In Contention

Tag: Philip Glass

  • In praise of the modern movie soundtrack

    I generally try to ignore film opinion pieces I think are fundamentally misguided — à chacun son goût and all that, plus the fact that fighting one mind is generally more trouble than it’s worth — but Ben Walsh’s idle article in The Independent today on the supposed demise of the movie soundtrack does such an absurd disservice to the current landscape of film music that it can’t pass without objection.

    Walsh’s standpoint is a dully nostalgic one: movie scores were so much more memorable in the old days, when greats like John Williams, Ennio Morricone and Danny Elfman (who are all dead, apparently) conjured whistle-ready themes by the dozen, while scores today “seem so completely unmemorable” by comparison.

    His pool of case studies for this assertion is a shallow one — he speaks mainly of the recent Oscar winners by Best Picture, Original Score and Original Song, oddly conflating the last two categories as if the two disciplines are somehow comparable — and even through that narrow prism, his preferences are hard to justify.

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  • Philip Glass goes to the Prom

    Philip GlassIt’s rather surprising that Philip Glass, arguably the foremost classical composer at work today (and, lest we forget, a three-time Oscar nominee), has never before been featured at The BBC Proms, the annual eight-week series of London concerts that essentially comprise the world’s largest classical music festival.

    But good things do occasionally come to those who wait, and the 72 year-old Baltimore-born composer will finally get his first Prom tribute tonight at the Royal Albert Hall, as violinist Gidon Kremer reprises his original rendition of Glass’s signature 1987 Violin Concerto, while Glass’s 2004 Toltec Symphony will receive its first UK outing.

    In honor of the occasion, The Times carries an interesting interview with Glass, as he talks through his early career (when he worked as a plumber to pay the bills, unbelievably enough), his four marriages, and his latter-day status as a doyen of the artform in multiple media.

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  • The docs you aren’t considering

    Whenever an awards shortlist is announced, people will inevitably spend as much time, if not more, pondering its omissions as they will its inclusions. And so it has been this week, in the wake of the Academy’s announcement of the 15 titles shortlisted for Best Feature Documentary.

    Some are curiously kvetching that Bill Maher’s sporadically amusing but ultimately pedestrian “Religulous” got slighted, instead of commending the Academy for looking beyond the obvious. Others (including yours truly, admittedly) are puzzled that the excellent “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” didn’t make the cut, while some are surprised that last year’s winner in the category, Alex Gibney, was frozen out this time. (Well, had “Gonzo” been half the film “Taxi to the Dark Side” was, he might not have been.) And then there’s “American Teen” and “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” and … well, you get the idea.

    The conclusion to draw from this is twofold. First of all, in this category, name recognition isn’t always a deciding factor. Second of all, and more simply, the shortlist is, even with these high-profile exclusions, a markedly strong one. Boiling it down to fifteen titles was clearly a harder task than one might have guessed.

    I’m not sure enough people are recognising the breadth and the depth of the competition in this category. Amid the various reactions I’ve read to the shortlist, I’ve noticed the same small handful of contenders coming to the fore: “Standard Operating Procedure” from previous champ Errol Morris, “Encounters at the End of the World” from the long-slighted Werner Herzog, Sundance victor “Trouble the Water,” and the film widely deemed the one to beat, “Man on Wire.”

    I’m less convinced. Yes, they’re all highly acclaimed conversation pieces. (Well, almost — Morris’ film appears more polarising than the rest.) Yes, they all have enjoyed comparatively prominent releases. But, like the notoriously wilful Best Foreign Language Film category, this category doesn’t always reward a high profile. For every time they’ve embraced a populist frontrunner like Michael Moore, they’ve ignored a supposed shoo-in. Just ask, well, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog — both previously snubbed for some of their most lauded work.

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  • If you’re not doing anything else…

    I’ve just found out that, any minute now, a two-hour interview with Philip Glass will begin on BBC Radio 6. Glass is inarguably one of the most fascinating composers of our era, and he doesn’t grant interviews all that often, so this is quite special.

    He’ll be discussing “Glass Box,” the new 10-disc boxset of his work which is out soon, and I’m sure his film work will come up in the interview. Listen here.

  • Shore steps in for Glass on ‘Doubt’

    Howard ShoreI came across a post recently at Film Score Monthly that indicates Howard Shore has taken up scoring duties on John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt.”

    So I checked over at the film’s IMDb page, and sure enough, Philip Glass has been stricken from the record there.  But no mention of Shore either.

    Alright, so I shot producer Scott Rudin an email and he tells me yes, Howard Shore has been brought on to work on the film’s score.  Glass’s schedule unfortunately did not fit with Shanley’s Manhattan Theater Club rehearsal dates, so the production had to make a change.

    All this could be seen as an upper or a downer depending on how you felt about Glass and his minimalist approach being initially married to the film’s deeply serious subject matter.  But I think Shore has the goods, too.

    I like Shore.  I think he always does amazing work, but more often than not, it services the material rather than transcending or overpowering it, and that can certainly be considered a plus.  His most memorable work, of course, is also his only Oscar-nominated work: Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” franchise.  But he has always added something special to the tension and eeriness of David Cronenberg’s films, so perhaps he can bring something special to the table in “Doubt.”

    Keep an eye on this space for the new “Doubt” trailer, by the way.  It will debut sometime this afternoon and we’ll get it up ASAP.  And as always, catch up on all the latest at the film’s buzz page here.