La-La Land has announced five end-of-year "Black Friday" releases which are now available to order -- a three-disc "Ultimate Edition" of John Williams' popular score for Steven Spielberg's 1991 fantasy HOOK, featuring Williams' Oscar-nominated song "When You're Alone"; a two-disc edition of James Horner's rousing swashbuckler score for the 1998 hit THE MASK OF ZORRO; a two-disc edition of another Horner favorite, his catchy score for the caper comedy-thriller SNEAKERS, featuring both the score as heard in the film and the soundtrack release sequencing; a remastered and expanded edition of Maurice Jarre's score for one of Alfred Hitchcock's final films, the international spy thriller TOPAZ; and the first ever release of Henry Mancini's score for the 1966 romantic thriller MOMENT TO MOMENT, starring Jean Seberg and Honor Blackman and directed by Golden Age great Mervyn LeRoy (Anthony Adverse, Quo Vadis, The Bad Seed).
Varese Sarabande is expected to announce their final CD Club release(s) of the year today.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Cerrar los ojos - Federico Jusid - Quartet
Cliffhanger - Trevor Jones - Quartet
The Ernest Gold Collection Vol. 2 - Ernest Gold - Dragon's Domain
G-Saviour - John Debney, Louis Febre - Dragon's Domain
Godzilla Minus One - Naoki Sato - Rambling (Import)
Hook - John Williams - La-La Land
The Joe Harnell Collection Vol. 2 - Joe Harnell - Five Jays [CD-R]
La contadora de peliculas - Fernando Velazquez - Quartet
La ermita - Pascal Gaigne - Quartet
Le Casse (The Burglars) - Ennio Morricone - Music Box
Le clan/Renseignements generaux - Claude Bolling - Music Box
Le grand pardon/Le grand pardon II - Serge Franklin/Romano Musumarra - Music Box
Maestro - Leonard Bernstein - Deutsche Grammophon
The Mask of Zorro - James Horner - La-La Land
Moment to Moment - Henry Mancini - La-La Land
My Animal - Augustus Muller - Nude Club
Rage - Louis Febre - Buysoundtrax [CD-R]
Savate - Kevin Kiner - Buysoundtrax [CD-R]
Scream VI - Brian Tyler, Sven Faulconer - Varese Sarabande
Sneakers - James Horner - La-La Land
Theatre of Blood - Michael J. Lewis - Quartet
Topaz - Maurice Jarre - La-La Land
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Boy and the Heron (aka How Do You Live?) - Joe Hisaishi - Score CD on Tokuma (import)
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget - Harry Gregson-Williams
Eileen - Richard Reed Parry
Family Switch - Pinar Toprak
Godzilla Minus One - Naoki Sato - Score CD on Rambling (import)
Monster - Ryuichi Sakamoto
Silent Night - Marco Beltrami
COMING SOON
December 8
Killers of the Flower Moon - Robbie Robertson - Sony
December 15
I predatori di Atlantide - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Beat
La Donna Invisible - Ennio Morricone - Beat
Terrahawks - Richard Harvey - Silva
Date Unknown
Blastfighter - Fabio Frizzi - Beat
The Daniel Licht Collection Vol. 2 - Daniel Licht - Dragon's Domain [CD-R]
Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen - Carey Blyton, Peter Howell - Silva
Doctor Who: Time and the Rani - Keff McCulloch - Silva
El Cuco - Diego Navarro - MovieScore Media
Fairytopia - Eric Colvin - Buysoundrax [CD-R]
Gli Italiani e l'industria - Piero Umiliani - Kronos
Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Colonne Sonore Delle Serie TV Dal 1985 Al 1998 - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Beat
Guido & Maurizio De Angelis: Television Soundtracks Collection - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Beat
The House Where Evil Dwells - Ken Thorne - Dragon's Domain
The Joe Harnell Collection Vol. 3 - Joe Harnell - Five Jays [CD-R]
La polizia incrimina la legge assolve - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Beat
Piedone d'egitto - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Beat
Plane - Marco Beltrami, Marcus Trumpp - Rambling (import)
Squadra Antimafia - Goblin - Beat
Tess - Philippe Sarde - Music Box
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
December 1 - Peter Thomas born (1925)
December 1 - Gerald Fried records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “The Diplomat” (1968)
December 1 - John Williams begins recording his replacement score for Rosewood (1996)
December 1 - Stephane Grappelli died (1997)
December 2 - Harry Sukman born (1912)
December 2 - Eddie Sauter born (1914)
December 2 - Milton Delugg born (1918)
December 2 - Cyril Ornadel born (1924)
December 2 - Artie Butler born (1942)
December 2 - Michael Whalen born (1965)
December 2 - Lennie Hayton records his score for the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode “The Monster from Outer Space” (1965)
December 2 - Gerald Fried's score to the Star Trek episode "Shore Leave" is recorded (1966)
December 2 - Richard Markowitz begins recording his music for the three-part Mission: Impossible episode “The Falcon,” his final scores for the series (1969)
December 2 - Francois-Eudes Chanfrault born (1974)
December 2 - John Williams begins recording his score for Midway (1975)
December 2 - Aaron Copland died (1990)
December 3 - Nino Rota born (1911)
December 3 - Karl de Groof born (1923)
December 3 - Franz Waxman begins recording his score for Woman of the Year (1941)
December 3 - Christopher Slaski born (1974)
December 3 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score to McQ (1973)
December 3 - Adam Wingard born (1982)
December 3 - Hoyt Curtin died (2000)
December 3 - Dee Barton died (2001)
December 3 - Derek Wadsworth died (2008)
December 4 - Alex North born (1910)
December 4 - Richard Robbins born (1940)
December 4 - Rob Walsh born (1947)
December 4 - Leonard Rosenman records his score for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “One of the Family” (1964)
December 4 - Jason Staczek born (1965)
December 4 - Benjamin Britten died (1976)
December 4 - On Golden Pond opens in New York and Los Angeles (1981)
December 4 - Harry Sukman died (1984)
December 4 - Jay Chattaway begins recording his score for the two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Chain of Command” (1992)
December 4 - Frank Zappa died (1993)
December 4 - Tito Arevalo died (2000)
December 5 - Karl-Ernst Sasse born (1923)
December 5 - Johnny Pate born (1923)
December 5 - John Altman born (1949)
December 5 - Richard Gibbs born (1955)
December 5 - Osvaldo Golijov born (1960)
December 5 - Cliff Eidelman born (1964)
December 5 - Jerry Goldsmith records his score for the Room 222 pilot (1968)
December 5 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Coma (1977)
December 5 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Outrageous Okona" (1988)
December 5 - Masaru Sato died (1999)
December 5 - Dave Brubeck died (2012)
December 5 - Manuel De Sica died (2014)
December 6 - Mort Glickman born (1898)
December 6 - Lyn Murray born (1909)
December 6 - Dave Brubeck born (1920)
December 6 - Piero Piccioni born (1921)
December 6 - Maury Laws born (1923)
December 6 - Roberto Pregadio born (1928)
December 6 - Willie Hutch born (1944)
December 6 - Joe Hisaishi born (1950)
December 6 - Recording sessions begin for Sol Kaplan’s score for Destination Gobi (1952)
December 6 - Morgan Lewis died (1968)
December 6 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording the original soundtrack LP to Bullitt (1968)
December 6 - Patrick Williams records his score for The Streets of San Francisco episode “Bitter Wine” (1972)
December 6 - Hans Zimmer begins recording his score for Broken Arrow (1995)
December 6 - Richard Markowitz died (1994)
December 7 - Ernst Toch born (1887)
December 7 - Tom Waits born (1949)
December 7 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service opens in Los Angeles (1969)
December 7 - Jerry Goldsmith records his score for The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971)
December 7 - Georges Delerue begins recording his score for Les Visiteurs (1979)
December 7 - Basil Poledouris begins recording his score for White Fang (1990)
December 7 - John Addison died (1998)
December 7 - Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Latent Image” (1998)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT - Sasha Gordon, Victor Magro
"Similarly, the magnificent music by Sasha Gordon and Victor Magro is used lightly as the soundscape created by Miguel 'Maiki' Calvo is also able to completely pull you in. It is a film that is all about subtlety where every new element that connects feels like drinking a glass of water after only having small droplets. You then become invigorated by the liquid coursing through you. This is itself something that characters will remark on in discussing what water can become. When Mack first learns of this, she doesn’t fully understand. It is only with the wisdom of age that she is able to communicate this to the next generation. It is a metaphor poetically tied up in the film’s visual focus as we observe characters going through transformative moments in bodies of water that hold us in an almost religious reverence."
Chase Hutchinson, Collider
"Beneath the soaring score by Sasha Gordon and Victor Magro, a late passage sees Mac telling Lily, her daughter, about the cycle of water, which involves neither creation nor destruction but only transformation. The rain that brought her tragedy could just as well be the same that soothed her when giving birth in a bathtub, the tears she shed after a painful goodbye, the drops of rain that carry the fish to the ocean, and even the release of her urine on growing crops."
Carlos Aguilar, The Wrap
"'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' had a muted reception at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it went mysteriously unrewarded despite being easily one of the strongest films (and one of the few actual films on film, period) in the event’s drama competition. But even storytellers of a more prosaic bent could learn something from Jackson’s gift for narrative elision and economy, her insistence on the primacy of the visual and her sparing use of music. (The strings surge gorgeously, but ever so discerningly, in Sasha Gordon and Victor Magro’s score.) There’s risk in this approach, of course: artistic risk, commercial risk, the risk of turning off audiences that react with indifference and sometimes hostility to new ways of seeing. But sometimes an audience faces a risk of its own, namely that it might overlook as powerful and uncompromised a work of American art as any to have appeared in a movie theater this year."
Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
"It is the 1970s, and Mack (played as a child by Kaylee Nicole Johnson), is being taught how to fish by her father, Isaiah (Chris Chalk), on the banks of the drowsy river near their home. Her sister Josie (Jayah Henry) is there too, but it is quite some time before we get a good look at any of the actors’ faces. Instead, trained on the details of this idyllic scene, on the kind of moments that might stick in the recall of an older woman looking back, DP Jomo Fray’s camera, like Miguel Calvo’s shimmering sound design and Sasha Gordon and Victor Magro’s subtle scoring, favors a natural environment seething with plant and animal life as much as it cares for human drama. Mack’s impressions of that summer afternoon are slivers of sensation: her childish hand stroking the gasping fish like a pet; the hum and sizzle of insect sussuration in the warm, still air; her father’s voice somewhere behind her, gently coaxing, 'Take your time, take your time.'"
Jessica Kiang, Variety
PEACEFUL - Eric Neveux
"Bercot’s overall direction and treacly screenplay don’t help matters. The four-season structure is interesting, especially by having the end come in the Spring. But it would be stronger if she had delved deeper into contradictions between death as an ending and Spring as a time of renewal. Her over reliance on Éric Neveux’s generic string-filled score does nothing to elevate the material from the many maudlin cancer dramas that have come before it."
Marya E. Gates, RogerEbert.com
"'Peaceful' is no doubt a harrowing and straightforward representation both of living with a person struggling with cancer and of suffering from the illness itself, never shying away from Benjamin’s pain. He spends the film’s entire runtime dying, growing weaker and sadder and less engaged with the world around him. It is a difficult watch, regardless of the viewer’s experience with the disease, and possibly more so for those who have lost someone to it. That Benjamin himself eventually reaches a catharsis in his death journey is a relief for the viewer who has suffered alongside him. That the film is haunted by an overly dramatic score (by Eric Neveux, 'Cézanne et moi') plays up the misery, robbing its central character of the peace he seeks."
Fran Hoepfner, The Wrap
"If the ever-capable Deneuve is compellingly addled in the role -- her third collaboration with Bercot after 'On My Way' and 'Standing Tall' -- the gravity of her casting pulls focus from a movie that works best as a ticking clock two-hander, just as the melodramatic tetchiness of Crystal and Benjamin’s relationship invites all sorts of manufactured conflict into a movie that works best when its characters are left to sit with themselves. The scenes between them feel as forced as the oppressive layers of music that Bercot slathers over the film. The director’s palliative need for drama often snuffs out the very truths that 'Peaceful' vows to restore to the process of dying. Where is the tedium of sickness? The discomfort of suffering? The banality of waiting for it to be over? Bercot may admire Dr. Eddé’s refusal to indulge in magical thinking, but she does all too much to justify casting a real oncologist in the real. Her strangely unaffecting melodrama can’t help but sacrifice itself at the altar of its most urgent truth: Living with death is a lot harder than it looks."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
RADICAL - Pascual Reyes, Juan Pablo Villa
"The melodic percussive score by Pascual Reyes and Juan Pablo Villa gently heightens the steady swell of feeling, along with gorgeous use of the sorrowful a cappella tradition of the canto cardenche from the Northern desert plains. If your face is not streaked with tears when stirring choral voices are heard singing 'Una Mañana muy Transparente' at the end, there may be something wrong with you."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films in the Los Angeles-area.
December 1
BLUE (Simon Fisher-Turner) [Academy Museum]
EASTERN PROMISES (Howard Shore) [New Beverly]
I, THE JURY (Franz Waxman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
IN BRUGES (Carter Burwell) [Vidiots]
KILL BILL - VOL. 1 (RZA) [New Beverly]
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (Trevor Jones, Randy Edelman) [Los Feliz 3]
LITTLE WOMEN (Alexandre Desplat) [Alamo Drafthouse]
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Carter Burwell) [BrainDead Studios]
THE PLAYER (Thomas Newman) [Los Feliz 3]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone), THE BLOB (Michael Hoenig) [New Beverly]
A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (Michel Legrand), PUNCH DRUNK LOVE (Jon Brion) [Aero]
A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (Bo Harwood) [Vidiots]
ZODIAC (David Shire) [Vidiots]
December 2
BATMAN RETURNS (Danny Elfman) [Vidiots]
CASSANDRO (Marcelo Zarvos), Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN [Aero]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
ELF (John Debney) [New Beverly]
GONE BABY GONE (Harry Gregson-Williams) [Los Feliz 3]
I COME IN PEACE (Jan Hammer) [New Beverly]
LITTLE WOMEN (Alexandre Desplat) [Alamo Drafthouse]
MALE AND FEMALE [UCLA/Hammer]
ONE HOUR PHOTO (Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek) [Los Feliz 3]
THE POLAR EXPRESS (Alan Silvestri) [Alamo Drafthouse]
SHREK (John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams) [Vidiots]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone), THE BLOB (Michael Hoenig) [New Beverly]
WRITTEN ON THE WIND (Frank Skinner) [Vidiots]
XANADU (John Farrar, Jeff Lynne, Barry DeVorzon) [Vidiots]
December 3
AIR, ARGO (Alexandre Desplat) [Aero]
BATTLE OF CHILE [Los Feliz 3]
BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (Sergio Ricardo) [Los Feliz 3]
BLINDSPOTTING (Michael Yezerski), BHAJI ON THE BEACH (John Altman, Kuljit Bhamra, Craig Pruess) [UCLA/Hammer]
THE HOLIDAY (Hans Zimmer) [Alamo Drafthouse]
LITTLE WOMEN (Alexandre Desplat) [Alamo Drafthouse]
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Hugh Martin, Ralph Blaine, George Stoll) [Vidiots]
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (Joe Hisaishi) [Vidiots]
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
A QUESTION OF SILENCE (Lodewijk De Boer) [Vidiots]
TOKYO STORY (Takanobu Saito) [Los Feliz 3]
December 4
ATTENBERG [Academy Museum]
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
GLORIA (Bill Conti) [Vidiots]
I, THE JURY (Franz Waxman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
LADY ON A TRAIN, LADY IN THE LAKE (David Snell) [New Beverly]
NEON MANIACS (Kendall Schmidt) [Los Feliz 3]
THE SILENCE [Vidiots]
December 5
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (Franz Waxman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
LITTLE WOMEN (Alexandre Desplat) [Alamo Drafthouse]
REBELLION OF THE HANGED (Antonio Diaz Conde) [Los Feliz 3]
REPO MAN Steven Hufsteter, Humberto Larriva [Vidiots]
SEXY BEAST (Roque Banos) [Aero]
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (Hans Zimmer) [Los Feliz 3]
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (Dave Grusin), THE PARALLAX VIEW (Michael Small) [New Beverly]
December 6
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
ENTER THE VOID [BrainDead Studios]
HAIL, CAESAR! (Carter Burwell) [Los Feliz 3]
LITTLE WOMEN (Alexandre Desplat) [Alamo Drafthouse]
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE NEST (Richard Reed Parry) [Aero]
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (Dave Grusin), THE PARALLAX VIEW (Michael Small) [New Beverly]
THE TOWN (Harry Gregson-Williams, David Buckley) [Los Feliz 3]
December 7
BOXCAR BERTHA (Gib Guilbeau, Thad Maxwell), FAST CHARLIE...THE MOONBEAM RIDER (Stu Phillips) [New Beverly]
GET SHORTY (John Lurie) [Los Feliz 3]
PARASITE (Jung Jae-il) [Academy Museum]
VERTIGO (Bernard Herrmann) [Vidiots]
December 8
AMORES PERROS (Gustavo Santaolalla) [Aero]
DAYS OF HEAVEN (Ennio Morricone) [Egyptian]
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross) [New Beverly]
KILL BILL - VOL. 2 (RZA, Robert Rodriguez) [New Beverly]
LADY VENGEANCE (Cho-young Wuk) [Vidiots]
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (Michael Armstrong) [Alamo Drafthouse]
STOKER (Clint Mansell) [Vidiots]
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (Pae Hyun Jin) [Academy Museum]
THE TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel) [Egyptian]
UNDER THE SKIN (Mica Levi) [Los Feliz 3]
THE WARRIORS (Barry DeVorzon) [Vidiots]
December 9
ALL THAT JAZZ (Ralph Burns) [BrainDead Studios]
AMERICAN HISTORY X (Anne Dudley) [Los Feliz 3]
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (Don Ellis) [Egyptian]
FROZEN (Christophe Beck) [Academy Museum]
GO (BT) [New Beverly]
MARY POPPINS (Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Irwin Kostal) [New Beverly]
MEMORIES OF MURDER (Taro Iwashiro) [Academy Museum]
RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (George Bassman) [Los Feliz 3]\
SLEEPWALKERS (Nicholas Pike) [Egyptian]
WHITE CHRISTMAS (Irving Berlin, Joseph J. Lilley) [Alamo Drafthouse]
December 10
AMERICA AMERICA (Manos Hadjidakis) [Academy Museum]
BIRTH (Alexandre Desplat) [Los Feliz 3]
CRIA CUERVOS [BrainDead Studios]
DON'T LOOK NOW (Pino Donaggio) [Egyptian]
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Miklos Rozsa) [Los Feliz 3]
ELF (John Debney) [Alamo Drafthouse]
IMITATION OF LIFE (Frank Skinner) [Egyptian]
MARY POPPINS (Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Irwin Kostal) [New Beverly]
THE MUMMY (Jerry Goldsmith) [Vidiots
RAGING BULL, CREED III (Joseph Shirley) [Aero]
SECRET SUNSHINE (Christian Basso) [Academy Museum]
SHANE (Victor Young) [Academy Museum]
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (James Horner) [UCLA/Hammer]
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: Love's Labour's Lost (Doyle); The Last Hard Men (Rosenman); William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (Pook); The Life Ahead (Yared); As You Like It (Doyle), Norbit (Newman, various)
Read: Are Snakes Necessary?, by Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman
Seen: Mad About Music; One Hundred Men and a Girl; One More River; Show Boat [1936]
Watched: I'll Do Anything; MTV's The State ("Season Two, Episode One")
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