I am currently on vacation, so if there is any important film music news that has transpired in the last week or so, you will have to learn about it from each other on our Message Board (or perhaps, instead, from the rest of the Internet, whose name is Legion for it contains multitudes).
La-La Land was scheduled to announce its latest batch of end-of-year, "Black Friday" CD releases today.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Almost an Angel: The Deluxe Edition - Maurice Jarre - Varese Sarabande CD Club
The Haunting: The Deluxe Edition - Jerry Goldsmith - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Mayhem - Steve Moore - Relapse
Stephen King Soundtrack Collection - James Newton Howard, Nicholas Pike, Tangerine Dream, W.G. Snuffy Walden - Varese Sarabande
Stand and Deliver - Craig Safan - Varese Sarabande CD Club
IN THEATERS TODAY
Bitch - Morgan z Whirledge
Call Me By Your Name - Sufjan Stevens - Soundtrack CD on Sony
Coco - Michael Giacchino - Score CD due on Disney
Cuba and the Cameraman - Daniel Freiberg
Darkest Hour - Dario Marianelli - Score CD due on Deutsche Grammophon
Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars - Gustavo Santaolalla
A Gray State - David Crowley
The Man Who Invented Christmas - Mychael Danna - Score CD on Decca
Porto - Music Supervisor: Daniel Vila
Thelma - Ola Flottum
COMING SOON
December 1
The Essential Thomas Newman - Thomas Newman - Silva
Mudbound - Tamar-kali - Milan
The Nile Hilton Incident - Krister Linder - Milan (import)
Suburbicon - Alexandre Desplat - Abkco
The White King - Joanna Bruzdowicz - Silva (import)
December 8
The Crown, Season 2 - Lorne Balfe, Rupert Gregson-Williams - Sony (import)
Jungle - Johnny Klimek - Varese Sarabande
Justice League - Danny Elfman - WaterTower
The Shape of Water - Alexandre Desplat - Decca
December 15
I, Tonya - Peter Nashel - Milan
LBJ - Marc Shaiman - Lakeshore
Mindhunter - Jason Hill - Milan
Paddington 2 - Dario Marianelli - Decca (import)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - John Williams - Disney
Stranger Things 2 - Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein - Lakeshore
12 Monkeys: Season 3 - Stephen Barton - Varese Sarabande
December 22
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - Henry Jackman - Sony
Mr. Robot vol. 4 - Mac Quayle - Lakeshore
January 5
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) - Randy Newman - Lakeshore
January 12
The Post - John Williams - Sony
Date Unknown
Artificial - Jorge Granda - Kronos
Blue Planet II -- Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea, David Fleming - Silva
Le Magnifique - Claude Bolling - Music Box
Le Prix du Succes/Jimmy Riviere - Rob - Music Box
The Lion Woman - Uno Helmersson - Kronos
The Orson Welles/A.F. Lavagnino Collaboration - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Alhambra
The Red Shoes: Music from the Golden Age of British Cinema - various - Kritzerland
Thunderbirds Are Go, Vol. 2 - Ben Foster, Nick Foster - Silva
249 La Noche En Que Una Becaria Encontro A Emiliano Revilla - Jose Sanchez-Sanz - Kronos
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
November 24 - Alfred Schnittke born (1934)
November 24 - Pino Donaggio born (1941)
November 24 - Manuel De Sica born (1949)
November 24 - Michael Small died (2003)
November 24 - Kan Ishii died (2009)
November 25 - Virgil Thomson born (1896)
November 25 - Stanley Wilson born (1915)
November 25 - Michel Portal born (1935)
November 25 - Eleni Karaindrou born (1939)
November 25 - Daniele Amfitheatrof begins recording his score for The Last Hunt (1956)
November 25 - Maurice Jarre begins recording his score for Grand Prix (1966)
November 25 - Michael Small begins recording his score for The Postman Always Rings Twice (1980)
November 25 - Craig Safan records his scores for the Twilight Zone episodes “The Uncle Devil Show” and “Opening Day” (1985)
November 25 - Chico Hamilton died (2013)
November 26 - Scott Bradley born (1891)
November 26 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for The Killer Elite (1975)
November 26 - Bernardo Segall died (1993)
November 27 - Alberto Colombo born (1888)
November 27 - Richard Stone born (1953)
November 27 - Lyle Mays born (1953)
November 27 - Arthur Honegger died (1955)
November 27 - Bernard Herrmann marries Norma Shepherd, his third and final wife (1967)
November 27 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score for Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1969)
November 27 - Stanley Black died (2002)
November 27 - Kunio Miyauchi died (2006)
November 28 - Mario Nascimbene born (1913)
November 28 - Gato Barbieri born (1934)
November 28 - Randy Newman born (1943)
November 28 - Bernard Herrmann records his score for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Where the Woodbine Twineth” (1964)
November 28 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Elementary, Dear Data” (1988)
November 28 - Jerry Goldsmith records his music for the Judge Dredd trailer (1994)
November 29 - Chuck Mangione born (1940)
November 29 - Recording sessions begin on Herbert Stothart’s score for Hills of Home (1947)
November 29 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to Moonfleet (1954)
November 29 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold died (1957)
November 29 - Russell Garcia begins recording his score for Atlantis the Lost Continent (1960)
November 29 - Alexander Courage's score to the second Star Trek pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," is recorded (1965)
November 29 - Carl Stalling died (1972)
November 29 - George Harrison died (2001)
November 29 - Shirley Walker died (2006)
November 30 - Gordon Parks born (1912)
November 30 - Edward Artemyev born (1937)
November 30 - Victor Young begins recording his score for September Affair (1949)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS - Paolo Buonvino
"Despite its title, 'Fathers and Daughters' is only interested in one father and one daughter, and in one idea: that your childhood experiences help shape your relationships and actions in adulthood. That's not a particularly provocative idea -- when John Mayer has written a song about it, you know it's over -- but then, there's regrettably nothing very provocative about 'Fathers and Daughters.' Each plot point plods along with utter predictability. You know as soon as Jake enters an institution that he'll have trouble keeping Katie when he gets out, just like you know as soon as you see Katie hooking up with a guy at school that the film will characterize her actions as an effort to exorcise some demon. (The only surprising thing about the movie is that William and Elizabeth aren't childless.) With each big scene, the film signals hard via swelling music and self-consciously meaningful one-liners that you're meant to feel here."
Alissa Wilkinson, RogerEbert.com
"Indeed, nothing and no one in the film looks under-budgeted. So buttery in hue and finish is Shane Hurlbut’s widescreen lensing, and so syrupy Paolo Buonvino’s lavishly applied score, that one could be forgiven for exiting 'Fathers and Daughters' with a distinct hankering for pancakes. At times, Muccino seems only a further lick of varnish away from realizing his pic’s florid camp potential. However, as with its hero’s books -- a feast for fans of bad movie literature, boasting such tremulously read lines as, 'Yes, the tulips are beautiful … for now' -- the line between ersatz and genuine kitsch is hard to draw."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"There are some insightful, fleet touches to Egoyan’s film that point to a more successful synthesis of genre and character than is overall achieved. The way gun salesmen, border control officials and the grown up family members of the men he visits all assume that Zev is benign, simply because he is old. The way Zev plays two pieces of music in the course of the movie: one of them by the Jewish Mendelssohn, one by Hitler’s favorite composer, Wagner (a thought Mychael Danna‘s omnipresent score reflects throughout, often employing warring melodies played on separate instruments to suggest inner conflict). And there are times like when he first sits at the piano and wonders if he can still play, that it feels like the film is suggesting that the whole mechanism of vengeance, for a crime Zev cannot even remember, is playing out almost like a muscle memory; revenge as an involuntary reflex. But then the next daft thing happens, or the next overwrought point gets hammered home (like the wildly unnecessary coda at the end) and you realize you’re probably overthinking it."
Jessica Kiang, IndieWire
"Plummer lends considerable dignity and contained anguish to a character whose manhunt is complicated by his own constantly crumbling sense of self, though the strong supporting ensemble -- including Bruno Ganz and Jurgen Prochnow, distractingly latex-bound as two of the supposed Kurlanders -- finds few nuances in the thin, declamatory writing. Working overtime, on the other hand, to supplement the script is Mychael Danna’s molasses-heavy score, which piles on the strings (including sporadic klezmer-style motifs that seem to play in Zev’s headspace as flickering concentration-camp flashes) to undiscriminating effect."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"There's little sense of personal investment from the director, but Egoyan does what he can to keep the story moving forward, without getting bogged down in its implausibilities, which are too many to count. He plasters on Mychael Danna's nobly mournful score with overpowering insistence, but the undistinguished-looking film's few genuinely affecting moments are due to Plummer's skill at conveying the solitude and fear of a man confronted with the incontrovertible evidence of his diminished faculties. The veteran actor deserves better than this pseudo-serious pulp."
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, Arclight, LACMA, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart and UCLA.
November 24
BABY DRIVER (Steven Price), NEED FOR SPEED (Nathan Furst) [New Beverly]
MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNNIHILATION (George S. Clinton) [Nuart]
PULP FICTION [New Beverly]
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
November 25
BABY DRIVER (Steven Price), NEED FOR SPEED (Nathan Furst) [New Beverly]
PIPPI LONGSTOCKING (Anders Berglund, Asher Ettinger, Tony Kosinec) [New Beverly]
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
WEST SIDE STORY (Leonard Bernstein, Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal) [New Beverly]
November 26
DON'T JUST STAND THERE! (Nick Perito), WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD? (Frank DeVol) [New Beverly]
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Santa Monica]
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
PIPPI LONGSTOCKING (Anders Berglund, Asher Ettinger, Tony Kosinec) [New Beverly]
November 27
DANZON (Pepe Luis, Felipe Perez) [AMPAS]
DON'T JUST STAND THERE! (Nick Perito), WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD? (Frank DeVol) [New Beverly]
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Santa Monica]
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (Joe Hisaishi) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
November 28
MRS. BROWN (Stephen Warbeck) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
REDHEAD FROM MANHATTAN (Morris Stoloff) [LACMA]
PRISON ON FIRE (Lowell Lo), VICTIM (Raymond Wong) [New Beverly]
November 29
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT (Georges Delerue), CAT AND MOUSE (Francis Lai) [New Beverly]
TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (Alfred Newman) [New Beverly]
November 30
THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL (Elmer Bernstein) [New Beverly]
MURDER BY DEATH (Dave Grusin) [Laemmle NoHo]
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT (Georges Delerue), CAT AND MOUSE (Francis Lai) [New Beverly]
December 1
RESERVOIR DOGS [New Beverly]
STOP MAKING SENSE (David Byrne) [Nuart]
December 2
LA VIDA BOHEMIA (Alexander Borisoff), VERBENA TRAGICA (Lee Zahler) [UCLA]
NO DEJES LA PUERTA ABIERTA (Samuel Kaylin), CASTILLOS EN EL AIRE (Lee Zahler) [UCLA]
ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS (Michael Conway Baker) [New Beverly]
Q: THE WINGED SERPENT (Robert O. Ragland) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
WICKED, WICKED (Philip Springer) [New Beverly]
December 3
CONTRA LA CORRIENTE (Juan Aguilar), LA VIRGEN QUE FORJO UNA PATRIA (Miguel Bernal Jiminez) [UCLA]
ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS (Michael Conway Baker) [New Beverly]
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