Based on the life of Iranian dance choreographer Afshin Ghaffarian, the music for Desert Dancer functions as a discrete, almost ambient sonic work. Most of the cues are performed by strings and hints of Persian instruments and harmonics, and while not abstract…
Reviews of Hours (2013), Paul Walker’s third-last film, released on DVD by Lions Gate, plus Benjamin Wallfisch’s score on CD from Varese Sarabande.
After writing the scripts for the franchise reboots A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), The Thing (2011), plus Final Destination 5 (2011), Eric Heisserer earned a crack at directing, and his debut is an economical, cleverly produced drama that’s also part disaster film, albeit scaled down to what a singular character sees from inside an abandoned hospital…
In a film where almost the entire drama occurs inside an abandoned hospital, Benjamin Wallfisch (Dear Wendy, Hammer of the Gods) adds both scope and subtext using a driving rhythm and recurring fragments of a gentle main theme, often played on piano or accentuated with delicate woorwinds…
Super Action in Superscope: UNDERWATER! (1955) + VERA CRUZ (1954)
Two Superscope classics on Blu: John Sturges’ fluffy UNDERWATER! (1955) from Warner Archives + Robert Aldrich’s outstanding buddy western VERA CRUZ (1954) from MGM.
Three films connecting director Luigi Cozzi, actor & temperamental cyclone Klaus Kinski, & producer Augusto Caminito.
Podcast: ANNE WITH AN E composers Amin Bhatia & Ari Posner
Podcast interview with ANNE WITH AN E’s composing team Amin Bhatia and Ari Posner.
Adventures in Laserdisc and Pro Logic, Part 1: Mortal Kombat
Editor’s Blog on the fun / absurdity of watching MORTAL KOMBAT on laserdisc and in Dolby Pro Logic using a convoluted series of connected vintage & contemporary gear. Yes, really.
Solo Narratives 1: The Guilty / Den skyldige (2018)
Review of the tense, single-person narrative THE GUILTY / DEN SKYLDIGE (2018) from Magnolia.
Podcast: ANNE WITH AN E composers Amin Bhatia & Ari Posner
Podcast interview with ANNE WITH AN E’s composing team Amin Bhatia and Ari Posner.
Podcast: Austin Wintory’s REMNANTS + ERICA (2019)
In a new podcast, composer Austin Wintory discusses scoring the interactive PS4 video game ERICA + the eclectic music on the compilation album REMNANTS.
Dante Tomaselli’s Out-of-Body Experience (2019)
Admirers of Dante Tomaselli’s prior sonic explorations will be quite surprised at the shift the director of Torture Chamber (2013) and Desecration (1999) took with his latest album, titled Out-of-Body Experience, released July 4th, 2019 via TuneCore…
Hailed in the original theatrical trailer as taking 3 years to make and costing $3 million dollars (ha!), Underwater! was also RKO’s first Superscope film – the studio’s own anamorphic process branded by some critics as ‘the poor man’s CinemaScope…
By the early 1950s, Burt Lancaster had substantially grown from movie star to producer, forming the famous Hecht-Hill-Lancaster and Hecht-Lancaster productions, and Vera Cruz was their second collaboration with director Robert Aldrich, with whom they’d made the well-received Apache…
1989 was a peculiar year for Luigi Cozzi, in that he worked on two films set within the environs of Venice: Paganini Horror, which he directed and co-wrote, and the disastrous Nosferatu in Venice (1988), a mess…
Film: Grandi Cacciatori / White Hunter (1990)
Klaus Kinski’s final film is a genuine oddity, and while more coherent than Nosferatu in Venice (1988), his prior film for producer-writer and once-in-a-blue-moon director Ausgusto Caminito…
DVD: Nosferatu in Venice / Nosferatu a Venezia / Vampire in Venice / Prince of the Night (1988)
Begun as an attempt by producer Augusto Caminito to craft a sequel to Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu (1979), Klaus Kinski’s third-last feature film is…
Written during his busiest period (1968-1970), Quincy Jones’ score for John and Mary was quite sparse, leaving obligatory space for the film’s myriad dialogue exchanges and source music, but the score is memorable for being atypical of the material Jones was writing at the time: action comedies (The Italian Job, The Hell with Heroes), comedies (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,Cactus Flower), and the funky style of They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!
For some soundtrack fans, it was a bit of surprise to learn the composer of pioneering synth scores had begun his career with large orchestral scores for John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982)…
LP: Bourne Identity, The (2002)
The first film in the enduring franchise gave John Powell the perfect opportunity to write what remains both his definitive action sound, and the definitive action score of that decade, blending large orchestral sounds with layers upon layers of electronics…
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