La-La Land has just released a limited edition (1200 units) CD of one of Bill Conti's finest and most underappreciated scores, for the 1982 drama THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON. The film was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by actor-playwright Jason Miller (otherwise best known for his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist) about the reunion of a high school basketball team and their coach decades later. The original Broadway production, which ran for 700 performances, starred Charles Durning, Richard A. Dysart, Michael McGuire, Paul Sorvino and Walter McGinn, and Miller himself directed the film version, starring Robert Mitchum, Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, Stacy Keach, and Sorvino recreating his stage role. Conti's score came during a period that featured some of his best scores, including Gloria, The Formula, Victory and The Right Stuff, and the La-La Land CD presents its first ever release.
Kritzerland's next limited edition CD (1000 units) will feature Ken Thorne's score for the 1968 comedy INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU. The film, made during the 11-year gap between A Shot in the Dark and The Return of the Pink Panther, was the only one of the original Clouseau films for which neither Peter Sellers nor Blake Edwards nor Henry Mancini were involved (though Clouseau screenwriter Frank Waldman co-wrote four of the later Panther sequels), with Alan Arkin taking over the title role and Bud Yorkin directing. The score featured none of Mancini's famous themes, with Oscar-winner Thorne providing his own material including a whimsical new theme for the inspector. The Kritzerland features the same cues as the original UA LP, which comprises the bulk of the original score.
Intrada will release two new CDs next week, featuring two scores by the same composer.
On December 15, Varese Sarabande will release the score for ALICE, a two-part ScyFy TV movie which reimagines Alice in Wonderland. The music is by composer-songwriter Ben Mink, who collaborated with k.d. lang on the score for Gus Van Sant's film of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
A new CD label, Howlin Wolf Records, has released their first soundtrack, the score to the 2004 horror thriller MALEVOLENCE, composed by the film's writer-producer-director Stevan Mena. They are also planning to release Gershon Kingley's score to the 1974 thriller SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT, starring Patrick O'Neal, Mary Woronov and John Carradine.
Esteemed film music critic Royal S. Brown has an extensive essay on the website Music and the Moving Image titled "How Not to Think Film Music."
The Society of Composers and Lyricists will have an informational meeting with the Teamsters " concerning union representation for composers and lyricists working in all forms of contemporary media" on Monday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pickwick Gardens Conference Center in Burbank.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat - Abcko
The Red Canvas - James Peterson - MovieScore Media
That Championship Season - Bill Conti - La-La Land
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Box - Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, Owen Pallett
A Christmas Carol - Alan Silvestri
The Fourth Kind - Atli Orvarsson - Score CD due Nov. 17 on Varese Sarabande
The Men Who Stare at Goats - Rolfe Kent
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Mario Grigorov - Soundtrack CD due Nov. 23 on Geffen
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
November 6 - Peter Matz born (1928)
November 6 - John Barry begins recording his score for Hanover Street (1978)
November 7 - William Alwyn born (1905)
November 7 - Leonard Rosenman records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "No Day at the Beach" (1985)
November 7 - Shorty Rogers died (1994)
November 8 - Arnold Bax born (1883)
November 8 - Mark Suozzo born (1953)
November 8 - The Ten Commandments opens in New York (1956)
November 9 - Stanley Myers died (1993)
November 10 - Mischa Bakaleinikoff born (1890)
November 10 - Philip Sainton born (1891)
November 10 - Carl Stalling born (1891)
November 10 - Billy May born (1916)
November 10 - Ennio Morricone born (1928)
November 10 - Victor Young died (1956)
November 10 - Bruce Broughton records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Thanksgiving" (1986)
November 11 - Dimitri Tiomkin died (1979)
Novebmer 11 - Bruce Broughton records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Gather Ye Acorns" (1985)
November 11 - Morton Stevens died (1991)
November 12 - Bob Crewe born (1931)
November 12 - Neil Young born (1945)
November 12 - Kenyon Hopkins begins recording his score for The Fugitive Kind (1959)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL - Jeff Grace
"If nothing else, Ti West's retro 'Satan rules!' thriller 'The House Of The Devil' gets the look and tone of early-'80s horror schlock exactly right. West shoots on grainy, muted color film, and relies a lot on low angles, slow dolly shots, and a spare, creepy score to build tension during the long stretches of the movie when absolutely nothing is happening."
Noel Murray, The Onion
"'House of the Devil' is almost all windup, and when the action finally happens, it's somewhat disappointing: It's a little too Dario Argento, without Argento's wackadoo baroque visual style, to fit the overall vibe of the movie. But this is one of those cases where the ending is almost beside the point, an afterthought. The best part is getting there, and West (the cult-horror director behind 'The Roost' and the upcoming 'Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever') takes a great deal of pleasure and care laying out specific '80s-era details without making them campy or overdone. Sam and Megan's hair flares out into perfect wings; their jeans hit somewhere around the waist, instead of halfway down to their hips; when Sam settles into the Ulmans' house for the evening and pulls out her Walkman, it appears to be about the size of a package of frozen peas. The film has a slightly grainy-looking texture, and features a rudimentary, generic-sounding synth score that may as well have been pumped out of a toothpaste tube."
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
"That said, without a super-shocking scene of some sort to kick off the film, auds are most likely to spend the first half marveling at how meticulously West (who gained attention with the low-budget thrillers 'Trigger Man' and 'The Roost') and production designer Jade Healy have conjured the mid-'80s milieu. From the feathered hair and period-appropriate synthesizer score to West's unironic use of zooms and evident affection for the grainy, high-contrast look of pics like 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' the film lovingly embraces a style of filmmaking whose passing few others seem to mourn."
Peter DeBruge, Variety
"Other than a brief, shocking murder that happens away from the site, the first hint of horror comes after an hour and 15 minutes. Until then a viewer must accept the occasional sounds of an old house and a low-key music score rumbling ominously beneath the surface tedium as 'escalating tension.'"
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
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