Oscar 2015 - Music

One of the few sections this year where we have a decent competition, without a certain winner is the soundtracks section. Alexandre Desplat, nominated constantly during the last years has two entries here. The first, which is also my option for the winner, is the score from "The Grand Budapest Hotel". The tune fits perfectly the movie, and remembers a bit of the rhythms from "Fantastic Mr. Fox". Well, same director, same composer, similar score ...
"The Imitation Game" is the second movie featuring music composed by Desplat. Completely different compared with the first nomination. From tempos to instrumental composition. I have to admit that lately I'm pleasantly surprised of how versatile can this guy be when writing music. Typically a movie score composer, no matter how good he is, starts to get repetitive. It's not the case here & I hope it'll last ...
Talking about good composers but who tend to re-use too much of what they're composing, we have another surprise this year. Hans Zimmer manages to produce something new in "Interstellar". Although still following the same style, superbly simple but incredibly efficient = incremental construction of tracks merged gradually, it seems that the nuances are more suave and the melodic variation at the level of the track is not anymore based only on loops executed with a different instrument, pitch, etc.
Until "Mr. Turner" I didn't hear about "Gary Yershon". Again, we have here something interesting. A soundtrack that I don't think I could listen outside the movie. The highs are so dense that they're scratching my ear. Somehow though, it gets tolerable in relation with what you see on screen = fits perfectly with the context.
Johann Johannsson has an ok soundtrack in "The Theory of Everything". However, a bit too ... normal. Which unfortunately tends to please the Academy, but I think/hope won't be the case this year.

Oscar 2012 - Film Score

This is another category where I had to check twice to be sure I'm not having hallucinations about what's on the list. The thing is that considering what it got here we have a more easier result to foresee, being already quite predictable even before the nomination process. And like specially set to support it we have three of five OSTs this tear which have more or less a French first half of the XXth century "air" (= accordion parts & stuff like that). So, guess about which I'm talking ... Well, maybe it's not clear enough :) Conclusion: let me go through the entries anyway, although it doesn't make much sense to get very long in what's next, all I hope for is that the audio material to stay on YouTube for at least a while from now ...

"The Adventures of Tintin" is the first surprise. Especially considering that Spielberg's production got excluded from "best animation". To be honest it was a pretty lame year for this area (and not only) and my expectation about this title were a bit bigger than a simplified and compressed story a la Indiana Jones looking like made specifically for an under 10 target (well .. maybe it's the fact that I got frozen in a cinema hall as real cause for my disappointment ...). Still, for me it sounds better for this to be here than the other nomination of John Williams (or let me say it more straightly: sounds more original to be here)



"The Artist" with the music by Ludovic Bource is clearly the winner here. Leaving the statistics aside = the Globe + other awards, it's probably the only soundtrack this year that makes itself heard when you watch the move, obviously one reason being that the movie is silent. Maybe it's a matter of taste, but generally I prefer a soundtrack that you can feel it's there (= Zimmer, Mansel, Morricone would be some examples) and not one which only is fits with the action on screen sufficiently so you won't notice the silence periods (as in the 60's or the 70's). From here comes probably also the main merit in this score = it supplements at a decent level (I can't say that I was extremely impressed) "the silence". And also I guess it has a bit more personality than the rest. Besides that .. more about "The Artist" when talking about other sections, it's enough space there to do it.



"Hugo" is the last from the series of three with the "French air" (which is normal considering the action setting). If I were to do a top probably Howard Shore would be the main candidate at this Oscar, after the one above. But as real chances it still quite far, so let's not spend to much time here ...



"Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" with the music by Alberto Iglesias is the second surprise on this category. And one which gives me the opportunity to get a bit off-topic and say a few things about the movie because I don't know when I'll be able to do it next. It was the main title on the "must see" list for me this spring, and probably because of this I got a bit disappointed of the outcome. It's a spy thriller set somewhere in the 60's-70's (maybe there is an exact date around there, I don't remember) having as main subject the return in service of a British counter-intelligence agent having the secret mission to unmask a soviet mole infiltrated at the top of the hierarchy. The main problem of the movie is the bunch of flashbacks poorly edited (despite the fact that BAFTA threw a nomination also here .. well, it's an UK movie) which doesn't make any favor to the narrative style belonging to John le Carre ("The Russia House" with Sean Connery & Michelle Pfeiffer suffered from the same disease long ago). The soundtrack however is ok, although regarding what I said above you can't really feel it and send you to sleep once in a while (note that the piece below is an alert one). But again .. I have to refer to John le Carre, and who has seen something else adapted after him ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", "The Constant Gardener", etc) could probably confirm that is nothing more appropriate than a melancholic, slow tone, with slight spikes here and there, cold on each piece, but warm as a whole. However, what's missing is a sufficiently strong theme to remember ...



"War Horse" brings the second nomination this year (and a pretty predictable one considering the lack of candidates) for John Williams. I have a problem (which maybe it's a bit more taste related, I don't know ...) about the music composed by this guy. I can't argue with the cinematic character of the track, generally speaking, not only for "War Horse". But either he composed too much, either he recycled too much from what he composed, so for me it's a bit hard to listen one of his soundtracks from beginning to the end without getting bored (the exception remains "Star Wars" and specifically "The Phantom Menace"). Unfortunately it's pretty much the same case here. As I said "Tintin" sounds slightly better for me.



Finally I'll allow myself to do this year something that I've never done before = to revolt about an absence - Cliff Martinez for "Drive". Yes, I know that in "Drive" what's more obvious on the soundtrack is the songs part, and yes, I know that the idea when evaluating this category is not as much how it sounds to you when you listen in your headphones but more how it fits into the movie. I have considered these, and the verdict still stands that it deserved at least a nominee, especially compared with what got on the above list this year ....

Oscar 2011 - Music - Score

As I said last time, I'm still staying on the audio area and I'll try today to go through the score nominations. And because my intros are usually too long & boring I'll just cut directly into the subject ...

John Powell got his first nomination this year, for "How to Train Your Dragon". This is during a career that started (for big screen) since '97 with "Face/Off". And I think that "Face/Off" still holds the top position in his CV. That movie, at least from my point of view, has one of the best scores I've ever heard in an action movie. Going back to "How to Train Your Dragon", it doesn't sound bad at all. One main thing to say is that we have here a score that matches very well the setting = viking world. In brief, it's a mix between some "epic" sound, northern influences, and classic animation music that usually has a more calm melodic line (but here it gets some speed-up). The result is excellent. However I think we will have another winner here. For me "How to Train Your Dragon" is among the top 5 animations I've ever seen, and I think in top 3 of the movies watched last year. It's the story of a young viking who is supposed to become a dragon hunter (or at least that's what he wants in the beginning). But I'm not telling more. This should be watched, not talked about it. The movie is probably the best DreamWorks ever produced, and for me was like a breath of (very) fresh air. I remember that I had a bad day when I've seen it, which lasted until seeing it :) I would really like for "How to Train Your Dragon" to get an Oscar this year, but in another category where it deserves it much more than here.

The first of the two big favorites at this category is Hans Zimmer for "Inception". I would like to see the Oscar going here (and it has pretty good chances) but I'm totally subjective on this one :). Unfortunately I cannot stop thinking at "Ubik" by P.K.Dick ( = book :) ) when I'm talking about "Inception". I'll try to detail more on that when I'll reach the best movie entry. In brief "Inception" has quite some P.K.D. elements in it. And for the current topic, the idea is that I find the score in "Inception" to be very appropriate to accompany a P.K. Dick book (even if it's not actually the case here). I could actually recommend something. If somebody would ever like to read a book by the aforementioned (very good SF by the way & I think what I'm suggesting here fits more than just "Ubik"), just try read it with the "Inception" soundtrack as background. The only problem would probably be to match the more slow or more alert tracks with the book's paragraphs :) I don't think I can completely describe what I want to tell, but if somebody tries will get it :). About the movie, it's probably the score that gives the most of the entire feeling, compared to the other nominations. But again, that's the point of view of a declared fan for this SF niche :). However, I should mention that there are some tracks here which are true gems talking about composition. And it's not the first time when I hear something like this from Hans Zimmer. I gave the final track in a clip below as example. If you listen carefully you can notice that you might be able to split it in a series of distinct unrelated tracks which are overlapped in the final one having different entry points. Each one of these has a pretty much looping melodic line and varies mostly on the tonality. The whole catch is how these are combined as volume gain & loss into the final one. I think that the result is extraordinary, given the fact that the technique doesn't seem very complicated ( but .. I'm far from being an expert :) ). The same thing you can hear in the DaVinci Code theme also by Zimmer - "Chevaliers de Sangreal" - and actually there it's more obvious than here, because there are only 3 or 4 tracks which seem to be overlapped (and in case it's not yet very clear what I'm rambling about you can just listen "The Bell" by Mike Oldfield - it's like a small tutorial for this type of composition). Ok, to much talking, better :) : ...

I think that Alexandre Desplat for "The King's Speech" is the weakest nominee in this category. And it's actually quite far from the other four, although I can't say that it doesn't fit the movie = keep a relatively calm line, not very spectacular, music that shouldn't get in front to much so to speak. What I think that's pretty weird is that Desplat (who I started to like since some time although he alternates good with not so good scores) had a much better score last year in "The Ghost Writer". And actually, if I remember well got nominated for some awards for his composition there. Well, I don't now what else to say. The music:

A.R. Rahman returns with "127 Hours" after the success had with "Slumdog Millionaire". We don't have a soundtrack as good as two years ago - when it was close to exceptional, but it's good. I already said it in the blog entry about the movie not very long ago. It gives pretty much to the entire feeling, especially on the alert/high tension parts. I think it's a pity that from what I can see no director except Danny Boyle works with this guy. The rest of his CV is full of Bollywood movies. Well, if after "Slumdog Millionaire" wasn't obvious enough that he can leave the typical Bollywoodian rhythms (or better said "rhythms") apart from what's composing, maybe this time is pretty clear. I'd really would like to hear his score in some other movies.

And we reached the final nominee here - Trent Reznor (aka Nine Inch Nails) & Atticus Ross for "The Social Network". I didn't hear about Atticus Ross until now, but what's interesting is that Trent Reznor is at his first movie. He did film music and also for video games before, but at least based on what's written on IMDb he doesn't have any other normal length feature film as main composer before. Despite all these, I think that "The Social Network" has the best chances this year for an Oscar - about 50.1% vs. 49.9% for "Inception" :) ( although personally I hope this gets reversed until the Awards :) ). However, being as objective as I can, I think that I would also give the Oscar here. Zimmer is good in "Inception", and the soundtrack for me at least gives more feeling to the movie than the one in "The Social Network". But this happens also due to the final mix - check my previous blog entry. More exactly the sound mixing in "Inception" emphasizes the soundtrack and the one in "The Social Network" does exactly the opposite - tries to put a limit to it to hold it a bit more discreet. Actually, if you listen to "The Social Network" soundtrack separately from the movie closely after you've watched it, you might have the surprise of not remembering all of the tracks from when you've seen the film (although those were there). Even so it manages to give quite an atmosphere to the movie. It's a soundtrack that it's worked mainly on synthesizer, stuff that it's not any more really mainstream/often done since quite a while. I might actually say that it's the best synthesizer/electronic processed music based soundtrack I've heard since Brad Fiedel (although of course there are different styles). As a parenthesis, for who doesn't know who Brad Fiedel is (unfortunately retired now), it's the composer who worked with James Cameron (when Cameron was doing less ... "blue" movies) = "Terminator" 1 & 2, "True Lies", "The Serpent and the Rainbow", "Fright Night", etc (the last two are not related with Cameron but are important as a reference for Brad Fiedel's scores). Well, going back to "The Social Network" ...

I'm wrapping up for today mentioning that I have no idea for how long the links above will last on YouTube (copyright issues of course) - for the moment are working. Next time I think I'll try to write a few words about supporting actors ...