The Score (USA 2001)

Directed by Frank Oz
Screenplay by Kario Salem, Lem Dobbs, and Scott Marshall Smith
Photography by Rob Hahn
Music by Howard Shore

Directed by Charles Vidor
Screenplay by Sidney Buchman
Photography by Tony Gaudio and Allan M. Davey
Music adapted by Miklos Rozsa

Main Cast: Cornel Wilde, Merle Oberon, Paul Muni

Life of Chopin. Goes to Bohemian France (chock full of celebrities: "Hello Lizst." "Hi there Chopin, seen Paganini lately?"). Has romance with George Sand who makes him forget struggle for Polish people.

I must admit, I don't know anything about the life of Chopin, but I was wary of this as a history lesson and took it with a pinch of salt.

It does seem to be a kind of potted biography in pictures, but at least it (superficially) tries to address some kind of character conflict in the portrayal of Chopin.

Cornel Wilde may have been a bit limited in the nuances (he only really has two facial expressions, smiling and constipated), and Paul Muni chews the scenery quite annoyingly, but Merle Oberon is quite fetching as trouser-wearing George Sand.

I enjoyed this film, but I'm also prepared to admit that it might be, how shall we say...balderdash?

Overlong but amusing, stylish character study of maladjusted, prescription dependant (possibly schizophrenic) teen who believes his will is being guided by a psychotic 6ft rabbit who transports him back and forth through time.

Boasts superior performances, sublimely black humour and astute usage of music score, song and sound effects.

Very Twilight Zone-ish.

Mutiny on the Bounty. While in Tahiti, the Mel Gibson/Anthony Hopkins
Mutiny played all the time in our rooms because we visited the bay it
was filmed in. I enjoyed the movie except that I thought Hopkin’s Bligh
wasn’t slimy enough. Bounty scores are usually wonderful, but this
score by Vangelis was wretched wallpaper noise.

Life As A House. Kevin Kline has been divorced for 10 years, hates
his job, lives in a shack on a beautiful piece of land, and hasn’t been much
of a father to his body pierced, alienated, drugged up son. He loses
his job and discovers he has 4 months to live. He forces his son to live
with him. He decides to tear down his shack and build a beautiful
house. (Metaphor..tear down the ragged past and build a meaningful
future for his posterity. Heal his loved ones and himself.) The son,
Hayden Christensen, who is the next Anakin, does a nice job of acting.
Jena Malone, the stepdaughter in Stepmom, is wretched. Kline is always
understated grace and acting savvy. Very predictable movie, and
I do tire of predictability. Still, only a turnip or stone wouldn’t have his/her
heart strings tugged now and then by this movie of redemption through
the rediscovery of love. Isham’s score lacked the melodic punch
of some of his earlier scores, and this sentimental movie called
for a tissue grabbing melody.

The reason for this most happy message
can be read from my post on FROM BROADWAY TO BIG SCREEN on General Topics.

I recommend MOULIN ROUGE to anybody who loves music & life, and still wants to be surprised positively.

I was going to avoid it, as I also was going to avoid TITANIC and SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT - but thank God I didn't..!

I want to see it, hear it & feel it AGAIN - and right now I'm about going to town to buy the soundtrack.

Directed by William Wyler
Screenplay by Lillian Hellman, from her play
Photography by Gregg Toland
Music by Meredith Willson

Main Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, Patricia Collinge

The Deep South, post-Civil War. Family of little foxes scheme and plot and stab each other in the back, not caring that the vines have tender grapes.

I was thinking during the early dinner-table scenes, "What does this remind me of?", with its electrifying change of moods throughout the same dialogues, laughing turning to vitriol, multiple points of view... It reminded me of Orson Welles, and Gregg Toland's impressive high-contrast photography (black people standing next to white people!) only heightened the Kane connection. And the script fairly crackles here too.

A stand-out amongst the brilliant ensemble cast is Dan Diarrhea. I never took much notice of Mr Diarrhea before, but I will from now on, especially if he's playing a complete axehole or dirkhead, like he does here so wonderfully.

The Little Foxes is, in my humble opinion of course, a magnificently cinematic theatre piece, if that's not a contradiction in terms. But my mind still wandered a bit.

It was pretty good; no classic, but well-made and entertaining enough, with some good scares. That Vince Vaughn was truly menacing.

The film's problems, however, can't be ignored. The best example of this is Peter Honess' editing. Scenes (particularly in the first half) lead you to believe that they'll be longer, but they just cut off (this might be why the film clocks in at only 89 minutes - with credits!). Also, Steve Buscemi isn't in the film long enough; his character "exits" the film too soon for me. Finally, Paramount went to great lengths to cut this film for a PG-13 rating, though, with the violence and a few obviously dubbed-over profanities, I fail to see the point.

Mark Mancina's score was all right. A wonderful main theme (reminiscent of Goldsmith's Malice, minus the choir; I guess we know what was on the temp track). I just might buy it when it comes out, though (as heard in the film) the score was pretty sparse. I wouldn't be surprised if Mancina had to pull a "Fierce Creatures" and write additional music for the Varese CD.

Film and Score: 3.5 (out of 5)

CECIL B. DEMENTED - John Water's affectionate love letter to 'underground cinema'. Not quite as outrageous as most of his earlier work, but anyone who can get me to watch Melanie Griffith willingly AND get Patty Hearst to mock her own kidnapping must know what he's doing.

THE 1,000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE - Fritz Lang's last film, with Gert Frobe, pre-Goldfinger. Worth looking for in your nearest video store with a Foreign Film section.

For those of you in NYC, LA, Seattle and Dallas, keep your eyes open for a scrappy independent film called THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT - an autobiographical musical space western.

RAT RACE (2001) C-111m **1/2 D: Jerry Zucker. C: Rowan Atkinson, Lanai Chapman, John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Seth Green, Wayne Knight, Jon Lovitz, Breckin Meyer, Kathy Najimy, Amy Smart, Dave Thomas, Vince Vieluf, Paul Rodriguez, Dean Cain. Eccentric casino owner Cleese (sporting the freakiest fake teeth in film history) gathers together a group of strangers and sends them on a chase from Las Vegas to Silver City, New Mexico in search of a $2 million prize (unaware that they're being wagered on) in this fast-paced, enjoyably goofy though occasionally mean-spirited variation on IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Geunine laughs throughout, but (with the exception of Green and newcomer Vieluf as scheming brothers) no one in the talented cast has a chance to truly shine. Kathy Bates appears unbilled. Wonderful score by John Powell. Panavision. (PG-13)

[Message edited by SBD on 11-21-2001]

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer, from a story by Ernst Lubitsch and Melchior Lengyel
Photography by Rudolph Maté
Music by Werner Heymann

Main Cast: Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack, Stanley Ridges, Lionel Atwill

Warsaw 1939: A troupe of actors doing Shakespeare get involved in the Nazi invasion and are drawn into spying and impersonation.

What's that "Lubitsch touch"? Elegant, sophisticated, a trifle naughty? Whatever, this is a much admired satirical farce, and I went into it blind, being a Lubitsch semi-virgin. I detected a sophisticated/ madcap balance, like a very controlled Marx Bros or Fawlty Towers. Funny, and with exceedingly clever situations, but not hilarious. In fact, what surprised me was that in some of the early passages, it wasn't like a comedy at all, and the wintery Poland scenes with the dead trees were like a Universal horror movie (and scored by Werner Heymann as if the Wolfman was going to jump out at any moment).

Directed by David Cronenberg
Screenplay by David Cronenberg and Norman Snider, from the book by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland
Photography by Peter Suschitzky
Music by Howard Shore

Main Cast: Jeremy Irons, Jeremy Irons, Genevieve Bujold

Twin gynaecologists (one quite weird, the other very) share patients and girlfriends. The very weird twin becomes infatuated with an actress who has three cervixes and begins to see "normal" women as mutants. So he has a weird sculptor design weird gynaeclogical instruments to operate with. And he goes on drugs too.

So, all in all, quite sufficiently weird, no? But my silly synopsis only gives a mere idea of the film. The narrative takes a back seat to the concepts and the ideas, and in fact Dead Ringers doesn't really seem to go anywhere for ages. But it does exert a strange and disturbing fascination, as if we're waiting for it to fall off the knife-edge and become really terrible, which it doesn't. But it never gets really exciting either.

The acting's okay, but everybody seems a shade awkward with their sometimes risible lines, and Genevieve Bujold is just too unglamorous, introverted and old as the supposedly glamorous, promiscuous movie star.

But Howard Shore lends it all a kind of sombre dignity.

Directed by Mario Bava
Screenplay by Mario Bava, Ennio de Concini, Marcello Coscia and Mario Serandrei, from a story by Gogol
Photography by Mario Bava and Ubaldo Terzano
Music by Roberto Nicolosi

Main Cast: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Ivo Garrani

Girl accused of witchcraft has spiky mask hammered onto her face and, dying, vows revenge.

You may know this as Mask Of The Demon, Mask Of Satan, Black Sunday, or even Revenge Of The Vampire, but under any title it's still Mario Bava's first directorial contribution to the Italian horror genre. Quite striking it is too, with some of the unhealthy necrophilia atmosphere of the early Corman/ Poe films in evidence.

I did feel that it was a bit heavy on the horror clichés, relying rather too much on sliding panels and creaking doors, and it has some problems with abrupt cutting (some scenes shift between day and night like nobody's business). And everybody who isn't Barbara Steele is forgettable, BUT...

It has crisply atmospheric black and white photography, and it is most definitely creepy as hell, though it doesn't quite maintain the creepiness of its (surprisingly brutal) pre-credits sequence. Still, if I'd seen this when I was twelve, it would have been the scariest thing ever.

I saw the original Italian version, with subtitles in Galician (a real test of my linguistic inability!), but I wonder how "original" this is. I mean, as most of the dialogue was shared by Barbara Steele and John Richardson, wouldn't that have "originally" been shot in English and later dubbed into Italian for the "original" release? See what I'm getting at?

Roberto Nicolosi's score might have been occasionally misjudged. The horror bits were appropriate, if unsubtle, but a full-blown piano concerto for Barbara Steele? Somewhat over the top perhaps. Curiously, I detected definite Les Baxterisms in those drippy interludes, and in fact Baxter himself did a new score for the American version (he would again replace Nicolosi on the USA release of Bava's Black Sabbath). And I'm SURE that some of Nicolosi's score for La Maschera turned up in the "original" (HA!) Italian version of Black Sabbath too.

Was all that confusing enough for you?

Actually, I saw today HARRY POTTER (finally; it premiered here in Finland yesterday) - and I have a couple of things to say.

It seems John Williams and Steven Spielberg aren't the only ones who have grown up "too" much - also I myself seem to grown up a little bit too much. I just can't enjoy anymore a movie WITHOUT A GOOD, "COMPACT", EMOTIONAL STORY. Dozens of special effects just can't get me "high" anymore, as they still did about 4-6 years ago. Unfortunately, the film version of HARRY POTTER is just that: Special effects piled on special effects, but the aim of the story, all dramatics - and that darn HEART - ALL FORGOTTEN. For my taste, which may be now "too" grown up, the entire film and most of the actors - including Daniel Radcliffe himself - were totally lifeless, extremely cold without any personalities. (Even Macaulay Culkin had more personality in HOME ALONE movies). Robbie Coltrane was one of the few happier surprises - but these kind of role performances cannot save the movie.

I would never ever have believed that I'm saying something like this, but in my opinion the script stumbled badly on its own roots - it should have really been made much more compact, because now the movie seemed only as a computer-programmed montage of "The Best of Harry Potter Book 1". The book made me really to CARE of Harry's character, but the movie didn't - that's the biggest problem. Yes, the movie IS great entertainment, but it should have been retitled as "The Friends of Harry Potter Save the Philosopher's Stone", because it really doesn't concentrate on Harry himself, but to everything else. A real pity.

Then the music - and I was right: It mostly fit the movie perfectly and really enhanced all the marvelous visuals and created an atmosphere. But as some other people have already pointed out, also I was annoyed with Williams over-using the "Hedwig's Theme" - although in the context of the film this theme sounded much better than heard without the visuals.

HARRY POTTER the film is good entertainment, but it just doesn't touch the mature viewer's heart because underneath the strong visuals there's absolutely NOTHING.

I felt so empty after seeing POTTER, that I returned to MOULIN ROUGE once again - and got my heart again full of warmth, emotion, and pure childlike delight. If HARRY POTTER included only half of the MOULIN ROUGE heart and the emotional story-telling style, I could have probably liked POTTER better.

Rented Swordfish with Travolta and H. Jackman. First 5 minutes presented
literate dialogue and an interesting premise, and I thought maybe it would be a
winner. It then segued into over the top action and violence that permeates
so many movies today without an original perspective. The plot seemed
contrived. If you want to know about skilled computer hackers who are
dangerous, read Deaver’s The Blue Nowhere, a taut, suspenseful novel that
is impossible to put down and avoid Swordfish.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Bleecckk. Glad I didn’t pay theater prices
to see Carrey overact. The script was inane. I usually like Ron Howard films,
but this one only sported interesting sets and costumes.

Well, what can I say, this was excellent! good direction and score by Almendobar, a brilliant cast of actors and a fantastic creepy atmosphere. the best ghost story I have seen for a very, very long time. I highly recommend you go and see this, it's good to see a film of this ilk that doesn't rely on a host of special effects.

Neat twist at the end too.

Ken S; have to agree with you on POTTER, I went to see this on Friday, it comes across like an ultra expensive BBC production complete with prococious child actors straight out of stage school, John Williams music seemed the only saving grace in this souless effort.

The Pledge (USA 2001)

Directed by Sean Penn
Screenplay by Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromowlski, from the novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Photography by Chris Menges
Music by Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt

Main Cast: Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Sam Shepard, Aaron Eckhart

I actually had two synopses prepared for this. Which do you like best? "Retired cop hunts child-killer" or "Ageing man suffers existentialist angst and is driven to madness in his fruitless search for religion and the meaning of life"? Well, it's both, but much closer to the second. Much more Terrence Malick than Michael Bay, for example. Sean Penn demonstrates once more that he is idiosyncratic, non-conformist, and above all smart. Very interesting film, I highly recommend it.

And if you get bored with the languid pace and the fishing scenes you can play cameo-spotting. Good ones here from Harry Dean Stanton, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke and Benicio del Toro.

The music seems quite fitting. Steering clear of thriller-genre tricks, it helps maintain the pensive mood.

See The Pledge. It's good.

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Screenplay by Richard L. Breen and John Twist
Photography by Joseph Biroc
Music by Max Steiner

Main Cast: James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton

Episodes in the life of an FBI man.

"Episodes" is about right: it's like about twelve of them (the TV ones) strung together ("TONIGHT! The Mad Bomber! The Ku Klux Klan! Mobsters! Nazi Pigs! Commie Scumbags!") And with alternating domestic bliss/ marriage crisis interludes.

It's competent but rarely out of the ordinary, and at two and a half hours it gets tiresome for sure. But it does conserve the look of having been a crowd pleaser in its day, and Jimmy Stewart's portrayals of men with gormless integrity are always worth savouring.