Why should I care about the Oscars? No, that’s a serious question. Because as much as I hate to admit it, I do. At their very best, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets it right by tripping and falling into a “Market Irglova & Glen Hansard” here or a “12 minute standing …
Film scores are pretty ephemeral to a large chunk of the movie-going populace, where music isn’t noticeable unless a triumphant fanfare or sweeping ballad draws enough attention to itself. So if scoring is already the film industry’s unappreciated middle child, how silly is a list about ones that haven’t been released yet? Very silly. Oftentimes, …
It’s been a great year for film music. I say that as someone who had to endure the laughably dated qualities of Alberto Iglesias’ Exodus: Gods and Kings and had to swallow the pill that is Howard Shore‘s latter days Middle-earth music. But it has been a great year. Clint Mansell gave us haunting, complex soundscapes in Noah, the …
Godzilla Alexandre Desplat WaterTower Music In a rave article for The Dissolve last month, David Ehrlich praised Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla with the same bullet points the film’s detractors cited. Dubbing it the “first post-human blockbuster,” Ehrlich argues Godzilla’s amnesia about its human relationships is its greatest strength and that “the perspective through which this story unfolds undergoes …
The Grand Budapest Hotel Composed by Alexandre Desplat ABKCO Records I have no clue which country, if any, “Zubrowka” is meant to represent in The Grand Budapest Hotel. I can, however, point it out on a map. Er, at least I can point out where it should be. Wes Anderson’s fictional European nation doesn’t exist outside …
The Monuments Men Alexandre Desplat Masterworks How do we make the familiar feel new again? Or to pose that same question to a cynical studio executive, how do we sell audiences more of the same? It’s no industry secret that audiences seem more likely to turn up for sequels to established properties, remakes, and recognizable …
A soundtrack that has Chinese overtones, interspersed with Satie, and A La Claire Fontaine. Is it a Chinese composer familiar with French culture? Turns out to be a French composer, capable of adapting his music to almost any setting in the world. Whether it be ethereal tunes for golden compasses, mysterious ones for wizards, or spectral ones …
Everybody who listens to Sound On Sight Radio knows that I am a huge fans of movies scores and try my best to praise my favourite film composers while also promoting great movie soundtracks. In fact Sound On Sight has a column dedicated to soundtracks and another (Undertones) specifically to movie scores and composers. Well …
New Moon, as anyone frequenting any type of mass media would probably know, is the second part of the filmings of Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight Saga. This part, directed by Chris Weitz, has its release on November 20, and apparently the soundtrack sizzled as it hit the audience. The New Moon soundtrack is more expansive in …