May 06
With many people claiming that Skyfall is “the best James Bond film since Goldfinger“, I thought I’d revisit the Sean Connery classic this week and examine its musical merits. There are plenty.
With Goldfinger, the third in the series, John Barry, king of the Bond score, gave us not only the best song but the best (and …
Apr 22
Howard Shore is not my favourite film composer thanks to his occasionally committing the John Williams crime of noodling around in a particularly “pleasant” soundworld and not delivering any substance or development. I know that film music isn’t the same as concert music but, if you’re capable of doing interesting things, whatever the context, you …
Apr 08
Released last year to modest acclaim, this Wes Anderson gem slipped past mainstream moviegoers without much of a fuss; a shame, since it’s probably the director’s highest achievement so far. The clean, square look of the film, with its bright colour and child-like treatment of the story, works perfectly with its music, composed by Andre …
Mar 18
Horror is a variable genre when it comes to movie scores. It is a genre in which the most innovative music, the Psychos and the Shinings, sits alongside some of the worst in the industry. If you want to scare people, you can’t give them anything they are expecting, and so it is necessary to …
Mar 04
Thanks to Steven Spielberg’s affinity with family and adventure movies, a lot of John Williams’ scores are remembered for their bold, joyous melodies, magical glissandos and fat brassy statements that speak of worlds better than this one. In Schindler’s List, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Of course, not only does the movie deal …
Feb 25
Woody Allen’s love of jazz is one of many things that made his seventies comedies so endearing. Sleeper, in particular, makes use of the style of music to get its message across, however silly. How many other films set in 2173 are there that have a score based around ragtime, trad jazz and swing?
None …
Feb 11
In short, I’d say this is an underrated score. Julyan caresses his synthesizers with a soft touch, yet what oozes out of them is music that sounds truly disturbed by its own lack of detail. It has all the dark fuzziness of our brain damaged friend. And I think that’s a remarkable achievement, especially considering …
Jan 21
Known for its extreme subject matter, length and budget, Das Boot was one of the key second world war films to have its narrative told from a German perspective. The epic story of the crew of a large U-boat plunging to uncertain depths in the Atlantic Ocean is accentuated by a chilling, brooding soundtrack of …
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