A million dreams for the world we're gonna make.

On Sunday, me and my friend went on a bus tour around London’s film locations, courtesy of Cineworld. It was super-fun! Despite having grown up in London, up until Saturday, I hadn’t actually been on a tour bus around the city, so it allowed me to indulge the inner tourist in me for a few hours, as well as top up my film knowledge. Win-win!

The bus we rode in on. Ohai, Taron Egerton and Gal Gadot films!

Two film rating observations regarding Wes Anderson films

Being as big a BBFC nerd as I am can be an affliction sometimes. It means that, for purposes of BBFC research, I end up watching titles that I would not watch otherwise (Fairy Tale – Dragon Cry, Red Sparrow, etc), and not particularly enjoying the experience.

Isle of Dogs was another example of such film. It wasn’t a bad film at all, but Wes Anderson is just not to my taste, and I didn’t feel like the film had enough of a sense of jeopardy regarding the dogs' mission, to keep me gripped.

A Look Ahead to Best Original Score

I’m at a much better position now than I was this time last year in terms of proportion of Oscar-nominated films viewed, and there are a fair few categories where I’ve seen all the nominees!

I sadly don’t have the time to analyse every category before Oscar night, but I will attempt the odd category, starting with Best Original Score.

My personal rankings, from least favourite to favourite, and a mark out of five, as I did with Best Supporting Actor last year.

05. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Carter Burwell

Although I love Carter Burwell’s swooning scores usually (I maintain he deserved the win in 2016 for his romantic score for Carol and even his Twilight music is very underrated), his erratic, tonally jarring composition on Three Billboards encapsulates all of the film’s problems when whiplashing from devastating tragedy to LOL comedy in a matter of seconds.

The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)

Pretension. It’s a funny thing. I prescribe to the Monica Bing school of thought, that a little bit of pretension never hurt anyone. It is definitely a thing of which, however, too much of can kill. 

Cannes winners have, in the past, gone into one set column or the other for me. Pretty much half of them, I appreciated their artistry, but, even more than that, connected with them on an emotional level, and thus really adored them. The others, I have found frustrating and to be perfectly honest, far too clever for their own good. The Tree of Life is one which firmly falls in the latter camp.

Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain head a good ol’ Christian style family in Texas. Pitt's character is the epitome of graft as he trains his songs to fight, build things and generally toughen them up against the big bad world, which he believes will take advantage of you if give it the chance. Jessica 

Chastain's matriarch, on the other hand, believes in living life through the way of grace, rather than nature. She tries to put a dampener on her husband’s volatile and bullish behaviour, which often has a detrimental impact on their three songs, not altogether successfully. At a young age, one the sons commits suicides, posing questions of faith, morality and existence to all involved.

The Tree of Life is, essentially, Terrence Malick’s soliloquy with God. “Why should I be good if you aren’t?” a character asks, later characterized in Sean Penn, a Houston architect who feels stifled by the heady skyscrapers he surrounds himself with everyday. 

Malick’s brother also committed suicide, leading understandably doubt his belief. And, fair play to him, for getting arts grants from whomever he managed to con into allowing him to film this, because it is, without hyperbolizing, one of the dullest things I have ever had to sit through. 

I wasn’t a huge fan of Lars von Triers’ Melancholia, which touched upon similar themes to The Tree of Life, and some film critics have offered as a complement to this film. But at least that film, for all its flaws, had moments of humour and colour interspersed with the dryness. 

The Tree of Life has colour all right, in terms of vividly CGI-d creation scenes, but very little in terms of emotional core or interest. Brad Pitt annoys and it is easy to see why his sons despised him so, despite his best efforts. Sean Penn features very little (probably the best thing I can say about this snorefest), but when he does, he just channels Penn in 21 Grams with a constantly perplexed/angry/bemused look on his face. Oscar winning this most certainly ain’t. 

The young kids in the film, played by relative newcomers to the acting circuit, do their jobs admirably enough, but the fact that they are speaking Terrence Malick words makes it hard to warm to them. 

The film’s only saving grace is Jessica Chastain, who gives a beautiful performance, full to the brim of warmth and love. She never over or under acts, despite Malick having written her as a kind of “doting wife and mother” archtype. It’s a thankless role, but Chastain truly impresses in it.

And I am trying to find other redemptive features of the film, really I am, but that is about the only good thing I can say about The Tree of Life. My housemate said “I have absolute no interest in seeing THAT” and I have no idea why I didn’t listen to him, because it is two and a half of my life I shall never get back. 

Even Alexandre Desplat’s score, which I would normally appreciate (man is a genius), is tainted by the fact that it appears in this Bible Bash of a film, as does his good eye for cinematography (used to such good effect in films that he has made well, namely Days of Heaven and The New World). 

Want a little taster of Tree of Life? Go to the book of Job, pick a verse, any verse, blast some classical music from your iPod dock and flick through a photo album of images of nature. It will be much, much, much more fulfilling than watching this piece of trash film was. 

If Terrence Malick really loves his "God" so much, one would have thought God would have blessed him with a slightly better movie.

Grade: U

A Look Ahead to Best Original Score, 2010.

The nominees: 127 Hours: A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon: John Powell
Inception: Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech: Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

My rankings and grades:

01. How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon is a fresh, cute film about a lad and his dragon. From the very first couple of notes of the score (which begin as the film does), I thought “oh here we go ago, another standard boring Disneyesque film”, with an unequally uninspired score to match. But I was wrong, for, as soon as the narrator subverted my thoughts in his narration, the score also did, and went from cheesy to cheeky. There’s barely a scene in How to Train Your Dragon where music isn’t employed, but it never feels intrusive and its playfulness is an absolutely joy; listen to how the music modulates into schmaltz pastiche when the protagonist’s crush walks onto the screen. Exuberant, lively, and adventurous, John Powell has sculpted a score which embodies the film perfectly, and, in honestly, is a huge factor for why I enjoyed it so. He clearly had a huge amount of fun writing the score, and we as the audience share the enjoyment in listening to it. A.

(but don’t just take my word for it, check out the amaze tracks yourself! The Drowned Dragon / See You Tomorrow / The Vikings Have Their Tea)

02. Inception (Hans Zimmer)

Hmm, Inception. It’s very difficult for me to be even in the same room as this film without wanting to throw something at it. But, credit where credit is due, Hans Zimmer knows how to – and clearly enjoys – penning the scores to action/adventure/thriller films. And often, as with Inception and The Da Vinci Code, his music proves to be the best thing about the lame excuse for a film. The track “Mombassa”, played when the action for the film was just kicking in, is terrifically fresh and frenetic, and at that point still gave me enough false hope to believe the film might be worth bothering with; the fusion of hyper-drumming and electro-rock give the film a huge sense of urgency and excitement, and the finale track “Time” is full of hope, sadness and despair in its elegiac string chords and powerful surges of crescendo as well as the blend of semiquavers and minims played in the beautiful “528491”, a track which I will forever now associate with Pete Postlethwaite. Unlike Christopher Nolan with the plot, Hans Zimmer keeps the musical ingredients relatively simple for Inception. And, by doing so, he shows that less is more. Take note next time you try to write/direct something about dreams ever again please, Chris Nolan. A-

03. The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat)
Alexandre Desplat, who also scored 2010’s Ghost Writer and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, finds himself getting his fourth nomination in five years for his score to what is now, after recent DGA and SAG ensemble wins, the front-runner for Best Film come February 27th. His other three nominations have come for his music to films about a wily fox, a man who ages backwards, and, curiously enough, the Queen of England. But Desplat avoids doing what many composers must be tempted to do; go through their rolodex of old musical notes used for The Queen and bung it in to The King’s Speech, justifying that, they are, after all, “both about monarchy in England.” No, Mr Desplat is nothing if not original, and the music to The King’s Speech dances with wit and whimsy. On personal listening, the tinkling piano, the sparse use of woodwork and the orchestral melodies don’t delight quite as much as they do with the pictures, and it far from sits in my personal top 5 Desplat scores (that, for your information, would be Birth, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Syriana, Lust, Caution and The Upside of Anger) but in fitting in with telling of King George’s journey from zero to hero, they certainly fit the bill. B+.

04. The Social Network (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross)

Whenever I try to remember the score to The Social Network, literally all I can ever remember is just a bunch of piano chords at all the most dramatic moments. Literally. Seriously, the score was a total non-entity and it absolutely confounds me how two people were required (one of which, Mr Reznor, is actually Nine Inch Nails' frontman), to put together such a musicalling mediocrity. I have no beef with the film whatsoever, in fact, I’d quite like it to win Best Film ahead of The King’s Speech, which left me somewhat cold, but please, not the score. That was crap, and the academy should definitely have deprived The Social Network of a nomination in this category and given it to the film where it deserved it - Best Supporting Actor. Oh yes, I'm still stanning Andrew Garfield. E.

05. 127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
Speaking of crap, Jesus. I don’t get any joy out of ragging on A.R. Rahman, he did, after all, produce what I consider to be one of the most ingenious scores of recent years in Slumdog Millionaire’s terrific soundtrack. But if The Social Network was just a mishmash of sad-sounding piano chords, 127 Hours was just a mish-mash of weird sounds, with a bit of acoustic guitar thrown in to try and evoke the eerie, ethereal effect. I was not won over; the music left me feeling as viscerally sick as much as the arm amputating. F.

Who will win: The Social Network (urgh)
Who deserves to win: John Powell for How to Train Your Dragon
Who deserved to be nominated: Alexandre Desplat for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?? idk. On the whole, it wasn't the most memorable year for film scores. Pity. But John Powell's score to How to Train Your Dragon is absolutely adorable, and I'm actually quite pleased I forsaw this one getting nominated.

Soundtracks are a Godsend for learning languages.

I quit French over four years ago and what I do get of the language is from solely French cinema, but reading the tracklisting to the soundtracks can help too. In this case, I was looking at the tune names of Alexandre Desplat's score to Coco avant Chanel:

1. L’abandon / The Abandonment
2. Chez Chanel / At Chanel's Place
3. Coco & Boy
4. Royallieu
5. Couture / Sewing
6. Avenue du Bois / Wood(ed?) Avenue
7. Premier baiser / First (To) Kiss
8. Gabrielle Bonheur / Gabrielle Happiness
9. L’Hippodrome / The Hippodrome
10. Arthur Capel (
11. Confession de Balsan / Confession of Balsan
12. Coco reve de Paris / Coco Dream of Paris
13. L’Atelier (01:48)/ The Workshop
14. Un seul Amour / One Love
15. Le Chagrin de Coco / Coco's Sorrow
16. Casino de Deauville / Deauville's Casino
17. Little Black Baby (Scott Joplin) (01:37)
18. Qui qu’a vu Coco (Baumaine-Blondelet / Deransart) / Who's Seen Coco (

Bung!

Girl with a Pearl Earring score (Alexandre Desplat)

I can't get enough of Alexandre Desplat, me. If you'd like a track or two, just say and your wish is my command!

01. The Master's House (wonderfully atmospheric)
02. Colours in the Clouds - Strings (a delicious piece of chamber music)
03. Griet's Theme (the dancing of the tune between string and woodwind is absolute musical heaven)
04. Griet's Theme - Reprise
05. Cornelia (the bitch of the film gets an appropriately strong piece)
06. Girl with a Pearl Earring (not the most creative theme Desplat's thought up, but still a haunting one)
07. Colours in the Clouds (sexy)
08. Vermeer's Studio
09. Silence and Light (captures the tone of the film in a stunningly elegiac piano solo)
10. Camera Obscura (beautiful, but too tense for its own good)
11. Van Ruijvan (appropriately sneaky piece)
12. By the Canal with Pieter (romantic music)
13. Griet Remembers
14. Girl with a Pearl Earring - Reprise (samey)
15. The Master is painting (I got bored of the tremolo after a while)
16. Catharina's Pearls (one of the more cinematic tracks of the OST)
17. A New Life
18. Home (the oboe sounds a bit boring, clarinet's good though)
19. The Birth Feast
20. Winter Nights (meh, just a replay of the main theme)

My 20 favourite pieces of music composed for a film, ever.

In conjunction with Damian's excellent Film Music Blogathon at Windmills of My Mind.

One Zummer once said, “Film is a predominantly visual medium, which means the general purpose of a music score is to capture and reinforce the essence of a film, generally without drawing attention to itself.” Well, I’m sorry, but I disagree. Being a musician myself, I feel that music is one of the principal, if not the principal element to telling a story, and if the score ends up being so beautiful it outdoes the film itself, then so be it. Today, I’ve chosen my 20 favourite pieces of music ever composed for film, and invite you to listen to their mastery. (Some you can enjoy in the form of YouTube vids, others through downloads.) And note - quite a lot of Newman on here, because, he's kind of my favourite composer. Ever. Ever. Ever!!!!!!

01. The Heart Asks Pleasure First (Michael Nyman, The Piano)

Take from the words of poet Emily Dickinson, this is my choice for favourite, most haunting, and best piece of music ever composed for film. This piano piece enhances the ethereal, raw emotions felt by Ada in the movie, and also just happens to be a case of darn good music, Nyman's execution of this score is nothing less than perfect, and the playing blew me away.

02. First Day (Thomas Newman, Finding Nemo)


I thought I may have quite a lot of Newman (my favourite film composer) on this list, et voila, I was right! Finding Nemo is my favourite film score, and it was so hard to pick a favourite from the list, but finally, I settled for First Day, which is played early on in the film over the shot of Marlin taking Nemo to his first day at school. With pizzicati and orchestra, Newman captures the vast nature of the ocean, and hints at the playfulness and peril to follow. It’s just exquisite.

03. Comptine d'un autre été: L'après midi (Yann Tiersen, Amélie)
So good, that Tiersen ripped himself off and re-used it in Goodbye Lenin, this gorgeously sad piece that encompasses both the beauty of Paris and the joie de vivre of the film. A true example of how music can lift one’s soul into Heaven.

04. Prologue (Alexandre Desplat, Birth)
Along with Newman, Desplat is the most talented working composer of today, and his work on Birth epitomizes this fact. Although difficult to choose a favourite of his, I went for Prologue from Birth, simply for the eerily scary way it suited the images, and set the tone for the rest of the movie.

05. Love Theme (Ennio Morricone, Cinema Paradiso)

06. The Wings (Gustavo Santaolalla, Brokeback Mountain)

It's brief, but it's also undersated, heartbreaking, and utterly brilliant. Santaolalla deservedly won the Oscar for his work here.

07. Dead Already (Thomas Newman, American Beauty)

08. Theme from Schindler’s List (John Williams, Schindler’s List)

To be honest, there's nothing to say here that I haven't covered in my review of the score, but I'll just say it again - I had the pleasure of learning this stunning track for my grade 7 violin, and unlike most of my violin pieces that I learn, studying this simply enhanced my adoration for the piece. It meanders through octaves, with elegance and grace, with heartbreakingly simple harmonic progressions that truly touch the soul. Possibly one of the most recognisable pieces of music composed, and rightly so.
09. First Snow (Clint Mansell, The Fountain)

Sadly, I don't have my iPod with me (I left it at school, I'm an idiot, I know) , so I can't upload this genius of composition, but another track on the Fountain score that I loved to pieces was Death is the Road to Awe, which, despite its quasi-emo title, is utterly beautiful.

10. Drive Away (Thomas Newman, Lemony Snicket)

Showing that there is no end to his talent, this idiosyncratic electric-guitar led piece somewhat recalls Newman's work on the Erin Brockovich score, but here, it is jazzy and snazzy piece, and much more unforgettable than that of anything on the Brockovich score. As I said in my review of the soundtrack, it is a true eargasm.

11. Balcony Scene (Craig Armstrong, Romeo + Juliet)
12. Road to Chicago (Thomas Newman, Road to Perdition)
13. Your Hands are Cold (Dario Marianelli, Pride & Prejudice)
14. The Necklace and the Return and Finale (Bernard Herrmann, Vertigo)
15. Soy Marco (Alberto Iglesias, Hable con Ella)
16. And that Right Soon (Thomas Newman, The Shawshank Redemption)
17. Hedwig’s Theme (John Williams, Harry Potter)
18. Gabriel’s Oboe (Ennio Morricone, The Mission)
19. Camera Obscura (Alexandre Desplat, Girl with a Pearl Earring)
20. Filter Attempt (Thomas Newman, Finding Nemo)

Thank you for reading, now...


If you liked that...

Bear with the blog, and here are a few of my older posts that I recommend:

My review of Brokeback Mountain - my 6th favourite film of all time, and the best review that I've ever written. Enjoy.

My favourite screenplay of all time - a nice lil' look at my favourite script, to my favourite movie.

The day I met Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham