Sharkissimo

The flying theme has what is possibly Williams' best B section. It's the one that leads not only the most seamlessly, but the most tantalizingly into the return of A, its juicy harmonies and its continuously moving string line "wafting" gradually towards us, causing us to musically salivate and whetting our appetite for another massive dose of the famous theme. Sometimes the little links between sections contribute enormously to the greatness of a piece.

Love Ann-Sophie Mutter. Previn was a lucky sod.
Recently discovered this piece by Zemlinsky. 6 Gesänge für mittlere Stimme und Kammerorcheste (Op. 13) (AKA: 6 Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Chamber Orchestra) - based on poems by Maurice Maeterlinck.

Moving.
One of my favourite commencement du siècle works:

Sounds like a Blaxploitation flick.

No use...you can only get unreleased Alan Silvestri sketches that way.

In the begining, God created America...and immediately went over budget.

For one thing, Gilliam has a point - as always. We are all right in the middle of the trend he describes. If you deny it you've probably surrendered yourself to blockbuster booming.
Personally, I've seen like, what, 7 1/2 Harry Potter movies in 10 years - and I can't remember a single scene.
For another thing, Gilliam's favorite scapegoat has always been Spielberg. A love-hate relationship that seems to go back to the early 80s. Gilliam has stated many times over
decades that he dislikes Spielberg's films for being too saccharine and so on, and that "Schindler's List" would trivialize the holocaust. That's a good point, although I believe
Schindler's List still is the best-made film about the Holocaust, and that the Hollywood formula of putting things on its head (the good Nazi, the rescue of the Jews instead of what
happened to the rest of them) - just to tell a better STORY - worked fine for this particular film.
The problem I have with Gilliam is that he's just repeating his age-old argument with Spielberg (to which Spielberg never responded) - which goes back to the 80s when Spielberg
was still king of the box office and he wasn't. Watch the Making-of Tideland where he clearly admits that it's just envy on his part.
I don't think he he even saw a Spielberg movie since the 1990s. He's constantly referring to trends and films from 20 years ago - imagine! What's more, neither Gilliam nor Spielberg
are still relevant in today's filmmaking world, while both men simply don't seem to realize it. You have to admit it, even if you love their classic movies from the past.
Personally, I adore both directors, but not what they've done after "Schindler's List" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

I hate the soundtrack.

Agreed. JW wouldn't even soil his eyes by watching a Nolan flick.

To all jwfan-ers: have a great, and a great soundtrack-buying 2014! Complete scores for "Empire Of The Sun", and "JFK", please. Hell, yeah!!!

My main gripe about the way themes are treated in the discussion here, and it's been this was since Doug released his CR notes is that every aspect of what i would consider a theme is classified and categorized as a theme in it's own right.
I dont see that at all with discussions about other scores.
The opening rhythm of The Imperial March isnt generally describes as a theme onto it's own. Yet if Doug had written a book about it we would be called it the Approach Of The Empire theme. The middle part would be the Vaders Hop step variation.

The Lost World complete would be top of my list BY FAR.

There may actually be empirical evidence to support that. My wife's research is actually focused in this "choice" area of behavioral economics. It's already been established that decision making is a very laborious process for the mind. Every decision you make drains you of substantial decision making "reserves." And the greater the number of choices the worse the effect, sometimes to the point of decision paralysis. If not paralysis, then the more decisions you make without taking a break and letting your mind and body rest, the worse your decisions become.
Interestingly, in the game industry realized this independently when designing games with choices. When you give players too many options they just sort of freeze up, or start doing some really dumb things. They start looking for shortcuts, or ways to avoid the decision, or make it in the least mentally taxing way. They start doing everything but playing the game before them just to avoid picking from 20 different weapons.
My wife would be quick to say, no one has studied filmmakers so it's unwise to extrapolate. But still, it's not too far fetched to imagine leaving all the big decisions for high-pressure 5 days before the film is being shipped to theaters will have negative consequences on the quality of the decisions made for the film.

Another thought that came to me is that the engineer might being using the distant mikes to pick up the string section in that passage. Maybe woodwind or choir mikes, or ambients up in Wellington Town Hall's gallery.
That's how Bernard Herrmann recorded the 8 female singers (4 altos, 4 sopranos) in OBSESSION - placing them in the organ loft of St Giles-without-Cripplegate Church. Their sound that came down from the organ loft was recorded by the string mike, giving a certain eerie, muted quality.

Among other things.

Make some bloody sense, Yoda. That's not even English, you usless half-pint!

Yep. Most problems with those films all come down to this decision.
Weird pace, weird editing, uninteresting added subplots, hacked up score, last-minute changed designs, changed character roles, unexisting endings... Most of these things happened after they decided to do three films.

I personally prefer to listen to concert music finding it generally more rewarding to time investment where film music tends to reduce its impact the more I listen. Only the greatest film scores constantly surprise me and the more I listen the more nuance I hear. This is why I love JW so much. Along with Goldsmith, Herrmann, the classics who were really very polished composers and end up with film music as a genre for practical reasons rather than artistic ones. For example, Herrmann was always frustrated to be classified as a film composer rather than a composer who works in film. I believe JW is the same way and at its best, film music stands proudly along with other musical examples of exceptional refinement. With the passing of Peter O'toole, "Lawrance of Arabia" was on the radio and that music is just so perfectly written to encapsulate the larger than life settings and characters. I recall hearing it in concert once (probably a Hollywood Bowl thing) and was just blown away by the sweep and grandeur. Just like concert music has good historic periods and less good ones, when it's good, it's VERY good and I can say it changed my life. I think the same for JW's music. I don't think the same for film music in general.

We like film music because it provides temporary respite from the voices in out heads.
In all seriousness, I don't listen to escape from reality, I listen to embrace it.

A marvellous passage. Leading up to these chords is a pedal point on B, which, together with the driving rhythm and general minor-key sound, lends the music a constant intensity and negative emotion appropriate to the scene.
The first four of those five chords derive from a combination of two whole tone scales (follow any single voice in the parallelism and you'll see what I mean), scales that naturally create a feeling of unease due to having no tonal center. On the other hand, all five of those chords are major chords, so they have a positive sound as well. It's as though the music is saying, "there's a chance the rebels could escape, but it could fail at any moment".
The fifth of these chords breaks the whole tone pattern and starts to sound slightly more functional - as though the rebels are about to have the upper hand (for the moment!).
Finally, as the rebels enter hyperspace, the music explodes onto that triumphant chord, (what else?) a B major chord, thus returning to the B that led up to the passage with another positive emotion and giving the music a sense of finality, stability, and even heroism with the heavy brass scoring.
As usual, Williams draws on several of music's innate qualities at once to express the emotions of the scene. And that's what's so great about his music - you don't have to know anything about music theory or composition to "get" it. By understanding music so incredibly well, he ensures that anyone will understand exactly what's going on emotionally in a scene.
Sheer brilliance.

I'm guessing for this Gia will return to his LOST aesthetic, along with the more barbaric parts of JOHN CARTER.

Cheers. Would that have been recorded with at Wellington Town Hall with the full orchestra, or with the Gamelan ensemble we see in the vlog?
I'm guessing it's the gong ageng. Amazing sound!

BTW, what's the crazy spiral-shaped cymbal being bowed at 7:27 in the vlog? Never seen that before.

67 today and still the world's greatest living director. (also tied with Williams as the two people I've idolised most in my life.)
Better late than never! Keep the camera moving Stevie!