{"id":5273,"date":"2012-07-21T16:15:44","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T20:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2012-07-21T16:15:44","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T20:15:44","slug":"mini-moguls-tangerine-dream%e2%80%99s-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5273","title":{"rendered":"Mini Moguls + Tangerine Dream\u2019s Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

'Tis time to do things right, gentlemen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is sort of a recap of what\u2019s been uploaded at KQEK.com, what\u2019s in the works, and what\u2019s imminent after I took an impromptu break to organize the remaining weeks of summer so September will yield a new schedule that\u2019ll combine both reviews and short films.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mini-Moguls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uploaded earlier last week were a trio of video reviews hinging on indie producers, with Alex Stapleton\u2019s Corman\u2019s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (Anchor Bay) as headliner.<\/p>\n

Anyone who grew up watching B-movies in TV has seen at least one Roger Corman film, and it\u2019s easy to see why the eightysomething auteur and mini-mogul is still working, and still smiling. In every interview I\u2019ve seen with Corman \u2013 going back to Elwy Yost\u2019s early eighties Q&As for TVOntario\u2019s Talking Film<\/a> <\/strong>series \u2013 he\u2019s always calm, articulate, and clearly content he\u2019s doing what he loves.<\/p>\n

Corman\u2019s had periodic flings with the major studios, but when he finally came close to making a studio picture, it resulted in a mangled experience that reaffirmed Corman\u2019s determination to stay independent. I admire the calm \u2013 even if it sometimes comes off as a smooth fa\u00e7ade \u2013 where he simply grabbed his suitcase of experience and instinct and set up a new company each time he felt it was time to move forward.<\/p>\n

He probably wishes in some small degree that he was making the odd film with some social meaning, but he\u2019s been producing exploitation flicks for so long that his troubleshooting skills aren\u2019t refined for shepherding an Ingmar Bergman film through theatres and finicky audiences, but making sure there\u2019s vivid colour, breasts, and dino maws chasing bikini-clad beach bunnies through Mexican tourist resorts with gusto.<\/p>\n

Corman found his own as a filmmaker in the early sixties with the Edgar Allan Poe films for American International Pictures, and they still hold up as classy, fun, and engaging dramas, even when later films tended to be satirical towards the source material, and towards the cast of elder thespians (usually Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone). He also made one great social drama that was more verbally shocking and emotionally raw than the equivalent studio message picture: The Intruder<\/a> <\/strong>(1962).<\/p>\n

Unlike other mini-moguls, Corman not only set up his own indie production & distribution corporations, he also directed the films during the early years. It was out of need to feed the screens \u2013 somebody had to make the giant crab movie \u2013 that he furthered his skills so his was ready to make more personally rewarding, creative productions like the Poe films.<\/p>\n

Corman wasn\u2019t fully independent during his golden period as director \u2013 he still had to please the whims of AIP bosses and make more Poe films, straight or satirical, than he wanted \u2013 but his C.V. is astonishingly vivid as producer and director. It\u2019s no wonder film school grads like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola flocked to his little nest and worked cheap to learn skills and rise faster within the filmmaking ranks than they ever could at the major studios.<\/p>\n

Jumping ahead a few decades, a variant of the Corman formula is France\u2019s Luc Besson, who\u2019s similarly been able to make films as well as develop in-house projects, but unlike Corman, Besson makes sure there\u2019s a certain stylistic continuity with all of his Eurocorp productions \u2013 namely that they have a certain Tex Avery tone.<\/p>\n

Besson gained the attention of audiences and studios with the success of Subway<\/a><\/strong> (1985), and followed up with the critically acclaimed La femme Nikita <\/strong>(1990) and The Professional <\/strong>(1994), after which he sort of settled back and became a mini-mogul, developing his own ideas and snappy concepts which sometimes were spun off into franchises of diminishing quality.<\/p>\n

Lockout<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (Alliance \/ Sony) is a perfect example of his own high-concept style: a bit of Corman, a bit of John Carpenter, and some cartoon sensibilities and overt satirical pokes at the action genre. It\u2019s not wholly successful, but it is a few notches above in-house junk like Taxi 4<\/strong> (2007), which is indicative of Besson simply green-lighting a project because it\u2019ll add a few more dollars into the Eurocorp coffers for (ideally, but unlikely) better projects. Also included with the review is a link to Prey Alone<\/a><\/strong> (2004), the short film that undoubtedly brought filmmakers James Mather and Stephen St. Leger to Besson\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

The Aggression Scale<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>] (Anchor Bay) isn\u2019t the product of a mini-mogul, but it\u2019s indicative of an indie team led by director Stephen C. Miller trying to make their mark while working\u00a0with familiar tropes of the exploitation genre. It aspires to be edgy, gritty, a little controversial, evocative of more iconic revenge films, and offers the novel casting of two actors who previously shared screen time on an iconoclastic cult TV series from the early nineties: Ray Wise and Dana Ashbrook. It\u2019s a flawed and ultimately frustrating film, but it has a few moments which alongside the casting make it worth a peek for Twin Peaks<\/strong> fans.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tangerine Dream\u2019s Legend (1985)<\/strong><\/p>\n

BSX Records recently released a recording of Tangerine Dream\u2019s replacement score for Ridley Scott\u2019s shape-shifting Legend<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1985), a film like Blade Runner<\/strong> (1982) that was edited and re-edited by its director before a new definitive edition was released. Unlike BL, Legend<\/strong> will likely never get its own multi-disc Blu-ray edition with every available cut because it\u2019s often considered dated, hokey, and perhaps a bit of a precious effort to create a literary fantasy tale through the eyes of a commercial filmmaker.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t get into the multiple film versions that exist, but suffice it to say, like a proper CD release of Vangelis\u2019 Blade Runner<\/strong>, there has yet to be a release that Legend<\/strong> fans can claim as definitive.<\/p>\n

Legend<\/strong> is trickier than BL because the original score by Jerry Goldsmith was junked from the North American release and replaced with TD\u2019s score, and technically the restored version on Universal\u2019s DVD and recent BR is still the British Cut with small restorative tweaks.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith\u2019s original score was always available on some format, but TD\u2019s\u00a0 score \u2013 released by MCA \u2013 was a re-recording, and its brief length and the inclusion of both a vocal track featuring Jon Anderson plus Brian Ferry\u2019s \u201cIs Your Love Strong Enough\u201d song was never fully satisfying. Besides a few compilation bootleg CDs, there is no complete original score release.<\/p>\n

BSX\u2019s CD features a new interpretation of the score + album, and it\u2019s unlikely it\u2019ll satisfy fan hunger, but it does bring attention again to that vast archive of unreleased scores the band\u2019s just sitting on for reasons unknown.<\/p>\n

Is it a sense their film work was straight work-for-hire and lacks the merit and skill of non-film albums? Are there lingering riffs among band members preventing the release of a full score CD? Do the studios own the rights to the scores and their indifference is preventing a restorative release? Or have members of the band been distilled to an aging few, of which current members & management simply lack the time and interest to revisit old material?<\/p>\n

The best scenario that comes to mind, in terms of mining the TD archive for releasing restored albums, is to let indie an soundtrack label \/ producer into the picture, because they\u2019ll bring both a fan\u2019s interest & respect as well as a third party view that\u2019s free from studio, label, and band politics. Their goal is to release a definitive edition that reflects the best of the band and meets the demands of fans so everyone can shut up for a few generations.<\/p>\n

Rhino\u2019s 2-disc release of Pink Floyd\u2019s Zabriskie Point <\/strong>(1970) is a perfect example of what can happen when the right personnel work with labels & composers to produce a long-desired special edition (although a longer& more exhaustive set would\u2019ve been preferred, but let\u2019s not go there).<\/p>\n

Rather than poke holes into the new Legend<\/strong> CD, fans ought to use its release to ignite a smart dialogue about the band\u2019s archives, the purposelessness of letting some of the band\u2019s best work breed dust for another decade; and the need for TD\u2019s current makeup to reassess their position about opening the archives to niche producers willing to invest time and care in crafting definitive releases.<\/p>\n

What never<\/em> to do again: The debacle of The Keep<\/strong> (1983) \u2013 an elitist, egocentric CD production limited to a few hundred buyers featuring a lot of music by mostly one band member who used the album to showcase rejected cues that bore little stylistic relation to the group-crafted score. End result: fan edits & bootleg CDs of which the band gets nothing.<\/p>\n

What ought to be done: a deluxe library style release of music and literature, ideally of the kind pioneered by Mosaic Records. Basically, everything fans could ever want, plus exhaustive written & visual narratives that form a bio-chapter in the life & history of music pioneers.<\/p>\n

Given I\u2019ve now used up the day\u2019s blog time, I\u2019ll detail further personal production exploits and new reviews in the next blog.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Blog, plus reviews of Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel and The Aggression Scale (Anchor Bay) & Lockout (Alliance \/ Sony) + CD review of BSX’s new Legend CD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1427,1437,1424,1439,1443,1444,4212],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1n3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}