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 […]
In praise of the modern movie soundtrack
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:41 am · August 5th, 2011
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‘Amelie’ tops list of decade’s best cinematography
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:00 am · June 29th, 2010
The folks at Movieline got their hands on a list of the top 50 films of the decade, from a cinematography standpoint, as laid out by voters at American Cinematographer magazine. Topping the list: Bruno Delbonnel’s work on “Amelie.” Delbonnel is a favorite among DPs. After all, “A Very Long Engagement” won him the ASC […]
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The best films of a decade
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:10 am · December 21st, 2009
This column has been the elephant in my living room for months. Putting together a list of the year’s best films is easy. It’s fresh. It’s in your mind. It’s, in many ways, the expected culmination. Putting together a list of the decade’s best films is a different chore altogether. Yearly rankings fly out the […]
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An evening with Clint Mansell
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:44 pm · July 20th, 2009
It has been a very long time since I sat myself down in a wooden pew, but I think it’s safe to say that the last church recital I attended didn’t begin with a speech by a rebel auteur from Brooklyn, didn’t involve any electric guitars, and it certainly wasn’t accompanied by video imagery of […]
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Clint Mansell on growing up through film music
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:37 am · July 17th, 2009
It’s no secret around these parts that I’m a pretty committed disciple of composer Clint Mansell. I was absolutely beside myself — livid — when his work on Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” potentially the best score of the decade, was unceremoniously snubbed by the Academy two years ago. So it was delightful to read through […]
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Aronofsky at Edinburgh
Posted by Guy Lodge · 10:15 am · June 24th, 2009
As someone who prefers watching movies to listening to others talk about them, I probably haven’t attended as many of the In Person Q&A sessions at this year’s Edinburgh festival as I should have. Sam Mendes lost out in my priority scale to “The Red Shoes,” while the likes of Bill Forsyth and Brenda Blethyn […]
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Fuck that
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 2:45 pm · September 9th, 2008
This Ben Child item at The Guardian has me steaming. The quote, following a recounting of “The Fountain”‘s crash and burn at Venice two years ago, that pushed me over the edge: How would Aronofsky recover? Despite being heralded as one of Hollywood’s most hotly-tipped young film-makers, he was a little early in his career […]
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BEST ACTOR WATCH: Mickey Rourke in ‘The Wrestler’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:07 pm · August 11th, 2008
For some time I have been cautiously anticipating Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming film “The Wrestler.” I say cautiously because, as much as I love Aronofsky’s vision of a cinematic world slightly askew, I recognize his potential for going off the rails in blind artistic rage. I loved “The Fountain.” I found it to be one of […]
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