mrbellamy

Not for score and not the glissando, but apparently a shepard tone was used for the Batpod in Nolan's Batman sequels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone#Examples

It's a lovely score, really enjoyed listening to it and can't wait to see it with the film. I also found it interesting that this looks to be Wes Anderson's most score-heavy project yet. Only four tracks not written by Desplat.

Speaking of musicals that don't need to be remade...

Deadline says maybe: http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/fox-revives-west-side-story-for-steven-spielberg-as-town-ponders-stacey-snider-move-and-dreamworks-future/ Hopefully he's not stupid enough to go through with this.

That's only certain areas of Los Angeles.

It seemed to me like they had all of the nominees from each technical category sitting together in their own box seats. When Emmanuel Lubezki won cinematography, I noticed Roger Deakins was there with him and gave him a big hug. And I liked seeing Johnny's encouragement to Steven Price, always a class act.

Big boned!

It was really checking out these three CDs from the library (probably just looking for Star Wars and Indiana Jones music) and listening to them on the CD player in my room that blew my mind. Kind of my Almost Famous/Tommy moment. I probably already loved all the famous themes just from watching the movies, but I remember being pretty overwhelmed by the emotional statements I didn't quite realize he was capable of, like "Remembrances," "Face of Pan", the JFK prologue, "Hymn to the Fallen", as well as stuff that had the catchy melodies and big "capital letters" sound that I loved, like The Cowboys overture, "The Barrel Chase," "Jim's New Life," "The Banquet", the Midway march...etc.

You must BELIEVE Sharkey! BELIEVE! "I do believe in the Star Wars sub-forum! I do! I do!"

He's said that he'd like to do a musical as one of his next films. Whether or not he means a lighthearted one, who knows?

Look into Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, for sure, if you haven't already. Particularly The Red Shoes, The Tales of Hoffman, and Oh Rosalinda!, as well as Powell's Bluebeard's Castle which I believe are all available on YouTube. They became fascinated by what Powell called "composed film," essentially cinematic ballet, where all the elements of a film are given individual attention to "dance" with the music and with each other, ideally creating a harmonious whole. If you can get your hands on the Criterion edition of Tales of Hoffman, Martin Scorsese's commentary gives a lot of great observations on this concept and how it's applied in that film throughout. Powell also talks about it in his autobiography A Life in Movies. Also I probably don't have to mention Disney, who was incidentally a big influence on Powell/Pressburger. In general, I've found that animation offers a lot of opportunities for studying a variety of film/music relationships, because there is such freedom. Related to Disney's own influences, you might want to look into abstract and/or drawn-on-film artists who often use music in evocative ways, like Len Lye, who inspired the Toccata/Fugue sequence in Fantasia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PgNr0IZRDE Also Norman McLaren is a big inspiration for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8uktqgKgw0 Also of course musicals, any and all of them, are perfect for any discussion of film being designed to music, rather than vice versa. I would say Stanley Donen and Vincente Minnelli are the touchstones for me...definitely watch Minnelli's The Band Wagon, if you haven't seen it before. Great film, some really amazing setpieces, but the "Girl Hunt" ballet sequence is particularly worth looking into for your thesis, I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0HNmHCKgH0 Also they're obviously not as prevalent as musicals, but the same would go for ballet or opera adaptations. As a suggestion, I think it might be interesting to compare Powell/Pressburger's Tales of Hoffman or something like Bergman's The Magic Flute with a filmed theater production and to see what differences and similarities there are in camera movement, lighting, composition, and editing. How they're using cinema to reflect the music, as opposed to pointing-and-shooting a camera at a stage. That might help you articulate some of your ideas. And then silent movies can be really good for the reverse idea, considering there are so many examples out there of different scores being written for the same film. You can probably get a lot out of that, and it would be a clear way to illustrate your thesis, since there is such clarity and consistency to the film/music relationship with silents. And for more modern examples, you could maybe go a little into how live concert settings have become such an overwhelmingly audiovisual experience e.g. the boys in my avatar, and I wouldn't overlook music videos and commercials, since they can probably give you a lot of insight into how the film/music relationship is taking shape today. Oh, and since you mentioned Tarkovsky, have you read his book Sculpting in Time? That has a chapter with his thoughts on film music and how he felt it should be applied, and it's at times a counter-argument to your thesis, where he wonders if music is really necessary or even beneficial for film at all, so that could also be really useful. It'd also be easy to go back to that when using examples from his films. Anyway, sorry that was such a mouthful, but I love this stuff too, and that's such an awesome idea for a thesis. Hope some of these suggestions help!

Well, that's for damn sure. In the last 18 months he's been cast by Spielberg, the Coens, and Noah Baumbach, and he's about to start on Scorsese's next. Wouldn't be surprised if this is true, at the rate he's going.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice will be released on December 12, 2014 The article also mentions Entourage: The Movie is coming in June 2015, for anyone who gives a shit about that.

His score for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel is streaming here: http://pitchfork.com/advance/363-the-grand-budapest-hotel-original-soundtrack/ Tracklist: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Budapest-Hotel-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B00HGGUTPW?tag=thfist07-20 Also he's announced two new projects: Roman Polanski's next film D and the Italian period fantasy The Tale of Tales: http://www.filmmusicreporter.com/2014/02/24/alexandre-desplat-to-score-roman-polanskis-d/

Agreed on Philomena. I think there are also distinctions to be made between "anti-Catholic" (which it may be) and "anti-religion/faith/God" (which it certainly is not.) Anyway, a lovely, witty movie and possibly my favorite Judi Dench performance.

That's like saying you hate Cary Grant for being so Cary Grant. Actors are actors, stars are stars and they can't be measured by the same yardstick. Yet they can irritate just the same. Some stars just are more palatable, like Cary Grant. Clooney's playing Clooney just rubs me the wrong way for some reason. It sometimes works when the character he is playing has something in common with Clooney's roguish charm... This is the reason why I think Up in the Air is his best performance. He's really riffing on his public persona there in a great, interesting way. As for me, I'll say Julianne Moore. She can be great, but she's also given some incredibly annoying performances and single-handedly brought down good or great movies/ensembles for me, Magnolia chief among them.

It doesn't look like he spent more than 30 seconds on it, anyway.

They're implied in the ellipsis

Even his handwriting is full of surprises and mysteries to be uncovered!

That's odd. I've never seen anybody write P's like that... http://oscar.go.com/photos/140210-oscar-nominee-questionnaires-part-2/media/music-original-score_the-book-thief-John-Williams

JW filled out a little questionnaire for the Academy Awards...nothing spectacular, he just gave short and simple answers to everything, but can anyone make out what that last name is after Beethoven under "What artists inspire you?" --

So has anybody seen this yet? Did you spot him?

http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm Doesn't look like we've ever had a thread for this list, which is updated annually and tabulates lists and ballots from over 3000 critics, scholars, websites, magazines etc. to make the list. Ultimately, it's just another movie list, but an interesting and extensive one and fun to look over, anyway. This year's edition added films such as Swing Time, Titanic, and Before Sunset while removing others like Das Boot and Andy Warhol's Empire. John Williams-scored films include: 104. Jaws 125. Star Wars 141. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 224. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 269. Raiders of the Lost Ark 288. The Empire Strikes Back 302. Schindler's List 419. The Long Goodbye 652. A.I. Artificial Intelligence 860. JFK

Yep, he did.