Links. The Top Three Best Whatevah!
Thursday, September 12, 2013 at 3:01PM Serious Film does an all time 5 best cinematography ballot. The best ever? Hmmmm. Well they're all stunning at the very least
TFE Facebook my 3 favorite film scores off the top of my head. I was surprised as you to scribble John Williams there but what can you do. You give props when due. Yours?
The Film Stage Hayao Miyazaki's retirement is truly final this time (failing eyesight *sniffle*) and The Wind Rises gets an Oscar qualifying release
The Playlist Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac is now two films that will run five hours in total. UGH. I am exhausted by movies wanting to be TV series. Be your best self. Be a MOVIE. 90-110 minutes is ideal! (Same goes for TV with unrelated stand-alone episodes. That's dumb. You're not a movie, be a TV series.)
Bloody Disgusting James Cameron loves Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity. Of course he does!
The Studio Executive is starting a snarky series on 'How to Be A Film Critic'. I don't qualify for the first three how to succeed suggestions (wealthy parents, influential friends, unethical bastard behavior) which only leaves me with the fourth (cock-sucking... also known as sleeping your way to the top), which I have no objection to. But no one famous/influential/wealthy willing to make my career has ever rung me up to ask. #shameless
Yahoo Movies new trailer to August: Osage County
The Dissolve The Harry Potter world will continue on screen with a (presumably endless) spinoff series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. For my reaction to this news, I can only share the brilliant tweet of another...
There has got to be a better way to get British actors work without having to give us more Harry Potter movies.
— Paolo Miguel Kagaoan (@paolocase) September 12, 2013
Must Read (If You Haven't Yet)
What Was, Is, and Will Be Popular in the New York Times Magazine. A fascinating long read discussing the impossible to define notion of popularity in our fractured pop culture be it television, movies, music, opera, museums, or anything really. Candy bars, even! For example I seriously haven't even heard of the actress that they claim personifies modern TV fame (Pauley Perrette? Who dat?) and I don't know if you've heard but I like actresses a little. The essay has also got awesome sidebar goodies... did you know that "Bella" is the most popular name for both cats and bitches now? (Damn you Twilight). There's even a cute little point about 1000 "likes" on facebook putting some kind of artistic wind in your sails for struggling indie "popularity" in our fractured world, so The Film Experience is almost there. Like us.
Today's Awesomest Review
Cinematic Spectacle Lee Daniels' The Butler review/reaction in gifs. I lol'ed and it's just so true. Also: perfect punchline.
Reader Comments (15)
Favorite scores off the top of my head: Ben-Hur (Rozsa), Doctor Zhivago (Jarre), Exodus (Gold), The Towering Inferno (Williams), Now Voyager (Steiner), The Song of Bernadette (Newman), The Mission (Morricone), Murder On the Orient Express (Bennett), Psycho (Herrmann)
I knew it. Lara Von Trier is the Second Coming of Erich Von Stroheim. Let the fetishism and bloated epic themes proclaim his presence! Look upon his five-hour-long movies and despair!
The Vertigo score FTW.
I love, love, LOVE that you linked Josh's 'Butler' post...I could not stop laughing when I caught that yesterday. Epic!
Holy moly, brookesboy must be my spiritual roomate. We would have good music around the house since I was going to post The Mission and Ben-Hur. Exodus and Dr. Zhivago were absolutely de rigeur in "smart" households in the 60s. Also Henry Mancini and my favorite of his is probably Two For The Road.
And speaking of Morricone, I find myself listening to Cinema Paradiso far more than I should. Tan Dun's music for Crouching Tiger and Hero are pretty swell too.
Dave, the music in Two For the Road is so fantastic. Exodus was the first score that I remember playing on LP as a kid. That theme--instant goosebumps. I also remember being fascinated by the album cover...that fist coming out the flames. Cool stuff! And I'm pretty sure that my dad had three or four eight-track tapes that had different instrumental versions of Lara's theme...Ferrante and Teicher! YOWZA LOL
Three favourite film scores off the top of my head: Where Eagles Dare (Ron Goodwin), Out of Africa (John Barry), Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Morricone).
I totally agree with the length of films... people who have bad backs ( as I do ) suffer thru 2 and close to 3 hour movies...
My Three Favourite Film Scores? John Carpenter's The Thing (Ennio Morricone), The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (also Ennio Morricone, and maybe a bit "cliche" as a choice goes), and Brazil (Michael Kamen, who only got anywhere even CLOSE to that good only once more (Die Hard))
I believe Cameron along with Innaratu, Guillermo Del Toro, and David Fincher got special thanks in the end-credits to Gravity. Yep, stayed for the whole screening. I needed it.
Film scores:
Karas- The Third Man
Glass- Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Candyman
Herrmann- Vertigo, Citizen Kane, Psycho, and Taxi Driver
North- A Streetcar Named Desire
Morricone- The Battle of Algiers, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, The Thing, and Once Upon a Time in the West
Goblin- Suspiria
Desplat- Birth
Greenwood- There Will Be Blood and The Master
And I just want to say, Mica Levi's score for Under the Skin.......... I need that score back in my life as soon as possible.
Did you see Corliss's review of August: Osage County? I don't know if you want to start the great Streep debate again, but it's an interesting read, and - as a big Streep fan - I think he has some worthwhile points. He calls her out for doing, and not being, and states that her recent biopic performances (Thatcher, Julia Child) have been more grounded than those performances where she's had to create an original character (Mamma Mia, Doubt). He also suggests Melissa Leo might have made a better Violet.
This far in, and nobody has mentioned Michel Legrand at all? For shame!
My top scores:
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Korngold)
The Third Man (Karas)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Legrand)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Morricone)
Halloween (Carpenter)
Re: apparently popular actress Pauley Perrette - she is a great ally to the LGBT clause and she seems like a lovely person overall from what I've read. That said, if NCIS is supposed to showcase her acting talent, it's doing her a great disservice because I find her acting intolerably bad and this is on a TV show where you can tell everybody is coasting along on cruise control, so standing out takes a great deal of misplaced effort I suppose. I've been trapped in a room with my parents where they watch that show so I know of what I speak sadly.
off the top of my head
The Third Man (Karas)
Nights of Cabiria (Rota)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone)
It's heartening to see all the Morricone love on here
Best cinematography ever? I'm gonna go with Days of Heaven.