2011 in MovieMusic

It was quite a year for films, and with great films come (usually) great film scores. After spending hundreds of hours throughout 2011 and the past couple of months roaming around London and Malta with film scores bursting out of my earphones, I have compiled a list of what I think are the particular highlights, to help you navigate the endless available CDs, and maybe pick out a few gorgeous tracks from iTunes or Amazon. Whilst I still love the physical feel of the CD and the smell and detail of the liner notes, it is very true that digital downloads are very handy for those scores which might not be a great album or CD, but have one or two standout pieces worth paying for.

The Greats

• John Williams came out of semi-retirement to score Spielberg's two films this year (The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse), both of which got nominated for Best Score, and the latter being probably the best score of the year.
• Hans Zimmer started the year off with a fun Rango score, and then did three sequels on autopilot - Pirates 4, Kung Fu Panda 2, Sherlock Holmes 2.
• Danny Elfman had a quiet year, but wrote a fun, sporty score for a film that hardly anyone saw - Real Steel. He also contributed some music to Gus Van Sant's Restless, which unfortunately remains unreleased.
• Thomas Newman was very busy, providing great (but fairly typical) scores for The Iron Lady, The Help, The Debt and The Adjustement Bureau.
• Alan Silvestri provided one of the year's best old-school heroic themes for Captain America: The First Avenger.
• Patrick Doyle scored two unusual films for him - a superhero film (Thor) and a dramatic action film (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
• Howard Shore returned to form with one of the year's best scores for one of the year's best films - Hugo, as well as providing a Wagner-influenced score for A Dangerous Method.
• The hottest composer of the past few years, Alexandre Desplat, was busy as usual. He ended the Harry Potter story on a high, scored The Ides of March, and provided lots of gorgeous pieces for The Tree of Life, many of which were eventually unused. He also scored Best Picture nominee Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and contributed a few themes to My Week With Marilyn.
• James Newton Howard had a green start to the year with The Green Hornet and The Green Lantern, neither of which were very memorable. He provided some great adaptations of Elton John classics for Gnomeo & Juliet, and has a track of saccharine music on the Larry Crowne soundtrack. Thankfully, his score for Water for Elephants got a proper release, and is a wonderful score.
• Michael Giacchino provided one of the year's best - a nostalgic, emotional score for the nostalgic, emotional Super 8. He also provided a new take on the classic Mission: Impossible theme for the 4th film in that series.
• Ennio Morricone, who is very understandably taking it easy nowadays, scored an Italian TV film Come Un Delfino.

The Departed

One of the best film composers ever, John Barry, died on 30th January 2011. His last film score was for Enigma, in 2001. it's impossible to do credit to his fantastic body of work in a paragraph, so you might want to listen to the one-hour musical tribute I hosted back in February last year.

http://www.mixcloud.com/Camillu/the-music-of-john-barry-7th-feb-2011-11/

The Newcomer

Ludovic Bource came out of obscurity to provide a great, obviously prominent score for The Artist, which has won many awards and will probably win the Oscar tonight. The director chose to use Bernard Herrmann's famous music from Vertigo in the climactic scene, but the rest of the film owes a lot to Bource's magic.

The Little Screen

I also included two wonderful TV scores that arrived in 2011 - Carter Burwell scored the miniseries Mildred Pierce, and Ramin Djawadi composed the already famous theme for Game of Thrones.

The Bands

• The Chemical Brothers scored Hanna.
• Basement Jaxx members scored Attack the Block.
• Rodrigo y Gabriela contributed to 2 scores this year - The Pirates of the Caribbean sequel and Puss in Boots.
• Trent Reznor (from Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross followed up their acclaimed score for The Social Network with a similarly atmospheric, but less listenable score for The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo.

The Oscars

All 9 Best Picture nominees are included, except for Midnight in Paris (no original music released, as usual for Woody Allen's films).

All 5 Best Score nominees are included - War Horse, Tintin, The Artist, Hugo and Tinker, Tailor. The Artist will most probably win tonight, although I really hope War Horse or Hugo do instead. Still, for once all 5 nominees are very good scores this year.

The Best Song nominee from The Muppets is included. The other nominated song is from Rio, which is represented by a score track.

The Experts

If you want the opinion of a group of people who probably know much more about film scores than the members of the Academy (and more than I do), you can have a look at the annual nominations and awards for 2011 by the IFMCA (The International Film Music Critics Association) - http://filmmusiccritics.org/

The Best MovieMusic of 2011:

The Adjustment Bureau - The Ripples Must Be Endless [End Title] (Thomas Newman)

The Adventures of Tintin - Snowy's Theme & The Adventure Continues (John Williams)

Anonymous - The Other One (Thomas Wander & Harald Kloser)

The Artist - Overture & George Valentin* (Ludovic Bource)

Attack the Block - Moses the Hero (Steven Price, Kevin Buxton & Simon Ratcliffe)

Battle: Los Angeles - Hymn (Brian Tyler)

Captain America: The First Avenger - Captain America March* (Alan Silvestri)

Come un Delfino - I Ragazzi Del Sole (Ennio Morricone)

A Dangerous Method - Burghozli (Howard Shore)

The Debt - End Title (Thomas Newman)

The Descendants - Hapuna Sunset (Charles Michael Brotman) - not original score

Drive - Bride of Deluxe* (Cliff Martinez)

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Alexandre Desplat)

Game of Thrones (TV) - Main Title* (Ramin Djawadi)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - While Waiting (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)

The Greatest Miracle - Prelude* (Mark McKenzie)

Hanna - Hanna's Theme (The Chemical Brothers)

Happy Feet Two - Opening Medley (Various Artists)

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Lily's Theme*, Dragon Flight, Courtyard Apocalypse & The Resurrection Stone (Alexandre Desplat)

The Help - Aibilene & Ain't You Tired [End Title] (Thomas Newman)

Hugo - The Thief (Howard Shore)

The Ides of March - The Candidate (Alexandre Desplat)

In Time - Main Theme [Orchestral] (Craig Armstrong)

The Iron Lady - Grocer's Daughter & Steady the Buffs (Thomas Newman)

Jane Eyre - Yes! (Dario Marianelli)

Kung Fu Panda 2 - My Fist Hungers for Justice (Hans Zimmer & John Powell)

La Piel Que Habito [The Skin I Live In] - Los Vestidos Desgarrados (Alberto Iglesias)

Mildred Pierce (TV) - End Titles (Carter Burwell)

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - Light The Fuse (Michael Giacchino & Lalo Schifrin)

Moneyball - More (Mychael Danna)

The Muppets - Man or Muppet (Various Artists)

My Week with Marilyn - Such Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (Conrad Pope)

One Day - We Had Today (Rachel Portman)

Paul - Goodbye [It's a Little Awkward] (David Arnold)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Angelica (Hans Zimmer feat. Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Puss in Boots - The Puss Suite (Henry Jackman feat. Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Rango - Rango Suite* (Hans Zimmer)

Real Steel - Final Round (Danny Elfman)

Rio - Flying (John Powell)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Caesar's Home (Patrick Doyle)

The Rum Diary - Rum Diary* (Christopher Young)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - The End? (Hans Zimmer)

Soul Surfer - Bethany's Wave* (Marco Beltrami)

Super 8 - Super 8 & Letting Go* (Michael Giacchino)

Thor - Thor Kills the Destroyer & Can You See Jane? (Patrick Doyle)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - George Smiley (Alberto Iglesias)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Sentinel Prime (Steve Jablonsky)

The Tree of Life - River (Alexandre Desplat)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies, A Nova Vida & Bella Reborn (Carter Burwell)

W.E. - Duchess of Windsor & Letters (Abel Korzeniowski)

War Horse - Dartmoor, 1912* (John Williams)

Water for Elephants - The Circus Sets Up (James Newton Howard)

X-Men: First Class - First Class & Magneto (Henry Jackman)

Your Highness - Isabel the Strong (Steve Jablonsky)

*my favourite tracks of the year

Enjoy! There's lots more where those came from, so if you like a particular track, you might want to check out the entire score.

2011 at the Movies

This article was first published on 01/01/11 in VIDA magazine. Malta release dates are subject to change.

Another year of ceaseless movie bombardment has ended, and a new one's just begun. Everywhere we look, the world of cinema saturates us with images, trailers, clips and music. Films gallop into our theatre complexes on a wave of expectation and fanfare that tries to turn them into an event, as opposed to merely a two-hour piece of art. And even if they succeed, as many do, they swiftly make way for whichever flawless masterpiece is guaranteed to make us laugh, cry and change our life the following week. But hey, I think it's great.

If Hollywood and everyone else has enough time, money and manpower to make hundreds of new films every year, I say bring them on. Whether they have enough original ideas is another matter entirely, and I for one would greatly prefer if they made more of this and this type of film and less of that and that. But with a worldwide eager audience of billions, it takes all sorts of films to meet all sorts of tastes. Ultimately, we're the kings. We leaf through the papers and scroll through the blogs, picking and choosing. With a careless click of the mouse we discard a film that someone has poured their life into, because we're not in that kind of mood this evening. With such a vast menu, why settle for less?

As is the recent trend, we can expect even more films during the coming year, although admittedly a very large chunk of them will be sequels, prequels or remakes. At first glance, 2011 is looking very look indeed, and might make up for a lacklustre past twelve months. Superheroes abound, old friends resurface, and we even have a few melding of genres and mystery films which nobody knows too much about. Plus Mr. Spielberg is back in the director's chair, with not one but two films to hopefully end the year on a high.

Christmas Hangover

With no gargantuan release to prolong the festive season like Avatar did last year, a few promising films look set to hit our tiny island with a bang this January. Disney is back, with their 50^th animated classic, based on the story of Rapunzel. Sadly, they seem to be veering away from traditional fairytales as source material, and this film was renamed Tangled, but it still looks like great family fun and gave Harry Potter some stiff competition across the pond. In a more adult vein, Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal star in the romantic comedy Love and other Drugs, set in the world of medicine marketing. You can imagine what little blue pill the main character is a rep for. Russell Crowe doesn't have time for such frivolities as he desperately tries to save his family and prove his wife's innocence in The Next Three Days, from director Paul Haggis.

Seth Rogen lost weight to star as masked and rather reluctant superhero The Green Hornet, which promises to be at least slightly different thanks to visionary director Michel Gondry, of Eternal Sunshine fame. Another much-loved director, Danny Boyle, follows up his hugely successful Slumdog Millionaire with a spectacular story of survival – 127 Hours. James Franco stars in the true story of an experienced trekker who got trapped in a ravine in the middle of nowhere for, you guessed it, 127 hours. Whether he makes it out in one piece remains to be seen, and the film is receiving near unanimous praise everywhere it's being shown.

Oscar Fever

Besides Danny Boyle's latest, and last year's The Social Network, some of the other frontrunners for Oscar glory will also trickle into worldwide cinemas during the early months of 2011, after having been released in limited areas before the new year. At the time of going to press, the surest bet seems to be The King's Speech, a good old fashioned British period piece about how King George VI's speech impediment risked tarnishing his inspirational role during the second World War, and how an unconventional speech therapist was roped in to save the day. The three main stars – Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter – are all getting recognition for their performances, and the film has pomp and style written all over it. In a completely different setting, the Coen brothers' remake of the John Wayne classic True Grit also has all the ingredients of an epic piece of cinema, and starts Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon.

If you like your cinema outings to be dark and disturbing, then you might want to rush to see Black Swan, which is also getting loads of attention – mostly for the central performance by Natalie Portman. She stars as an aspiring prima ballerina who starts to stress about her dance director replacing her in a main role, and the film looks like a marriage of gorgeous ballet and twisted psychology. Which should be extremely interesting in the hands of visionary director Darren Aronofsky. This looks like probably the most interesting and original film since Inception last summer. Moving from the stage to the ring, another award contender looks to be The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg as a rising boxer and a transformed (again) Christian Bale as his troubled but skilled brother and trainer.

Spring rolls in

Once the Oscars are done and dusted, tinsel town will slowly but surely start rolling out the new gems for this year, in a gradual build up to the big blockbusters of summer. This year, though, some of the earlier releases look even more enticing than the summer mammoths. Source Code is a mix of brains and action from the director of the excellent 2009 film Moon, starring Jake Gyllenhaal in a slightly Matrix-like situation on a doomed train. Battle: Los Angeles doesn't try to hide its alien disaster movie ambitions, and promises to be big and loud, and hopefully not too silly. And competing in the big and loud departments is Sucker Punch from Zack Synder (300, Watchmen). A young girl is trying to escape from an asylum, but the escape takes on all manner of fantasy and science-fiction turns as Synder runs amok with the style and machine-guns. If nothing else, this should look great.

Back on much more familiar territory, this spring will also bring an old friend back to life, and just as you may remember him. Disney have made a new Winnie the Pooh film, and they thankfully decided to stick to traditional animation and number of dimensions, rather than try to reinvent his motley crew in some shiny 3D world. Narrated by John Cleese, this should go down well with young kids, of all ages. The man behind Pineapple Express is going back in time to direct the medieval comedy Your Highness, starring James Franco, Danny McBride, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel in a mix of jousting and jesting. And J. J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and Cloverfield, is being very secretive about the exact plot details of his sci-fi outing Super 8, which he conceived with the help of Steven Spielberg and which appears to be some sort of retro alien-invasion film.

Summer Sequels & Superheroes

In cinema terms, the beginning of 'summer' keeps creeping onto earlier pages of the calendar every year, as studios try to repay their investments handsomely by being the 'first big blockbuster of this summer!'. Marvel will be taking their team of heroes to newer heights this year, and they start early in April with the hammer-wielding Thor, a blonde outcast from the heavens who takes refuge on earth and puts his powers to good use. Kenneth Branagh is the odd but very interesting choice for director, and the film promises to tie into the overall Avengers storyline established with the Iron Man films. Elsewhere, Ryan Reynolds goes green for his take on the supernatural powers of the Green Lantern.

Then, in what is unfortunately a recently increasing trend, sequel hell breaks loose. The Hangover 2 (hopefully even half as funny as the original), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (wasn't the last one rather conclusive? Anyway, Depp is back as Jack Sparrow, and Penelope Cruz is the new female interest), Kung Fu Panda 2 (I'm now struggling to think of successful animated films without sequels), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (they've promised it won't be as hopeless as the second one), Cars 2: World Grand Prix (even the least brilliant film at Pixar deserves a second chance), Fast Five (No 'Furious' in the title this time, so maybe it's a lighthearted drama) and last but not last Johnny English Reborn, which sees the return of Rowan Atkinson as the bungling secret agent who was a big hit in Malta back in 2003.

X-Men: First Class further extends another great franchise which seemed to have concluded, but this time it's a prequel looking at all the main characters, including an able-bodied Professor Xavier portrayed by James McAvoy. Then, for the highlight of the cinema year, nearly every major actor in Britain will turn up for the curtain call for the Harry Potter franchise, a film that will hopefully deliver the epic and satisfying climax that was so clearly (but deliberately) missing from the past three films. Finally, merely weeks after his team-mate Thor makes his entrance, another recognizable hero bursts onto the scene – The First Avenger: Captain America.

Back to School

For those die-hards not bursting with popcorn, the last few weeks of summer and the start of early darkness will bring a few more treats, including an old cartoon favourite. The Smurfs, or as we know them from Italian TV 'I Puffi', are the latest characters to make the jump from the small screen to the big one, and they will do so in a mix of computer animated Smurfs and live action environments, including Hank Azaria looking exactly like Gargamel. I predict many young parents will drag their children to see this.

Spielberg's War Horse is next, based on the book which has already been made into a critic and audience favourite on stage in the West End. It follows the journey of a horse during the first World War, and his owner's attempt to track him down and bring him home safely. So at very least the plot should be better than the last Indiana Jones outing, which was the last thing Spielberg directed. And speaking of Jones, Harrison Ford is also back, alongside Daniel Craig in Cowboys and Aliens. The title says it all really, and the trailer looks very promising.

Winter Wonderland

So, actually, the 'low' seasons in 2011 look just as full of promising films as the rest of the year. But, as expected, many big names have been left for the festive season, when friends and families tend to head to the darkened theatres more often. For the shrieking teenage girl in all of us, there's the fourth, and thankfully final, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. I hope for a pleasant surprise, but I expect a lot of morose wandering in the woods. If you're not a teenager yet, Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 might be more your style.

Then, Spielberg returns with another film, although apparently his directing input was completed before his War Horse work. In a mouth-watering collaboration with Peter Jackson, they have made the first of two films based on the Tintin comic – The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. It's made with motion capture, and features a 3D cartoon version of Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as Tintin and Andy Serkis ('my precioussss') as Captain Haddock. Mission: Impossible IV and Sherlock Holmes 2 are also scheduled for the holiday season, the former allegedly attempting to pass the main role from Tom Cruise to Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner, and the latter adding the great Stephen Fry to the already impressive cast. And to round off the year, after enjoying the entire Millennium trilogy in Swedish, we get the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It would be easy to dismiss it as a blatant cash-in attempt. But with David Fincher directing, Daniel Craig as Blomkvist, Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger and Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger, I think it might surprise us. Fincher cast relative newcomer Rooney Mara, who he directed in The Social Network as the pivotal Lisbeth Salander, so we just might witness the birth of a new star.

In the end

Recession, what recession? The movie business has never been better – and I'm not talking about the filmmakers, I'm talking about us. Hate heroes? Just watch something else? Dislike action? Go for the romance. There's more than enough for everyone. As we stand around in groups or couples arguing over which film to watch this evening, we can at least acknowledge that we're spoilt for choice. So dress-up, take your pick and let the main titles roll.

A Single Man

 

• Released Internationally on 11/12/09
• Released in Malta by KRS on 24/03/10

 

In a nutshell

Colin Firth gives one of the best performances of 2009 as George Falconer, a gay English professor living in 1960s Los Angeles, trying to get through another interminable day after the tragic death of his partner of sixteen years.

A day in the life

George hates waking up, but not just in the lazy, duvet-loving way familiar to most of us - he feels real pain on having to face another day without the love of his life. The film opens with him dreaming about the recent car accident that claimed the life of Tim (Matthew Goode – Match Point, Watchmen) and one of the couple’s beloved dogs. We only get to know Tim through flashbacks, as numerous trivial events and items in George’s day bring back painful memories of happier times. But after a brief introduction to George and his morning routine, he clearly states that ‘today I have decided will be different’. So begins probably the most important day in his life, and one of the better character studies to grace the screen in recent memory.

Substance

To divulge more of the plot details might detract from the subtle joy of watching George’s day unfold, so I’ll just add that it manages to remain interesting and often enigmatic throughout, largely due to Firth’s performance. The film feels just the right length for its focused subject matter, and the all important black screen signalling the end arrived at the perfect moment, as opposed to many other good films I can remember where I still wished it had arrived a little earlier or a few scenes later. The script skilfully tackles issues of love, loss and finding clarity, and the fact that the couple in question consists of two men is relevant only in that it adds a layer of isolation to George, and possibly a layer of novelty or unease to the audience.

Style

Where the film excels, however, is in the style department. Without taking anything away from the story, acting or issues at its core, it is how these are wrapped up and presented that elevates the film above other similar films. The film marks the directing debut of renowned fashion designer Tom Ford, who also financed and produced the film, and helped adapt the book on which the script is based. It is therefore maybe inevitable that the film looks so great. Set in 1962, the attention to detail is evident in every shot. George himself is clearly a perfectionist – he even knows how he would want his tie knotted for his own funeral - and his lifestyle permits him to dress and live in impeccable style. The cold war era is recreated both at his lavish but now achingly empty home, as well as his neighbourhood and the campus where he works. Each room could have come out of a design catalogue, yet they only feel cold and empty when Ford wants them to, also thanks to his playful and unashamedly obvious use of colour.

Skill

The way in which the necessary information is unveiled is brilliantly subtle. We need no unnatural voiceovers or retrospective montages to glean everything we need to know about George, and to understand why this day is so difficult to get through. The flashbacks of his time with Tim help, but even they are written in such a natural way that you hardly notice how well we are getting to know George. The rest is dropped lightly and seamlessly into his daily interactions, and over the course of a seemingly routine day we are drawn into this wonderful character, in such a way that the ending unfolds superbly.

Who’s in it?

Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’ Diary, Love Actually, Mamma Mia!) is perfect for the main role, and has us in the palm of his hand throughout. Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights, The Hours) is Charley, a past love and now good friend of George’s, who despite being discarded by a husband and a son still cannot comprehend what George is going through. One of his students, however, the insightful Kenny (Nicholas Hoult, who has grown up since starring in About A Boy), may just be the one person who senses George’s isolation. Jon Kortajarena, the face that has sold tonnes of clothes and perfumes, has a brief but significant encounter with George, and gets the best line in the film.

In the end

Released in select locations towards the end of last year, when Avatar was stealing all the headlines, this film was slowly unveiled worldwide around Oscar time, when Firth was getting just praise for his starring role. In its own quiet, sophisticated way, it is filmmaking of the highest order, and one of 2009’s best films.

 

 

Trailer:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/asingleman/

Oscars for 2009

 

• Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro
• Best Director: “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
• Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• Best Actress: Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”
• Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique in “Precious”
• Best Original Screenplay: “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
• Best Adapted Screenplay: “Precious” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• Best Foreign Language: “The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)” Argentina
• Best Animated Film: “Up” Pete Docter
• Best Documentary: “The Cove” Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
• Best Cinematography: “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
• Best Art Direction: Avatar” Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair
• Best Costumes: “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell
• Best Editing: “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• Best Score: “Up” Composed by Michael Giacchino
• Best Song: “The Weary Kind”(Theme from Crazy Heart) Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
• Best Makeup: “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• Best Visual Effects: “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones
• Best Sound Editing: “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Best Sound Mixing: “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• Best Animated Short: “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
• Best Live Action Short: “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson
• Best Documentary Short: “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor