A Night at the Movies

After a stressful week, I finally sat down yesterday evening and relaxed by watching the live telecast of the Academy Awards. There's just something nice about getting all my work done for the upcoming week and sitting down and watching some TV. I'm definitely a big movie fan so I (usually) try to keep up to date on the nominated movies and actors. In the past, I used to get crazy during Oscar time. I would feel a strong need to see as many of the movies on the Oscars list as possible. (Soon I found out that this was way too overwhelming so I stopped).

While critics are predicting winners of the major categories (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress) or even which film will take home the Best Picture Oscar, I think there's an often overlooked, musically oriented category that deserves our undivided attention. I'm of course talking about the "Best Original Score" category. You know, the award for the best music specifically written for film. Without music, movies would have no atmosphere. There would be no transition and the mood would be extremely difficult to establish. Thank goodness the Academy Awards honor the best score and the best song!

This year's field of Oscar-nominated musical scores are an interesting mix of styles and genres. We have music drawing from a variety of cultures (Gustavo Santaolalla's Babel), a tender and dramatic, orchestral/choral score for a dark fantasy (Javier Navarrete's Pan's Labyrinth), the light, animated, and even mischievous score for Alexandre Desplat's The Queen, the powerful, ominous, and masterfully orchestrated score for Philip Glass's Notes on a Scandal, and the classically melodramatic epic score for Thomas Newman's The Good German.

Apple has a very cool site where you can watch trailers, listen to clips/podcasts of all the nominated movies. See you next year at the 80th Annual Academy Awards! I'll leave you with a meaningful quote from the Oscar-nominated compose Alexandre Desplat.

“The main goal is to be able to write music which is dedicated to the movie but still stands by itself. I don’t want to be a machine that writes notes. When I go to a concert, I don’t like a soloist who plays notes, I want to hear a soloist who plays music. It’s about moving you, about making your emotions tremble. If I can achieve that, then I have succeeded.”
--Alexandre Desplat

To See, or Not To See?

Recently I watched "The Banquet" (夜宴 - Ye Yan), the new movie starring Zhang Ziyi. It's a period-drama and a loose adaptation of Hamlet, featuring many of the supporting characters and prominent events. What is interesting about The Banquet is that there are elements from martial arts films and classic Greek theater incorporated into the movie to tell the tale. There's quite a bit of bloodshed and the use of poems and dances. It's like Hamlet with an Eastern twist!

One of the best parts of the movie is the film score, composed by Oscar- winning composer Tan Dun. The score is definitely right up there among his best works (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Hero (2002)). Tan scores the film with his usual engaging beats and rhythms. He uses strings quite a bit along with flutes and ethnic percussions. The result is an interesting fusion of Eastern and Western sound which will definitely appeal to the modern score listener. And if you understand Mandarin, the lyrics on a number of the pieces could possibly have a depressing effect on you. And if you don't, you would still be moved by the melody and music grand arrangements (at least I was)!

Overall I enjoyed the movie. The martial arts scenes were memorable, the costumes/choreography/scenery were great, (I'm always amazed at the amount of detail placed in the set and costumes) and there were some very strong performances from the two leads. Plus, it's just nice to see Chinese productions getting into American markets! I'm giving it two thumbs up!