{"id":12103,"date":"2015-09-01T15:01:45","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T19:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12103"},"modified":"2015-09-01T15:11:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T19:11:41","slug":"summer-tales-and-tributes-to-basil-poledouris-and-wes-craven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12103","title":{"rendered":"Summer Tales, and Tributes to Basil Poledouris and Wes Craven"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SummerLovers_Quennessen_m\"<\/a>

Valerie Quennessen + stunning eyes in Summer Lovers (1982).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I delayed posting this blog in spite of a trio of review uploads this weekend (see very end) because I\u2019d planned on squeezing in a related review – California Dreaming<\/strong> (1979) – \u00a0since the theme of this update is summer fun, although that review will appear late tonight, as a few things snagged some final editing.<\/p>\n

\"WesCraven\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First, many may have heard Wes Craven died<\/a> at the age of 76 from brain cancer.<\/p>\n

Craven was a true survivor from the 70s exploitation era, breaking new ground in grungy horror with Last House on the Left <\/strong>(1972) and The Hills Have Eyes<\/strong><\/a> (1977), before re-emerging from a quiet period with A Nightmare on Elm Street<\/strong> (1984), and once again with Scream<\/strong> (1996) \u2013 all genre classics and leaps in approaching horror via tales of next-door sadism, desert savagery, blurred dream-realities, and a self-referential slasher \/ homage \/ full slasher all in one, respectively.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting how whenever Craven seemed to reach a period of inactivity or critics felt his relevance was long gone, he popped back with an iconoclastic shocker that proved influential, especially Nightmare<\/strong> and Scream<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The former English teacher was a good director, storyteller, and script editor, and when at his best, he seemed to direct films with a persona that was subdued, witty, ever-smiling, and a quite but genuine love for making movies. He was among the luckiest of his lot \u2013 Last House<\/strong> producer Sean S. Cunningham launched his own directorial career with Friday the 13th <\/strong>(1980), but filmmaking wasn\u2019t his full passion, hence a decision to step away from feature films when his success had peaked.<\/p>\n

Craven directed TV movies and TV shows \u2013 I remember his Twilight Zone<\/strong> episodes were bland \u2013 and at his worst Craven tended to rely on montages that climaxed with a \u2018Whew! It was only a nightmare!\u2019 before the plot started to move again. The Serpent and the Rainbow<\/strong> (1988) is a beautiful production, but it\u2019s disjointed and feels like an awkward attempt to create a fictional shocker based on a non-fiction text on Haitian voodoo, although it did feature a great Brad Fiedel score.<\/p>\n

Craven\u2019s films were often fertile ground for young composers, and Scream<\/strong> was the career maker for Marco Beltrami<\/a>, arguably one of the top composers of his generation. It\u2019s a funny, unsettling, ballsy score that blends modern orchestral sounds with fuzzy electronics, flowing beautifully between source cues that also support the film and its doomed, chatter-mouth characters.<\/p>\n

Wes Craven\u2019s New Nightmare<\/strong> (1994) was an interesting albeit flawed attempt to reinvent the Nightmare<\/strong> franchise he inadvertently started but probably didn\u2019t get rich from, appearing as himself in a film-within-a-film concept that poked fun at the genre, the franchise\u2019s characters, and winked a lot at audiences.<\/p>\n

I was maybe one of 8 people that watched Nightmare Caf\u00e9<\/strong> (1992), his super short-lived TV series which again tried to bend the rules of narrative TV by having doomed characters in a diner play out roles that save the lives of their so-called troubled clientele.<\/p>\n

I may in fact be wrong about the show\u2019s premise, simply because it was axed after 6 episodes, and I haven\u2019t seen it since. It resides somewhere on VHS in storage, but I remember the scores by New Nightmare<\/strong> composer J. Peter Robinson were quite good. (A too-short soundtrack CD was in fact released, and that may be the lone proof that the show ever existed.)<\/p>\n

Craven tackled straight drama in the Meryl Streep film Music of the Heart <\/strong>(1999), but he soon returned to horror with the unnecessary Scream 3<\/strong> (2000). Five years would pass until Cursed<\/strong> would materialize \u2013 the film was almost fully reshot after it tested badly \u2013 and while Red Eye <\/strong>(2005) was fun, it was a light B-movie; what Craven clearly got out of it was directing a mostly 2 character film where a savvy woman manages to repeatedly undermine the machinations of a murder plot while seated next to its main henchman.<\/p>\n

Craven\u2019s last film was Scream 4 <\/strong>(2011), a sequel with absolutely no reason to exist except to give franchise fans a false sense of closure that already existed after Scream 2 <\/strong>(1997), or so meddling co-producer Harvey Weinstein believed. None of the actors look interested in the stale production, and while Craven probably had another film lined up, another directorial effort wasn\u2019t in the cards.<\/p>\n

Personal favourites include the key works at the top of this piece, and The People Under the Stairs <\/strong>(1991), a weird urban shocker with brilliant stunt casting (the two leads co-starred in Twin Peaks<\/strong>) and great mood and energy. I\u2019ve even warmed up to Cursed<\/strong> over the years \u2013 it\u2019s flawed, but there\u2019s a tone that seemed typical of Craven\u2019s work post-Scream<\/strong>: a bit wry, self-aware, and treating the audience as respectful participants.<\/p>\n

Moving on.<\/p>\n

\"SummerLovers1982_BR\"<\/a>Back on Sunday I posted a trio of reviews, headlined by Randal Kleiser\u2019s Summer Lovers<\/a> <\/strong>(1982), a m\u00e9nage a trois drama packed with a mostly song score and jaw-dropping beautiful visuals of the Greek islands and an attractive cast. Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray is the special edition that should\u2019ve happened years ago, and fans will be very pleased by the HD widescreen transfer, Kleiser\u2019s commentary track, and some other unique extras.<\/p>\n

\"BasilPoledourisHisLifeAndMusic_VHS\"<\/a>One of the BR\u2019s goodies is the documentary Basil Poledouris: His Life and Music<\/a> <\/strong>(1997) which was to have been the first in a series of composer documentaries produced by Film Score Monthly, the venerable soundtrack magazine to which I occasionally contributed CD reviews, composer interviews, and profiles a while ago.<\/p>\n

\"FMMasters_JerryGoldsmitg_doc\"<\/a>Not unlike the doc Film Music Masters: Jerry Goldsmith<\/a><\/strong>, another first but only installment in a separate composer doc series, the film only existed on tape, but whereas the Goldsmith doc is now a rare DVD (the music rights alone will probably ensure it\u2019ll never make it to Blu), FSM\u2019s film is at least limited to TT\u2019s standard 3000 copy run, so there\u2019s still time to grab Summer Lovers<\/strong> before it too goes fully OOP.<\/p>\n

\"Tribute2BasilPoledouris\"<\/a>FSM\u2019s doc wasn\u2019t the only piece on Poledouris, and I\u2019ve ported another review from the archives, Quartet Records 2009 DVD Tribute to Basil Poledouris<\/a><\/strong>, which blends select concert footage from 2006 with doc material as a tribute to the late composer, who passed away later that year.<\/p>\n

To my ears, Poledouris\u2019 greatest work is still Conan the Barbarian<\/strong> (1982), and even if one doesn\u2019t have a taste for John Milius\u2019 film (like myself), that pounding, theme-heavy, score is a masterpiece.<\/p>\n

\"BasolPoledouris_pic\"<\/a>The title music alone is a work of genius, full of bold brass, heavy percussion, and rhythms that seem to drift, giving the impression of a coarsely woven cloth slowly coming apart \u2013 a great musical metaphor for a coarse, ancient culture being torn apart by a war-mongering warlord.<\/p>\n

A cluster of reviews will follow within the next 48 hours, including a podcast and soundtrack reviews. For what should\u2019ve been a lazy summer, there\u2019s been plenty to do.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R.I.P. Wes Craven + reviews of Randal Kleiser’s Summer Lovers (1982), plus two doc tributes to the film’s composer: Basil Poledouris: His Life and Music (1997) + Tribute to Basil Poledouris (2009).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[622,3906,2562,2563,3907,3901,787],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/SummerLovers_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-39d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12103"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12145,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12103\/revisions\/12145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}