eitam

An additional Milan date is extremely unlikely as the theatre is fully booked in either previous or following days.
 
I too believe the demand this time was particularly high given what was available. It wouldn't surprise me if there were around 10,000 people online at that moment.
 
Btw, in an incredible turn of the events, a kind-hearted JWfanner decided to sell to me one of the two tickets he succeded to get during yesterday's sale. I will be forever grateful to him

I am confident you'll find a way to attend the show Maurizio
 
As for me, count me amongst the fools who planned our only major vacation since 2019 around this concert, already having booked accommodations in four different cities in Italy, only to not have a ticket to the show

And I'll be seeing John Williams in two months ! SUPER EXCITED!

Oh man.  That overlay on the site meaning nobody could progress.. while having seats in the basket..

I still have nightmares about trying to book tickets for that concert.

I heard that the entire concert was hideous.   

Ha! I’ve pre-ordered this book so I’ll try and skip this page. I was very fortunate to meet Alan Rickman thanks to my work with Patrick Doyle a few years ago. Well, nearly 10 now! They were both very close friends being part of the London theatrical scene in the 70s and 80s. 
 
Shameless (!) photo below.

Classic FM article:
 
And a tweet by the LSO:
 
I guess that officially makes JW a Jedi Knight (I can't believe nobody made that lame joke in this thread before…)
 

To be fair, Rickman also thought Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, one of the worst movies I've seen in a theater in my life, was "absolutely ravishing," so his own personal taste might not be something to put any stock by 

https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-original-score-predictions-1235381044/

So is it "sweeping and stirring" or "light piano cues"?
 
some reviews make it sound like E.T. and others Stanley and Iris

My thoughts on the film and score:
 
Spielberg’s usual knack for sentimentality and wide-eyed wonder manifests itself so effortlessly in this tender autobiography about the healing power of art in a broken family. It feels like he’s been making movies for decades with this in the back of his mind, not as some grand end goal per se but as another big piece to fit comfortably into the later chapters of his oeuvre. There has always been a little spot in his filmography left open for this one. Those skeptical about the material will be happy to know that it plays less like the stock coming-of-age-meets-homage-to-cinema vanity project that you’re probably thinking of and more like a warm and fuzzy flicker of home movie memories from the all-time great.
 
The first hour or so is as close as the film gets to saccharine, not so much sweetened as it is a little corny, but never cloying. For anyone allergic to Spielberg in that general mode, this won’t change your attitude. The film fittingly grows up over the runtime, but still skillfully walks the bittersweet line between the dramatic weight and the tongue-in-cheek dorkiness of Spielberg’s youth from the get-go. It’s never self-serious and has a good sense of humour about itself without compromising the emotional resonance of the familial tensions. If anything, the lightness authenticates it. I’m not sure if it was just emphasized by the receptive festival crowd, but this might actually be one of Spielberg’s funniest, filled with lots of naturalistic sibling banter, interjections from old Jewish relatives, and the usual awkward teen moments. The monkey is good too!
 
After the wide-shot flourish of West Side Story, which naturally saw him throw his whole cinematic toolbox up onto the screen, Spielberg’s direction scales back and excels in the light touch of his patented formal economy. He’s still bringing the goods as necessary, from a couple of lasting compositions to one incredibly memorable visual gag, but don’t go in expecting any show-stopping long-takes. Ultimately the heart of the film is the script, co-authored by Tony Kushner but so clearly a personal outlet for Spielberg. Sure, the recreated anecdotes will be familiar to admirers of his work, but there’s a whole groundwork of thematic subtext there to deepen the scenes that would otherwise have us pointing at the screen DiCaprio-style. In fact, it's pretty remarkable how well so much of the stuff I "recognized" translates to the screen without that embarrassing feeling that it’s only there for the sake of it.
 
The performances are really solid in an ensemble sort of way. Obviously Paul Dano and Michelle Williams as the parents goes without saying, but the main guy who plays Spielberg at high school age is actually really good too. I recall some of the early reactions mentioning Licorice Pizza as a reference, which makes some sense considering how certain characters will just wander in, own the movie for a few minutes, and then leave (Judd Hirsch and David Lynch, baby!). Fortunately, that’s as far as the comparison goes though. I didn’t like the rose-coloured glasses the PTA film insisted on wearing but no matter here. 
 
Just as my film brain is always focusing on the camera movement and editing, my film score ears are tuned in to catch and place as much music as possible. Williams’ score is sparse but thoughtfully spotted and quite elegant in a sombre way, as KK has already mentioned. My estimate is probably not much more than a half-hour of original music, if even that much. It’s possible Williams wrote and recorded some other suites or arrangements intended for the album, but otherwise I imagine the OST will be a combination of licensed music and original score. There are a couple period needledrops from the radio, a number of classical piano pieces played by his mother (credits listed Satie’s Gymnopedie, and others by Beethoven, Haydn, and maybe Bach), as well as some diegetic Western music heard on records during the movie screenings (I recognized the villain theme from Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven and the title melody from Newman’s How The West Was Won, credits also listed something by Victor Young, Max Steiner’s The Searchers, and more Alfred Newman- Captain From Castile may have been it). As far as Williams’ score goes, there’s one main idea for celeste, strings, harp, and what I think was an oboe or clarinet. It appears about three times in the film proper, and is also the basis for the 4 to 5-minute end credits suite, which is a unique recording and the longest piece of music altogether. That one is sure to get a lot of plays. All the players are listed, including a standard string section, french horns, and soloists on piano, celeste, and guitar. Whoever drew the Book Thief comparison was about as close as they could have gotten, even though this is still pretty unique territory from a functional standpoint. Being reminded of Williams' grace and deftness after the sequel trilogy years of wall-to-wall tentpole scoring is of course another testament to his genius. Certainly worth a closer listen.
 
Anyway, it was really cool to attend a TIFF screening for the first time and to have it be the new Spielberg/Williams collaboration of all things. I’ll definitely be seeing this again in November. My favourite part was the post-credits stinger where a silhouetted man clearly wearing a turtleneck appears in a doorway and we get a booming, "Hey Stevie, baby!" accompanied by a bass pizzicato Jaws theme before it cuts to black. Seriously though, count me as a Fabel-fan.

Listening to The Fury while reading this thread was a mistake, jesus christ this is too intense. 

I won't write my opinions of Godard out of respect for the dead.

Let's be honest, Williams missed the mark on this one. The writing is clearly on the walls. The fact it's nothing more than just a few piano sketches is enough to show that Williams really didn't have his heart in it. Didn't even put in the time or effort to use a full orchestra. I'm seeing lukewarm words like "amazing," "masterful," and "emotional" repeatedly online to describe the score, but these subjective terms are meaningless in the face of what we should have gotten. I'm literally shaking right now trying to hold back tears at the thought of what could have been.

Hildur Guonadottir has two Oscar contenders, Women Talking and Tar. Idk about the score for the former, but the latter in particular has kind of a juicy music-based narrative where it's about a female conductor, so it could go her way again.
 
Justin Hurwitz for Babylon is also a possible nominee/winner, he likes to go big and the movie will be very showy, could be one of those movies that scoops up a lot of the tech awards by default. 
 
The advantage for JW's chances is they've both also already won recently, and I do think he has kind of the most sentimental awards narrative this year. People are aware that he just turned 90 and that he's considering retirement from movies. A lot of people mentioning this might be his last Spielberg score in reviews and social media, and it being a Spielberg autobiography, people might feel like giving it to him on that basis. The knocks against it are that it seems like the movie is a bit lightweight and also that there isn't really a ton of Williams score in it, and he keeps it pretty mellow. But then again they give light movies Oscars plenty and the musical ignorance of AMPAS might finally work to his favor if there's a lot of classical piano in it lmao. 

…you can tell the release year of a film because you know the release year of the soundtrack album.

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself tbh

I’m trying to imagine a “mad” Howard Shore lol. He’s so soft spoken. Doesn’t mean he can’t feel that I suppose. I’m sure he’ll channel all his rage into the next Cronenberg score 😉

Rest in peace, you dear, dear woman.

The entire world mourns Elizabeth, the specific person, but also I think we are mourning our connection to this generation that came of age around WWII.  All four of my grandparents were born right around the same time as her, and I only have one left.

He introduced the Harry Potter pieces as usual, saying he'll do Hedwig's Theme and Harry's Wonderous World.
But after Hedwig's theme he turned around and started talking about Fiddler on the Roof. The orchestra just went with it, and also proceeded with the surprise Schindler's List performance since that's how first violinist Bing Wang's featured set goes. When she made her way back to her seat she went up to John and whispered in his here.
He humorously acknowledged to the audience that Bing just reminded him he forgot HWW. "Should we call this a senior moment?...How wonderfully embarassing.... You'd think I have something against Harry Potter... or J.K Rowling"
So they finally played the piece and afterwards he said "well that might be the best it's sounded, maybe I should forget more often".
 
I felt slightly embarrassed for him as soon as he started talking about Fiddler on the Roof and assumed they'll all just pretend nothing was missing. But he was a good sport about his "senior moment" and had a good laugh about it. I then noticed on the third night he gestured to Bing (probably a wink or something) when mentioning they'll play HWW.

Every day that Williams is still around is precious and can't be wasted.