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2018 Critics’ Choice Awards


Alessoundtrack

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4 hours ago, Alessoundtrack said:

Alexandre Desplat Wins Critics’ Choice Award for ‘The Shape of Water’

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2018/01/11/alexandre-desplat-wins-critics-choice-award-for-the-shape-of-water/

 

 

I listened to two pieces of "The Shape of water" yesterday (Elisa's Theme and "You'll never know", which is emotionless sung by Renée Fleming, she really should stick to classical btw), it's again a style of writing that I would describe as circular and repetitive.

 

We can say, like all his usual stuff.

 

In a sense, Dèssss-plah is true to himself.

 

Just make sure you don't hire him again for a Star Wars, he can't do that.

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Desplat is very true to himself and Shape of Water is the kind of score he does best (I am generally less enamoured by his blockbustery scores). However, it is Desplat being very good at being himself and nothing that I haven't heard before. Phantom Thread made me fall in love with a composer that I've had mixed feelings about in the past. It is beautiful, like Desplat's score, but it is also powerful and interesting and different.

 

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Glass can be great and sometimes also "works with a little base circular rhythm, then slowly add a melody that will turn over it, and variate tirelessly" can be great, but most often they aren't. To me, the score to Signs is an example of how it can be done right.

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I often like this style for background listening if I'm reading or something. It can create a rhythm and meditation that really works for that. I agree on Signs. 

 

But with Glass in particular, for all my love and respect for him as a composer - there is a limit to how much I can take. I struggle to listen to a whole album of Philip Glass in one go. I love him in small doses but the repetitive style (especially in the aggressive way he sometimes approaches it) can be kind of grating in large doses. 

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Agreed.

 

I really like a small part of his output; some of his orchestral works, piano works, chamber works, and scores, and for those works I can easily listen to the whole album in one go. But he also has a lot of music I don't find very rewarding.

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7 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Agreed.

 

I really like a small part of his output; some of his orchestral works, piano works, chamber works, and scores, and for those works I can easily listen to the whole album in one go. But he also has a lot of music I don't find very rewarding.

 

Yeah, I can dream away to The Hours for ages and there is some beautiful stuff littered throughout his discography. I have recently been enjoying Jane. I also enjoy his Akhnaten and his violin concerto (the latter in particular because it is more complex whilst still having his signature style underlying it). But sometimes it is just too much of a good thing for me. 

 

A lot of the time it's about the instruments with me as well. Something that might be bearable for 20 minutes on a piano or with an orchestra is not so bearable when it's shrill and noisy. I had that experience with his Dances Nos 1-5 and stuff like that. Absolutely couldn't listen to those! 

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I don't like the dances either, and some of his orchestral recordings are bad-sounding. The violin concerto (the 1st :)) and The Hours are indeed great, and I would add to that list the string quartets, the Metamorphoses, and Mishima. Akhnaten contains a lot of great music, but as a whole it doesn't work that well for me.

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6 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I don't like the dances either, and some of his orchestral recordings are bad-sounding. The violin concerto (the 1st :)) and The Hours are indeed great, and I would add to that list the string quartets, the Metamorphoses, and Mishima. Akhnaten contains a lot of great music, but as a whole it doesn't work that well for me.

Okay, yeah, we are on exactly the same page with Glass! Agreed on all counts.

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I'm not that impressed with most of his symphonies, but my favorites are Nos. 1 and 3, and partially Nos. 7, 8, 9, and 10. The Orange Mountain Music recording of No. 10 was kind of boring, and it was a revelation when I heard the live BBC Proms recording. Even though the orchestra is a bit sloppy in places in the live recording, the swifter tempo really improves the listening experience.

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I do enjoy the Toltec one (7) but I'm not sure I've listened to the rest properly enough to give an informed opinion on Glass's symphonies.

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8 minutes ago, Thor said:

Desplat's THE SHAPE OF WATER is a huge, tremendous bore. I cannot fathom what people see in it (or in Desplat in general, for that matter, but that's a different story).

 

It's a serious case of the emperor's new clothes...

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Desplat better than Giacchino! Come on!

They are both fine composers. I absolutely love Giacchino and I like Desplat a lot. But Desplat to me is overrated in an awards sense.

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28 minutes ago, idril said:

They are both fine composers. I absolutely love Giacchino and I like Desplat a lot. But Desplat to me is overrated in an awards sense.

 

Williams is also overrated in 'an awards sense' so yeah, let's get some fresh blood in there once in a while.

 

it would probably be fairest to say that on purely musical considerations the Greenwood (Phantom Thread) towers above anything else this year - though his intricate, chamber-music styled approach is exactly what many people are neither willing to put up with or feel any emotional investment in. Considering that, 'The Shape of Water', conventional as it may be, is still a winner i can live with. It has that surplus of elegance that regular Hollywood composers, save JNH, just don't come up with.

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1 hour ago, idril said:

Desplat better than Giacchino! Come on!

They are both fine composers. I absolutely love Giacchino and I like Desplat a lot. But Desplat to me is overrated in an awards sense.

 

Oh no....

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7 minutes ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

 

Oh no....

Ignored?! :P

 

42 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

Williams is also overrated in 'an awards sense' so yeah, let's get some fresh blood in there once in a while.

 

it would probably be fairest to say that on purely musical considerations the Greenwood (Phantom Thread) towers above anything else this year - though his intricate, chamber-music styled approach is exactly what many people are neither willing to put up with or feel any emotional investment in. Considering that, 'The Shape of Water', conventional as it may be, is still a winner i can live with. It has that surplus of elegance that regular Hollywood composers, save JNH, just don't come up with.

I actually tend to agree that Williams is overrated for awards. Not that he doesn't deserve them really but it's just that I like awards to be spread out across the talent.

I just wish that the awards folks would appreciate that chamber style, which seems so emotional (to me) and so interesting and brilliant. Ugh. It's not like I can totally begrudge Desplat an award, since he is talented and Shape of Water is fine, but it is just not half as exciting or interesting to me as a win.

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1 hour ago, idril said:

Desplat better than Giacchino! Come on!

They are both fine composers. I absolutely love Giacchino and I like Desplat a lot. But Desplat to me is overrated in an awards sense.

 

I wish they both retired tomorrow.

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