Tag: TV

Ennio: The Maestro
(Ennio)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 22 April 2022
No Comments on Ennio: The Maestro
(Ennio)

Director – Giuseppe Tornatore – 2021 – Italy – Cert. 15 – 156m

****

Documentary Ennio: The Maestro looks at the career of Italian film composer Ennio Morricone – out in cinemas on Friday, April 22nd

It’s difficult to know where to start with Ennio Morricone, whose career in film music covers some 70 years. Tornatore adopts the chronological approach, starting with his early life. The composer’s father was a trumpeter who pushed young Ennio to learn that same instrument, leading to entry into Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory where he studied both trumpet and composition. His father had raised him with a strong work ethic – using the trumpet to feed your family – and much of his early work was as a trumpeter on movie soundtrack sessions, including Othello (Orson Welles, 1951).

His wife secured him a brief stint at TV channel RAI where she was working, but on being told that he wouldn’t be able to perform anything recorded there anywhere else, Morricone quit almost immediately. Inspired by seeing experimental composer John Cage perform live, he formed the Nuovo Consonanza Improvisation Group to experiment with what he called “traumatic sounds”. This approach would inform a number of his later soundtracks.… Read the rest

Tags ¡Queimada!, A Fistful Of Dollars, A Quiet Place In The Country, arpeggio, Brian De Palma, Bruce Springsteen, Burn!, chronology, Cinema Paradiso, Clint Eastwood, composition, conservatory, counterpoint, Dario Argento, documentarian, documentary filmmaker, Edda Dell’Orso, Elio Petri, Ennio Morricone, experimental music, fathers and sons, feed your family, For a Few Dollars More, Four Flies On Grey Velvet, gangster movie, Gillo Pontecorvo, Giuliano Montaldo, Giuseppe Tornatore, Glenn Phillips, Gunfight In The Red Sands, Hollywood, I Cannibali, Il Barattolo, improvisation, Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, Italy, Joan Baez, John Cage, La Scorta, Legend Of 1900, Liliana Cavali, maestro, Metallica, movies, Nuovo Consonanza, Nuovo Consonanza Improvisation Group, Once Upon A Time In America, Once Upon A Time In The West, orchestra, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Quentin Tarantino, RAI, RCA, recording session, Ricki Tognazzi, Roland Joffé, Rome, Sacco & Vanzetti, Salvatore Argento, Santa Cecilia Conservatory, school, Sergio Leone, soundtrack, Terrence Malick, The Bad And The Ugly, The Battle Of Algiers, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, The Cat O’ Nine Tails, The Good, The Hateful Eight, The Hawks And The Sparrows, The Mission, The Untouchables, The Year Of The Cannibals, traumatic sounds, trumpet, tumpeter, TV, US, Western, work ethic, Yojimbo

Animation Dance Movies Shorts

Boxballet
(Boxbalet,
БоксБалет)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 June 2021
No Comments on Boxballet
(Boxbalet,
БоксБалет)

Director – Anton Dyakov – 2020 – Russia – 15m 15s

*****

A pencil-thin ballerina becomes involved with a rough, stocky boxer. Some things seem destined not to be… And yet… – nominated for Best Animated Short in the 2021/22 (94th) Oscars

Olya and Evgeny live near each other’s flats. When running to catch the subway train, tall, thin ballerina Olya’s movements are grace personified, the epitome of precision timing. The world of shorter, stocky boxer Evgeny, whose face is a patchwork of scars from his career in the ring, couldn’t be more different. Should she object to the hands of her choreographer on her leg when he’s showing her the position she needs to achieve? Is he being a little overly fresh? She’s unaware of Evgeny buying booze from the local shop and drinking it at home.

Then one day, he sees her in distress and rescues her cat from a tree. She invites him in for a cup of tea, but his embarrassment there causes him to know a cup off the table, breaking it. She takes him to an art gallery, a shooting gallery, roller skating. He retrieves her bag after she’s robbed in broad daylight. He goes to watch her at the ballet, but sees her drive off with her choreographer.… Read the rest

Live Action Series Television

Hellbound
(Jiok,
지옥,
lit. Hell)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 18 November 2021
No Comments on Hellbound
(Jiok,
지옥,
lit. Hell)

Director – Yeon Sang-ho – 2021 – South Korea – 6 x 50m

*****

Angels state the time of death then demons come and cart people off to hell, generating a circus of fundamentalist, religious activity – series airs on Netflix from November 19th – reviewed for All The Anime

The new Netflix series Hellbound (2021) from South Korea’s Yeon Sang-ho, creator of zombie outings Seoul Station (2016) and Train To Busan (2016), began life as a webtoon some 11 minutes in length back in 2002. The first three x 50-minute episodes (out of six) have played a number of international film festivals.

Those first three episodes – screened at the London Film Festival where this writer saw them – explore notions of sin, eternal punishment and damnation. As in Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael’s hilarious and highly inventive comic, religious satire The Brand New Testament (2015), people are sent the date and time of their death then dazedly watch the moment approach on their mobile phones. After its announcement, when the time comes, three black and white, Hulk-like demons turn up to pound the person into a pulp, suck out their life force and burn the corpse… [Read more]

I review Hellbound (eps 1-3) for All The Anime.… Read the rest

Animation Features Movies

SCOOB!

Director – Tony Cervone – 2020 – US – Cert. PG – 93m

****

Available on VoD from Friday, July 10th and BD/DVD Monday, September 28th

I grew up watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons which would play in, if I recall, the 5.20 slot on the BBC. Some were better than others. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969-70) was one of the better ones. It had five memorable characters who each week would investigate some mystery suggesting monsters or the paranormal for which there would always turn out to be a rational explanation as the perpetrator was unmasked at the end, usually with the words “and I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t have been for you kids.”

The original cartoon TV series (1969-70) has spawned numerous spin-offs over the years including a so-so live action / special effects theatrical feature Scooby-Doo (2002) and a sequel. Which brings us to SCOOB!, an animated theatrical movie once again bringing the franchise to the big screen.

It starts off with a couple of tried and tested big screen adaptation tropes. One, taking one of the characters and having them somehow meet up with the others for their first adventure. Two, an origin story.… Read the rest

Tags cartoon, comedy, dog, haunted house, monsters, paranormal, robot, spaceship, TV, US, Venice Beach, voice artist