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This a wonderful piece of music, from a French animation filmed presented in 2003, “Les infants de la Pluie” (Rain Childs). Didier Lockwood, its composer, is a French jazz violinist. He played in the progressive rock/jazz fusion band Magma in the 1970s and is known for his use of electric amplification and experimentation on different sounds on the electric violin.
That’s a heart breaking song, composed by Nino Rota, in a film that everyone must watch. A great story, with amazing acting and very realistic atmosphere. Love and Anarchy (Italian: Film d’amore e d’anarchia) is a 1973 film directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. The story, set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, centers on Giannini’s character, an anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini. Giannini’s character, while preparing to assassinate Mussolini, falls in love with one of the whores working in the brothel. This film explores the depths of his emotions concerning love, his hate for fascism, and his fears of being killed while assasinating Mussolini. Love and Anarchy was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and Giannini was awarded Best Actor.
All time classic soundtrack from an all time classic film. I think it’s one of the most famous soundtracks. The Godfather won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Writing (adapted screenplay) for Francis Coppola and Mario Puzo, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Marlon Brando, who declined to collect the award and sent Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather to the Oscars in his place to explain his reasons. The film had been nominated for eight other Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall, Best Director, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
The film also had a Best Original Score nomination but was disqualified when found out that Nino Rota used another score. Nino Rota‘s score was removed at the last minute from the list of 1973 Academy Award nominees when it was discovered that he had used the theme in Eduardo De Filippo‘s 1958 comedy Fortunella. Although in the earlier film the theme was played in a brisk, staccato and comedic style, the melody was the same as the love theme from The Godfather, and for that reason was deemed ineligible for an Oscar. Despite this, The Godfather Part II won a 1974 Oscar for best original score, although it featured the same love theme that made the 1972 score ineligible.
This song comes from the soundtrack of the Greek movie “Quartet in 4 movements” from the Greek director Loukia Rikaki. The title is a greek on, meaning “Music that creates the world”. Even thought the film was not so known, the music written for it is one of the best that Preisner has written. Enjoy it.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux. The music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart and additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. The musical focuses on a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius known as “The Phantom of the Opera”.
Phantom is the most popular, most seen musical ever and is now the longest-running musical in history – surpassing Cats as the longest running Broadway show. According to its official website, it is the most successful entertainment project in history, grossing more than US $5 billion worldwide by 2007.
In the winter of 1984, Cameron Makintosh, the co-producer of Cats and Song and Dance received a phone call. Andrew Lloyd Webber was looking to create a new musical. He was aiming for a romantic piece, but having trouble reining in a worthwhile idea, and, hitting upon the idea of using Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera as a base, pitched the idea. Cameron and Lloyd Webber screened both the 1925 Lon Chaney and the 1943 Claude Raines versions but neither were able to gain any material that might be useful in making the leap from book to stage. Lloyd Webber tracked down a copy of the long out-of-print Gothic Horror novel and at last had found for what he was looking.
Lloyd Webber’s score is sometimes operatic in style but he maintains the form and structure of a musical throughout. The fully-fledged operatic writing is reserved principally for the subsidiary characters such as the theatre managers, Andre and Firmin; their Prima Donna, Carlotta; and principal tenor, Piangi. Fittingly, it is also used to provide the content of the fictional “operas” that are taking place within the show itself. i.e.; Hannibal, Il Muto, and the Phantom’s masterwork, Don Juan Triumphant. Here, Lloyd Webber affectionately pastiches various styles from the grand operas of Meyerbeer through to Mozart and even Gilbert and Sullivan (Coveney, 1999). These pieces are often presented as musical fragments, interrupted by dialogue or action sequences in order to clearly define the musical’s “show within a show” format. The musical extracts we hear from the Phantom’s opera, “Don Juan Triumphant”, during the latter stages of the show, are much more dissonant and modern – suggesting, perhaps, that the phantom is ahead of his time artistically (Snelson, 2004). This is also displayed when The Phantom makes his entrance on the show’s title song. Andrew had said himself that the title song was “Rock n’ roll merely masquerading as opera”. For the characters of Christine, the Phantom, and Raoul, the direct and “natural” style of modern song is used rather than the more decorative aspects of aria; their material provides the musical centre of the piece
How many nights I’ve spent lying on the bed with this song playing on my walk-man (yes, walk-man, with cassette), being in love. The name of my beloved ones was never Maria, but I liked the song (I was imagining that the singer was saying her name instead of Maria). The music comes from probably the greatest musical ever played, the West Side Story. West Side Story is an American musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical’s plot is based on William Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet.
Set in New York in the mid-1950s, the musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The members of the Sharks are first-generation Americans from Puerto Rico taunted by the Jets, a white group who consider themselves the true Americans. The young protagonist, Tony, one of the Jets, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Bernstein’s score for the musical has become extremely popular.
That’s probably the most memorable song from Piedro Almodovar‘s films.Do you want to know the full name of the composer? Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Lara y Aguirre del Pino (October 30, 1897 – November 6], 1970), and he was Mexican.
The singer in this version, Luz Casal, in 1992 enjoyed great success with her appearance in the soundtrack of Pedro Almodóvar‘s acclaimed film Tacones Lejanos singing Agustín Lara‘s theme. The song title means “Think about me”, and the lyrics, translated in English, go like that:
If you have a deep sorrow
Think about me
If you want to cry
Think about me
You see that i worship
Your divine image
Your infant mouth
That being so small
Taught me to sin.Think about me
When you kiss
When you cry
Also, think about me
When you want to take away my life
I don’t want it, not at all
It serves to nothing, without you.Think about me
When you kiss
When you cry
Also, think about me
When you want to take away my life
I don’t want it, not at all
It serves to nothing, without you.
What can one say about the wonderful combination of the film “Les Choristes” and the music composed by Bruno Coulais. Added the magnificent voice of the young talented boy Jean-Baptiste Maunier who has the lead voice in the orchestra, the result is a memorable soundtrack that you do not want to miss, especially if you have seen the movie (and you’ll like it for sure). The film was not so well criticized by the experts, maybe because the expectations from a French film based on a great story were too much. Sorry experts, I like European films too, and I liked that film.
The Chorus (Les choristes) is a 2004 French drama film directed by Christophe Barratier. Co-written by Barratier and Philippe Lopes-Curval, it is a remake of the 1945 film A Cage of Nightingales (La Cage aux Rossignols), which was adapted by Noël-Noël and René Wheeler from a story by Wheeler and Georges Chaperot. The film explores the pain of a child’s separation from his parents and the transcendence of music as the greatest form of expression.
The plot
In present time, conductor Pierre Morhange learns of the death of his mother. After the funeral he receives an unexpected visit from one of his former classmates, Pépinot, whom he has not seen for 50 years. He shows him a diary written by their supervisor, Clement Mathieu. In 1949, Clement Mathieu, an unemployed music teacher, accepts a job as supervisor in the boarding school called “Fond de l’étang” (literally translated, “bottom of the pond”), where difficult boys are sent. Rachin, the headmaster, reigns with iron discipline and his motto is: “action, reaction!” As soon as a student disobeys the rules, he is punished mercilessly.
Forced to punish the one who set a trap on the door to the infirmary, injuring the institution’s jack-of-all-trades, Mathieu realizes that the children need more understanding and freedom. He manages to obtain permission from the headmaster to form a choir in class. The story is an attempt to compare two visions of the school: the headmaster who wants only discipline and Mathieu, who seeks to give the children hope and opportunity through the choir.
An older boy, Mondain, is entrusted to the boarding school by a psychiatrist, but Mathieu fails with him. Rachin wrongly accuses him of stealing a large sum of money belonging to the establishment and expells him.
However, the headmaster must please its benefactors, including a Countess who helps finance the boarding school. She hears of the choir and wants to hear them sing. Mathieu is thus able to show his success, particularly the voice of Morhange, a withdrawn and obstinate boy when dealing with adults, but a talented singer.
The headmaster takes all the credit for the chorus, even though Mathieu is solely responsible. At the beginning of summer, Rachin leaves to meet with the beneficiaries of the school and Mathieu is left in charge. While he’s gone, fire destroys part of the boarding house. Mondain, seen nearby with a cigarette, is most likely responsible. Fortunately, the children are safe, since Mathieu had taken them on a field trip that day. The headmaster, seeking every opportunity to get rid of Mathieu, accuses him of taking the children on a forbidden field trip and, after a nasty argument, fires him. The supervisor then leaves the school, thinking the children will forget him, but on his way out they throw paper airplanes with expressions of thanks and wishes for a good life. In a split-second decision, Mathieu adopts Pépinot, one of the youngest boys who is also an orphan, and takes him with him when he leaves.
Winged Migration (French: Le Peuple Migrateur, also known as The Travelling Birds in some UK releases, or The Travelling Birds: An adventure in flight in Australia), is a 2001 documentary film directed by Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats and Jacques Perrin (who was also one of the writers and narrators) showcasing the immense journeys routinely made by birds during their migrations.
The movie was shot over the course of four years on all seven continents. Shot using in-flight cameras, most of the footage is aerial, and the viewer appears to be flying alongside birds of successive species, especially Canada geese. They traverse every kind of weather and landscape, covering vast distances in a flight for survival.
Much of the aerial footage was taken of “tame” birds. The filmmakers raised birds of several species, including storks and pelicans, from birth. The newborn birds imprinted on staff members, and were trained to fly along with the film crews. The birds were also exposed to the film equipment over the course of their lives to ensure that the birds would react the way the filmmakers want. Several of these species had never been imprinted before. Film was shot from ultralights, paragliders, and hot air balloons, as well as trucks, motorcycles, motorboats, remote-controlled robots, and a French Navy warship. Many critics question if “Winged Migration” is really a documentary at all since there is so much manipulation of the birds and the footage that made it into the final film.
The film states that no special effects were used. On the contrary, while no computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used in the filming of the birds, several entirely-CGI segments augment the real-life footage.
The film’s soundtrack by Bruno Coulais was recorded by several Bulgarian vocal groups in Bulgarian, as well as Nick Cave in English and Robert Wyatt. The vocal effects include sequences in which panting is superimposed on wingbeats to give the effect that the viewer is a bird.
Nicola Piovani (b. 26 May 1946, Rome, Italy) is an Academy Award winner classical light musician, and theater and film score composer. He received his degree in piano from the Verdi Conservatory in Milan in 1967, and later studied orchestration under the Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis.
Rumors have abounded for years that Nicola Piovani was a pseudonym of better-known composer Ennio Morricone, a fact Piovani uses to humorous effect when speaking in public.
Among his more popular works is the score for the Federico Fellini film Intervista, his second of three collaborations with the famous director, the others being Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred) and La voce della luna (The Voice of the Moon). Years later, he composed a ballet titled Balletto Fellini. In 1998, Piovani won the Best Original Dramatic Score Oscar for the score of the Roberto Benigni film La Vita è bella, better known to English-speaking audiences as Life Is Beautiful. In 2000, the same score was nominated for a Grammy Award in the “Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” category, losing to Randy Newman.
To date, Piovani has over 130 film scores to his credit. However, he is reported to believe that,
Too many film scores make a composer a hack, but in the theatre music is above all craftsmanship.
Accordingly, he continues to work in musical theatre, and also composes concert and chamber music.
Entrifis : A music journey 