The Screengrab : jonny greenwood

OST: "Batman Begins"

Leonard Pierce — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:00:00 GMT

The Dark Knight is currently smashing box office records with the same alacrity that the Joker makes a pencil disappear, and as with the first Christopher Nolan Batman movie, its soundtrack is provided by two veteran industry hands in the person of James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. While it seems like this time around, their work was heavily influenced by the seething, screeching, atonal score that Jonny Greenwood wrote for There Will Be Blood, it's still highly reminiscent of the work they did for Batman Begins.

The two had their work cut out for them when they accepted the assignment from Warner Brothers to score the rebooting of the Batman franchise. DC Comics' famed vigilante already had a number of memorable pieces of music associated with him: from the jaunty, swinging theme song to the campy '60s TV show composed by jazz veteran Neal Hefti to the brooding, chaotic main theme written by Danny Elfman for the first Tim Burton Batman (which later became the theme music for the celebrated Batman animated series), and even Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus have been associated with the hero in the past. Their goal when putting together a new score for Nolan's reboot of the franchise was to create something that conjured the proper tone of darkness and struggle without too obviously drawing on what had come before. Howard, whose previous work has included The Prince of Tides and The Sixth Sense, took charge of the main theme and the loftier passages, while Zimmer, the German-born composer who created the eerie score for The Ring as well as the memorable soundtrack to Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, worked on the incidental music and quieter, more sinister passages. It was imperative that they create something that enhanced the brooding, bleak tone of Batman Begins while never threatening to overwhelm the action on screen or make the psychological development of the characters too obvious.

Happily -- if you can use that word to apply to something so grim-sounding -- they were successful. The soundtrack, while it lacks any songs as immediately catchy as Hefti's famous Batman theme or as universally recognizable as Elfman's, perfectly captures the tone and feel of the Christopher Nolan vision of Batman. The tracks (all of which are cleverly named for various species of bats) exactly invoke the right move, from the slow, magisterial main theme to the ponderous, somber music that accompanies the destruction of Wayne Manor to the mesmerizing, atonal shrieks that go along with the first attacks by the hideous Scarecrow. It's not quite strong enough to stand entirely on its own, except perhaps as mood music for a Halloween party, but it's still a terrific piece of scoring that illustrates the right way to make music and image mesh.

BEST TRACKS: "Verspertilio", the song that opens the film and the movie, shows how the main theme to a Batman film doesn't necessarily need to be bombastic or hummable to work well. "Molossus", which is the music by which the villainous Scarecrow terrifies his subjects, is both fitting and instantly recognizable thanks to its out-of-control slithering strings. And the climactic battle scene is accompanied by "Corynorhinus", which adeptly combines Howard's trademarked heavy, echo-laden piano chords and Zimmer's crushing percussion and taste for non-western tonal dynamics.

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OST: "There Will Be Blood"

Leonard Pierce — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

The recent direction in which Radiohead has turned causes much split opinion, as might be expected from one of the biggest bands in the world. Some feel that the more avant-garde turn their music has taken is a sign of growth, development, and change for the better, a step away from the simple but distinctive pop craftsmanship that marked their early days and towards an entirely new sensibility, more attuned to the voice of modern minimalist composers than to the pop or even indie-rock tradition. Others think it's been a disaster, a pretentious and overwrought plunge into the alienatingly highbrow at the cost of the band's credibility, relatability and listenability. Whatever one's opinion (and I'm certainly in the former camp), a lot of tears have been shed over the fate of the band's guitarist, Jonny Greenwood. Though he's been vocally supportive of Radiohead's direction and has adapted his playing admirably well to the demands of the more stripped-down, electronic-influenced work, many have wondered -- especially given the sound of lead singer Thom Yorke's solo work -- if he was fully behind the shift in tone. But after the release of the stunning soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, no one should worry, least of all Greenwood himself. It's a masterful album, perfectly suited to the material onscreen, that shows how fully possessed he is by moody minimalism and dissonant, striking tones.

There were legitimate worries when Greenwood was announced as the composer to the score to There Will Be Blood. A number of people, myself included, questioned the prominent role assigned to Aimee Mann's music in Magnolia; boosters found it fitting, a natural extension of the movie's story. Others found it extremely inclusive, smacking of the cart driving the horse. It turns out they have nothing to worry about: Greenwood's score in There Will Be Blood is as subtle and insinuating as Mann's songs in Magnolia were obvious and intrusive. From the first squalling, snakeline chords the the last smothering cluster of strings, it's a tightly controlled, sinister, and utterly appropriate score, a musical realization of the struggles and excesses in Daniel Plainview's soul. While the movie itself is epic, the score is minute and precise, coming from a stripped-down version of a full orchestra and delivering a terrible sense of struggle from its very first notes. At times, Greenwood almost seems to be fighting a horrible battle to make the dissonant blasts and squalling notes force meaning and emotion from the barren landscapes of the film's oil-town settings: there is pain and effort in this music as real and as clear as Plainview's horribly willful efforts to drag himself out of a hole in the ground with a wooden leg. Some notes sound relentlessly, again and again, with a furious insistence worthy of Ligeti; other notes creep loosely around the edges of perception, bringing the entire thing an almost ambient quality like Brian Eno's instrumental efforts. It's an astonishing piece of work on every level, instantly marking Greenwood as a force to be reckoned with as a film composer. (Unfortunately, the presence of a slight three-minute quote from his own "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", an avant-garde piece influenced by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, disqualified the widely praised score from Oscar contention.)

BEST TRACKS: the stirring, magnificent (and ironically claustrophobic) "Open Spaces", which opens the album; the angry, jerking, ,almost psychotic "Eat Him By His Own Light"; and the lonely, dismal, haunting "Daniel Plainview" are standouts here, but give the entire album a listen, all the way through, divorced from the context of the film: it's a testament to how well it's done that, as perfectly as it works onscreen, it holds up amazingly well on its own.

Oscar Nominations: Is the Egg Showin'?

Paul Clark — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

So. . . what was it William Goldman said again? I suppose my predictions weren't too bad under the circumstances, but just like every other year, the Oscar nominations held plenty of surprises.

A full list of nominations can be found right here.

In no particular order:

- The almost total lack of love for Into the Wild. I figured that the acclaim for this true-life story, and the presence of Sean Penn — an actor they clearly love — in the director's chair, would make the film Academy catnip. Clearly, I was mistaken.

- On the other hand, they loved There Will Be Blood even more than I'd anticipated, looking past its darkness to see how flat-out brilliant it is (sorry, haters), giving PTA not only best director and adapted screenplay, but a best picture nomination as well. The Jonny Greenwood thing stung a bit, but the other technical nods — art direction, cinematography, sound design and editing — compensate pretty well. And Daniel Day-Lewis is looking pretty unstoppable for best actor at this point. All in all, Blood received eight nominations, tying it for the most-honored film with widely-acknowledged frontrunner No Country for Old Men.

- Atonement. Wait, this movie's chances for best picture were supposed to be more or less dead. Don't the voters read the prognosticators? Still, despite the film's considerable pedigree and handsome production values, Joe Wright was shut out of best director (in favor of Ivan Reitman's kid, no less), which leads me to believe this barely squeaked in. But you never know.

- Show of hands: who saw the best actor nod for Tommy Lee Jones coming? Certainly not me. I figured that he had a good chance for his supporting work in No Country for Old Men, but I'm surprised any of the voters actually remembered In the Valley of Elah. But I won't complain. As an avowed Crash hater, nobody was more surprised than me that Elah turned out to be pretty darn good, due in large part to Jones' great performance. I'll certainly take him over, say, John Travolta in a fat suit.

- The double dip for Cate Blanchett. Yes, she was a deserving nominee for playing the most fondly-remembered of Todd Haynes' menagerie of Dylans. But honoring Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells me that the voters ran out of suitable nominees. Lord knows I'm no fan of Angelina Jolie, but at least she tried to give a multilayered performance in A Mighty Heart, which is more than I can say about Blanchett in Nobody But Elizabeth Expects the Spanish Inquisition. Just. . . ugh.

- When I floated my best supporting actress theory — that in recent years, the great majority of nominees in this category appear in films opposite performers who also get nominated — I wasn't just blowing smoke. Seriously, look it up. But, probably just to confound me, the nominations bucked the trend this year, with only one of the nominees (Michael Clayton's Tilda Swinton) appearing opposite another Oscar nominees. Just as unexpectedly, only Clayton managed more than one acting nomination, wrangling three for Swinton, George Clooney, and Tom Wilkinson.

- Three out of five Best Original Song nominations went to Enchanted. Either they really love Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz or it was a really slow year for original songs. Probably both. At least they were smart enough to nominate "Falling Slowly."

- Hey, did you know that people made documentaries this year that didn't deal with the war in Iraq? I only ask because three of the five Best Documentary Feature nominees were Iraq-themed, with only Michael Moore's Sicko and the Uganda-themed War/Dance tackling different subjects. The biggest disappointment is the snubbing of Tony Kaye's exhaustive, empathetic abortion documentary Lake of Fire, by my estimation the year's finest non-fiction film.

- Finally, I leave you with four horrifying words: "Academy Award Nominee Norbit." Sure, it's for best makeup, and considering that the makeup branch loves the hell out of Rick Baker it would've been madness NOT to predict him. But think about it: Norbit, possibly the most reviled film of 2007, received more Oscar nominations than Zodiac, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Knocked Up, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, and Control. . . COMBINED. Hard to believe, but the makeup branch has actually managed to outdo last year's Click nomination.

Academy to Greenwood: Return That Tux

Paul Clark — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:45:00 GMT

The writers' strike may still be in full swing, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is operating like it's business as usual. The shortlist for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was unveiled last week, the nominations are set to announce tomorrow, and even now the Academy powers that be are making disqualifications on questionable grounds.

The latest victim of an Academy ruling is perhaps the most feted score of 2007: Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's work on There Will Be Blood. According to Variety's Awards Central, the Academy's music branch has ruled Greenwood ineligible for an Oscar under a rule that excludes "scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music." In addition to 35 minutes of wholly original music, the score to There Will Be Blood featured 46 minutes of pre-existing music (Brahms, Arvo Part, sacred music) and roughly 15 minutes of Greenwood's 2006 composition "Popcorn Superhet Receiver."

While the producers of There Will Be Blood accept the Academy's decision, fans of the film are outraged, citing Gustavo Santaolalla's somewhat less-than-original score to Babel which took home the Oscar just last year. But I think the bigger issue is that the art of the original score just wasn't what it used to be.

In the early years of the Oscars, practically every Hollywood film had an original score, with only the occasional use of pre-existing music. But in the intervening years, especially since the rise of rock'n'roll, more filmmakers have peppered their soundtracks with pre-existing tracks, which when they're effectively used can provide a different flavor you can't get from an old-fashioned orchestral score. Think of it this way- can you imagine a young John Travolta strutting down the street swinging a paint can while sweeping strings play behind him? Not the same.

Of course, the purpose of the Academy Awards is to honor people, not to single out intangible cinematic contributions. In other words, if there was an award for "best combination score," who'd take home a prize? The composer? The director? The soundtrack producer? If nothing else, the ruling over Greenwood's score underlines the limits of giving awards for individual work. In the end, a single person's contribution to a movie is less important than the collective effort made by everyone involved. It takes more than one person to make great cinema, and to honor movies strictly for their component parts is to lose sight of the bigger picture.

PTA's Milkshake: Damn Right, It's Better Than Yours

Paul Clark — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:00:00 GMT

As Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood still awaits its full-on nationwide release, the buzz for the film has become practically deafening. It's appeared on a raft of critics' top 10 lists, and has raked in heaps of awards for Anderson, star Daniel Day-Lewis, and the score by Jonny Greenwood. But while critical accolades have a definite appeal to a certain portion of the moviegoing audience, it's going to take more than that for the film to break through to the general populace.

That's where the blogosphere comes in. Numerous web sites have seized upon the movie as a kind of cult object, in particular Daniel Day-Lewis' line "I drink your milkshake!", which he bellows near the end of the film. One enterprising webmaster is offering free idrinkyourmilkshake.com e-Mail accounts for a limited time through his web site. In addition, Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells has proclaimed the line to be "the golden ticket that will sell this thing to people who are too lazy to read reviews and don't care that much about awards." He goes on to suggest that Paramount spearhead the Milkshake campaign by printing up t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and the like.

Me, I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, part of me cringes at the idea of the public awareness for P.T. Anderson's first film in five years being reduced to a catch-phrase that really doesn't make much sense outside the context of the movie. But having seen the film, I realize that a film with such an dark and unsparing view of human nature- even a great one like There Will Be Blood- is going to be a tough sell with the public. Though whether the Milkshake campaign would have much effect on box office remains to be seen, I think every possible effort should be made to put butts in seats. Besides, it could give us a welcome reprieve from Anchorman-inspired t-shirts.

Oh, and Paramount: want another suggestion on how to make the movie appeal to a wider audience? Give it a wider release already. I gladly drove three hours to catch it, but most people (even many movie lovers) wouldn't, so why deny them the chance to see There Will Be Blood?