreamWorks
Mongol - Tuomas Kantelinen - Varese Sarabande
June 17
Get Smart - Trevor Rabin - Varese Sarabande
June 24
WALL-E - Thomas Newman - Disney
July 1
The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard - Warner
Bros.
Date Unknown
The Deaths of Ian Stone - Elia Cmiral -Perseverance
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
May 16 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score to Hawaii
(1966)
May 17 - Taj Mahal born (1942)
May 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos died (1959)
May 17 - Hugo Friedhofer died (1981)
May 18 - Meredith Willson born (1902)
May 18 - Rick Wakeman born (1949)
May 18 - Mark Mothersbaugh born (1950)
May 18 - Kevin Gilbert died (1996)
May 18 - Albert Sendrey died (2003)
May 19 - Irving Gertz born (1915)
May 19 - Tom Scott born (1948)
May 19 - Edwin Astley died (1998)
May 20 - Zbigniew Preisner born (1955)
May 20 - Lyn Murray died (1989)
May 21 - Fiorenzo Carpi died (1997)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
THE BABYSITTERS - Chad Fischer
"Technical elements are top-notch, with the handsome cinematography,
first-rate editing and atmospheric musical score providing the proceedings
with a glossy sheen."
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES - Ludovic Bource, Kamel Ech-Cheik
"Director Michel Hazanavicius captures the jet-age atmosphere, form-fitting
wardrobes, jazz-ethnic soundtrack and bouffant hairdos of JFK/de Gaulle-era
espionage films in perfect detail, but it's [Jean] Dujardin's performance
as the suave, confident and utterly clueless Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath
(to Francophones, a name that drips with phony aristocratic pretension)
that gives 'OSS 117' its edge."
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
"In addition to Bondish music and '60s-style animated credits, the filmmakers
have gone to nearly ridiculous lengths to reproduce the look of its forebears,
researching what lenses and film stocks were used in the early Bond movies
and in Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest' and 'The Man Who Knew Too Much,'
both of which are consciously invoked."
Andy Klein, Los Angeles CityBeat
"The film starts on a high note with a send-up of old-time war movies,
a black-and-white sequence involving top-secret Nazi papers and a perilous
air flight. Thus we're introduced to the bravery and panache of young Hubert
and to the filmmaker's very nice eye for parody. This is followed by animated
credits and a musical score that both bring to mind 'The Pink Panther.'"
Walter Addigeo, San Francisco Chronicle
SPEED RACER - Michael Giacchino
"Rather than attempt a linear summation of the sensory blitzkrieg that
is the Wachowski brothers' 'Speed Racer,' it's best to set the humbler
goal of an experiential viewing diary. You walk in to the blistering strains
of a soundtrack by the usually wonderful Michael Giacchino, who scored
'Ratatouille' last year. Amid a frantic cacophony, the cheery theme of
the original Japanese cartoon series occasionally, melancholically surfaces.
Before your eyes have adjusted to the dark, you're launched pinball-style
into a futuristic, multidimensional space (though not shot in 3-D, the
movie uses digital deep focus to create a similar effect) in which many,
many things are happening at once. A race-car driver named Speed (Emile
Hirsch) is hurtling around a track that seems to bend and shudder like
a Mobius strip of animate licorice, as swirls of '80s album art colorsófuchsia,
orange, tealóhover and blink in the background (or is that the foreground?).
Shapes hurtle toward you, then recede abruptly, each bearing some fragment
of narrative information that has now passed you by forever. Nausea and
anxiety begin to wash over you in overlapping waves."
Dana Stevens, Slate.com
"And while Christina Ricci may not have much to do as Trixie, she's
second to none when it comes to a skeptical arch of her left eyebrow, accompanied
by composer Michael Giacchino's tingggg on the triangle."
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"If Michael Giacchino's playful and busy score ever lets up for a minute
during the movie, it's impossible to notice for all the other sounds booming
forth."
Todd McCarthy, Variety
VICE - Cliff Martinez
"The hard-rock score, composed by onetime Red Hot Chili Pepeprs drummer
Cliff Martinez, and the cinematography of Andrzej Sekula ('Reservoir Dogs')
underscore this riveting feel."
Bob Baker, Los Angeles Times
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