M&M: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I like and respect Roald Dahl as a writer and enjoy watching the movie “Mathilda” several times and I did enjoy reading “The BFG” even as an adult. Maybe I should some day read his book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, on which this movie from the year 2005 is based on.

To be honest, I don't like the movie much. It's predictable from the start and the whole conception of it is just purely annoying. A typical Tim Burton movie with the “usual suspects”: with Danny Elfman scoring the music, like he did with almost every Tim Burton movie, we also have Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka in the lead role and Helena Bonham Carter (then still fiancé of Tim Burton) as mother of Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore). Charlie's family is so poor, they barely have enough just to eat. Still it's Charlie of all people, who gets one of the rare golden tickets. The golden ticket enables Charlie and other children to visit Willy Wonka in his famous chocolate factory and get a tour there, one which none of them will ever forget. In the end even Willy Wonka, living estrangd from his father, learned something. Yawn. In fact at the end I had the feeling that the movie should have been called “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, because it was somehow most of the time about Willy Wonka, his life style and his factory and not about Charlie Bucket.

While nobody would wish for anybody to grow up in such poor circumstances that Charlie has to be in. However the other kids that get the remaining golden tickets are rotten and spoiled. Each of the spoiled kids will get into a nasty situation according to their character. Charlie is the only one getting away from that tour in a positive way, since he's already punished enough by living in the poor family situation he grew up in.

The movie respectively the factory has jarring colourings in a typical Tim Burton way. As a fan of Danny Elfman's music I listened to it several times before I saw it was on tv one day. I don't know if my parents knew what the movie was about or that it was a Tim Burton movie respectively some parts would be musical songs. I don't know what bothered my parents the most. In any case they turned it off soon. I watched it alone some time later. As I watched it, I had the feeling Danny Elfman's music held everything together and especially in the factory it seemed that they were moving from one song to the next. I liked the music. Especially the first tracks of the album (1-5) are funny and diverse like the characters they're about (“Wonka's Welcome Song”, “Augustus Gloop”, “Violet Beauregarde”, “Veruca Salt”, “Mike “Teavee”). Danny Elfman sang the lyrics to the songs himself and as he reported himself, as he composed the songs, he had laughing fits so hard that his wife checked in on him a couple of times,to see if everything was ok. I can very much imagine that. The tracks are “quirky”, upbeat and dynamic. With “Augustus Gloop” there is however already a revelation that nothing really bad will happen to the kids. Of course not! It's a children's movie and as rotten as the kids may be, nobody wishes them anything terrible („But don't, dear children be alarmed, Augustus Gloop will not be harmed, Augustus Gloop will not be harmed“). The tracks 13-15 (“ Loompa Land”, “The Boat Arrives”, “The River Cruise”) and 18 (“The River Cruise – Part 2”) are pretty dark tracks, by the way. So it's by all means not all just cheery music. I'm listening to the soundtrack again after a long time as I'm writing this blog post.

I would almost suggest to not watch the movie and just listen to the soundtrack. Of course you won't see the kids that way or in what kind of situations they get into and the lessons they'll learn. By only listening to the soundtrack you will also not know the ending and what happened to Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket after the tour. I like Helena Bonham Carter, who can only be seen shortly as the mother and I also like Freddie Highmore. Still, I personally would prefer listening to the soundtrack happily and repeatedly, which I find much more entertaining by itself with the sounds and the lyrics, than watching this quirky, predictable movie. Probably most people will want to watch the movie after listening to the soundtrack anyway. To that I can only say this: Watch it at your own risk!

A Ghost Story: The Music

Already shortly after publishing my last post, I got the feeling that my review of "A Ghost Story" didn't really do the movie any justice. So I want to use this post now to write some more about the music. As I already wrote in the post about the movie, the music is composed by Daniel Hart.

Daniel Hart was born to musician parents in 1976 in Emporia, Kansas in America. So it probably comes as no surprise that they gave him a violin when he was 3 years old and he never let go since, as he said so himself. He came to composing film music for friends and providing the music for their little projects first.

When he's not composing film music, he plays and sings in his band: Dark Rooms. The song “I Get Overwhelmed“ from the band is used in the movie. Contrary to other movies it is not just the title song or something, but the man of the couple is a musician and the woman listens to the song after he died. Elements from that song can be heard in the other tracks of the soundtrack.

The soundtrack is mostly calm and much like the movie as a whole reduced to the essential. I personally feel that the soundtrack is a good one to listen to in passing when you work on something (like I am now, writing this post) and don't want to do that in complete silence or when you want to calm down and get some rest.

I should also mention that Kesha wrote the song “Last One“ performed by Stereo Jane. Kesha is briefly seen in the “party“ scene in the movie, too.

Here is an incomplete list of the tracks from the soundtrack album, if you want to check it out for free:

AGhost Story (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Not included is track no. 9 of the album, “Sciunt se Esse Mortui“ and no. 10, Kesha's/Stereo Jane's “Last One“.)

Often times for the trailer music from other movies is used of from music groups. In the trailer for „A Ghost Story“ however you can hear parts from „I Get Overwhelmed“. Check it out:

trailer in English and trailer in German.

I think, because the movie is rather quiet and with very little dialogue, the music as a whole and “I Get Overwhelmed“ comes to the fore more. If you don't just want to listen, but also see Dark Rooms performing “I Get Overwhelmed“, I found this

IDKSessions Video

for you.

M&M: A Ghost Story

The title seems fairly straight forward in regards to what the story is about, a typical ghost story, but "A Ghost Story" from the year 2017 is far from that. David Lowery wrote the story and also directed the movie.

The story is about a young couple (Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck) living in a small house. The woman would like to move out, but the man doesn't. He likes the history of the house, he tells her. She tells him that when she was young and had to move a lot, she would write something on a small piece of paper and hide it in a crack in the wall of the house so that she'd have something waiting for her, in case she'd come back again. Shortly before they actually do move out, the man dies in a car accident. The woman sees the dead man one last time in the hospital and finally covers him completely with the sheet. After she's gone, the body under the sheet starts to move. He turned into a ghost. He walks around the hospital covered under the sheet and goes back to the house, which he seems unable to leave.

He watches his mourning partner. It's somewhat funny and yet sad, to see the ghost with his sheet, when he's standing in a room or sitting, barely moving or not moving at all. When the ghost is looking out of a window one day, he sees another ghost in the neighbour house also looking out of the window. They have a short talk.

After some time the woman finds a new partner and moves out. One of the few moments in the movie when something scary and typically poltergeist-like happens, when the ghost gets mad (or is it jealous?). Normally we'd be scared in movie moments like that. Here the scene is more bitter sweet. Just like she told her partner before, she leaves a small piece of paper with something written on it in a crack of the house.

A mother moves in with her two children. They celebrate Christmas. But they can't cope with the ghost and after another tamper tantrum of the ghost, during with plates fly and hit the wall, the family moves out again.

Eventually the house gets steamrolled over. The “neighbour ghost” is ready to go. Only "our" ghost stays and is still there when the small house is replaced by a skyscraper with office rooms. After the ghost desperately throws himself off the building, he finds himself in the 19th century. A family of settlers wants to build a house. The girl of the family writes on a small piece of paper and puts it on the ground, placing a stone on top of it. The family is killed by Native Americans. The ghost stays with the family and watches as the body of the girl turns to just bones.

You need to watch the movie yourself to find out whether the ghost finds his peace and how the movie ends. A movie with the title "A Ghost Story" is certainly one people who don't like horror movies would avoid at first. But I can most warmly recommend it to everyone. The movie is not at all a scary movie and the two poltergeist-like moments are already mentioned above. It doesn't get scarier than that. On the contrary the movie impressed me with how calm it is, not least with very little dialogue, long scenes without cuts or camera movement and a very beautiful score by Daniel Hart. Also the movie has a 1.33 : 1 ratio, not the typical 2.35 : 1. That means black mattes left and right of the screen. Also the edges are round, which gives the movie its very own atmosphere.

I came upon this movie only a while ago, when I read the title somewhere on the internet in a list of movies. Certainly I will check out other movies by David Lowery soon, since I really liked "A Ghost Story".

["Ain't Them Bodies Saints" is another movie by David Lowery, again starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck and yes, Daniel Hart provided the score to that one as well. Haven't seen that one yet though. I might (re)view it soon though.]

M&M: The Kingdom

Dear reader,

The Kingdom is a movie from the year 2008. Whether a movie is good or bad is certainly always also a matter of taste. I found this movie, because I like the composer Danny Elfman, who wrote the soundtrack for this movie. More about the soundtrack below.

I don't find the movie as such particularly good, actually rather bad. It's been a long time since I've seen it and I had forgotten most of what happens at first, so I had to read up on some of the things. Why am I writing about the movie, if I didn't like it? At the end of the movie, two characters make a statement, which shows very clearly the absurdity of war. What they said was, at that moment, scarier and more frightening than any thinkable war scene. But let's start at the beginning. This is what the movie is about:

As an introduction certain key moments between Saudi-Arabia and their relationship with America are shown in a quick walk through history from 1932 up until the attacks from September, 11 2001.

The actual story of starts with a softball game of Americans in Riad, where a terror attack happens and Americans get killed. A female FBI agent gets note during a conference that her friend is among the dead Americans. A colleague whispers something into her ear, which makes her calm down. The two of them and other FBI agents go to Riad, to investigate the circumstances and to find the people involved in the attack. Towards the end of the movie the group gets in an ambush and one of them is kidnapped. The others follow the kidnappers to an abandoned house, where the showdown takes place. A grandfather is present on the side of the Saudi people and he gets a fatal wound. He whispers something into his grandson's ear. The case is closed for the FBI and they go back to America. One of them in the group asks his colleague and the woman, what he had whispered back at the conference. Meanwhile the aunt of the Saudis asks her nephew, what his grandfather had whispered into his ear before his death.

Caution: If you want to see the movie, you should make your own choice whether or not to read what they whispered.

Both of them reply with: “Don't fear them. We are going to kill them all.”

The way I see it, The Kingdom is a rather typical, American war movie. I personally agree with the negative critics that (once again) Americans celebrate themselves with with movie and lots of action and Islamic people, like so many times recently in real life as well as in movies, are used as representation of evil. There are exceptions in The Kingdom, but they are, in my opinion, almost meaningless. Americans are the greatest and Islam and Islamic people are the enemies. I find that very sad, unnecessary and needless in the end. That was the case back then when I watched it already and in sight of the current conflicts, in which America (once again) is involved, even more so. I watched the movie once, because I wanted to sort of see the pictures to the soundtrack and the last line impressed me a lot. It's the meaninglessness of war in a nutshell in a very good way, for me anyway.

A few final words now about the soundtrack: Danny Elfman is mostly known for his collaboration with Tim Burton and his movies. The soundtrack here is very different. Very electronic, mostly simply to be called loud pieces alternate with calm (electric) guitar sounds. The latter has much more melody and structure. A very unusual mix, which one would probably not necessarily listen to a lot. The electronic tracks fit probably mainly with the movie, than for listening to them just like that. The guitar tracks remind me personally a bit in their way they are of the soundtrack of “Thelma & Louise” by Hans Zimmer.

Until next blog,

sarah

M&M: No Reservations

Dear reader,

after the dandelion recipes, even though it would probably have been more fitting last month, I think the movie “No Reservations” is a good addition. In the movie from the year 2007 with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart in the lead roles, there's loads of cooking!

Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is top chef in a restaurant and also totally a perfectionist. But even though she sets high standards for herself as well as her cooked food, she cannot handle critics on either her as a person or her food well. So her boss Paula (Patricia Clarkson) eventually sends her to a therapist.

Her perfectly organised world is put to a test, when her sister and her 9-years old daughter, Zoe (Abigail Breslin) have an accident. Only Zoe survives and Kate decides to adopt the girl. Kate tries hard to treat Zoe with exceptional food. In doing so she seems to forget that children don't necessarily want to eat extravagant things. To top it all, a new cook is recruited to help Kate in the kitchen: Nick (Aaron Eckhart). Nick has a completely different cooking style (with music!) and is full of enthusiasm and passion. Of course Kate doesn't like that at all. It takes some time for Nick to not only stir food for Kate, but also her blood. Certainly one crucial moment is when Zoe visits the restaurant and kitchen one time and Nick manages finally to make her eat spaghetti with relish.

Paula is so happy with Nick's work in the restaurant, that she offers him to replace Kate as top chef. Will Nick take that offer and what does Kate think about the possibility of maybe not being the no. 1 in the kitchen anymore?

“No Reservations” is a remake of the movie “Bella Martha” from the year 2001. The names have changed and so has the ending. Personally, I like the actual ending of “No Reservations” better. The ending of “Bella Martha” is a bit too fantastic for my taste, although not totally unrealistic. Catherine Zeta-Jones worked as a server in a restaurant for one evening as preparation for her role. Of course Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart had to learn how to cut veggies “professionally” and how to turn barbecued food. In the “Making-Of” Aaron Eckhart says that the scenes in which they had to cook as well as speak dialogue, where especially difficult. On the one hand they had to look professional, which is difficult enough for someone not professional, as well as speaking lines, wasn't always as easy as it may look for the viewer.

Sometimes a somewhat sad, but often very funny movie about a bit of cooking and kitchen, but especially (sadly) not cookbook example of life and family. I'm sure we all sometimes wish, as Kate does, to have a cookbook for life, so we don't have to make up our own recipes for life situations.

Of course the movie has some bits of songs that “Nick” is playing. Otherwise Philip Glass is responsible for the actual film music. Although one theme can be repeatedly heard, which is actually from Mark Isham from the movie “Life As A House”, which is the melody of the song “Building A Family”. I like the melody a lot. It's one of my two favourite tracks from the soundtrack album. In “No Reservations” however the melody is played so often, that for me it feels like it's only that melody and the music “Nick” plays. With all due respect for Philip Glass, and I'm sure it's not his fault, but ultimately the director's decision, but I hardly consciously hear any of his melodies at all, when watching that movie.

Until next blog,

sarah

Heavenly music

Dear reader,

I rarely hear "pure" classical music. I do listen to a lot of soundtracks. Soundtracks speak to more, because good soundtracks tell a story of their own even without the pictures.

Year ago, I became again interested in magic and found Derren Brown. In his stage show "Something Wicked This Way Comes", the second act starts with him getting a woman from the audience on stage, sitting her across from him at a table, signing a brick of wood for her and then hammering a nail in his nose, well the nose hole. To finish, he hammers the nail in the brick (perfectly timed with the playing music) and hands the brick to her as a present. All of that is with almost no words, he only whispers when she should hold the nail and when he asks for her name to sign the brick for her. This is accompanied by Beethoven's fifth piano concerto, in english areas also known as "The Emperor". It is a strange thing to see someone hammering a nail in the nose, although I'm well aware that this act is not a trick, but really possible. Those of you, who can't see that sort of thing, should just click on the video to start it and look away or close your eyes. Everyone else can, of course, also close your eyes and just enjoy the music. The piece itself is the second of three and about 9 minutes long. Those of you who want to listen to the whole piano concerto and haven't yet, be warned: the transition from the second to the third part is very instant and very loud.

The second part is, not least because of Derren Brown, my favourite part. Although it doesn't hurt trained people to hammer a nail in the nose, it still has become the essence of relaxation and especially analgesia for me.

You have been warned, Derren Brown hammers a nail in his nose in this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNbnuZR2wd4

I heard the second, in my opinion divine, piece, in the movie "Master & Commander". A crew is sailing around on a ship. The captain enjoys playing the violin and the doctor plays the cello. Preferably, and much to the dislike of the rest of the crew, they play classical pieces. This is why there are at least some excerpts f those classical pieces on the CD of the soundtrack, too. An ingenious movie with the combination classical pieces with the captain and the doctor, by the way. Normally the two of them play always together. So all pieces are for violin and cello. The only exception is when they stop at the galapagos islands, to treat the injured doctor and give him a rest. On the island, on land and among many interesting new animals, he is in his element. That's the only moment, when you can hear a piece for solo cello, namely Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007.

My favourite piece however can be heard when they sadly have to abandon a sailor, a cut version (of about 16 minutes cut down to about 5 minutes) of "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughun Williams. It's a bit complicated, I know. Thomas Tallis lived about 1500 until 1580-ish and has composed a hymn. Vaughun Williams was born about 1890-ish and died in 1960-ish. He was very interested in english folk songs and was inspired by Tallis' hymn. Vaughun Williams composed his wonderful piece in 1910, in which it was also performed for the first time in the Gloucester Cathedral. The special thing about it is, that the musicians are not all sitting together. some of them are sitting in a smaller ensemble somewhat apart. Vaughun Williams did that for the sound effect. In the link, which I'll give you in a bit, which by the way is also Gloucester Cathedral, the group is sitting, like they were in the premiere, so the spacial arrangement can be seen. I find it unbelievably exciting to hear the high strings at the beginning playing their melody and the low strings replying with the strings being plucked. The strings need quite some time, until they find to each other and really play together.

I'm not a music theorist. Others could tell much more about that piece. If you're interested, you'll certainly read up about it. I was lucky and found a very insightful audio sort of documentarydiscussion on the internet. It is about 45 minutes long. Let me know, if you want to listen to it. This should be it with explanations today.

Here it is now, the heavenly "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughun Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihx5LCF1yJY

With this I wish you all a heavenly christmas!

If you like, you can post your own favourite classical music in the comments,

Until next blog,
sarah

My Christmas Song "List" 2013

Dear reader,

the "usual" christmas songs are fine for a while for me. I prefer unusual. Here are a couple of songs, which I have and listen to, which are christmassy:

"Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over" by Jack White

I heard it for the first time in the film respectively soundtrack of "Cold Mountain". An upbeat, happy melody, something different from the more usual slow songs. The song tells the story of a group, who will join the band when christmas time will soon be over.

(The video link has the Royal Albatross. Sadly I couldn't find any other video or audio with Jack White, some youtube links are blocked for germany due to some copyright/rights regulations.... sorry about that):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPoJE92yvvM

"Christmas In Hollis" by Run DMC

I learned about this song watching the film "Die Hard". Bruce Willis is in a limousine and is driven from the airport to the building where his wife is having a christmas party with her company, to which he is also invited. He complains that this isn't a christmas song and it does sound more like rap, far away from what we'd associate with sounds and music for christmas. But as the driver points out to Bruce Willis, "This is christmas music!" The text tells the story of someone, who goes for a walk in a park on christmas and seems to see someone with a dog. The dog happens to be a reindeer and it's very sick and the man next to it isn't just somebody, but santa claus.

Here's the music video to the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR07r0ZMFb8

"The Stowaway" by Murray Gold/performed by Yamit Mamo

"Doctor Who" fans may know this song from the 10th Doctor (David Tennant). You can find it on the soundtrack to the 3rd series. I like it, because it's a happy, dynamic melody. Although the song is a bit sad. The singer tells about a "stowaway" on his ship. Which applies quite well to the Doctor in the episode "Voyage of The Damned", in which this song is played. In this christmas episode he's on the Titanic. The stowaway of the song desperately wants to be with his love on christmas day.

You can listen to the song on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoXF6H_venI

"Christmas Hell" (variaton of "Jingle Bells") by Danny Elfman

Not really a song in a real sense, more a short promo by Danny Elfman, the composer of the music of "Nightmare Before Christmas" with his very own version of "Jingle Bells". More on "Nightmare Before Christmas" later (later as in "in a new blog post", linked to it, now that it's done)... I thought I'll add it here, even though it's not a proper song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcgtOkj9ubU

"White Wine In The Sun" by Tim Minchin

A christmas song? Or more a song for and to his little daughter? Or both? I like Tim Minchin, as you may have guessed from previous entries and I like this song. He's australian and in australia there's no snow on christmas, of course. White is only the wine for him.

In the video he's singing this as an encore, I think during his tour "Ready For This":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iwfLN4K1hA

Do you have christmas songs you like to listen to? If so which ones?

Until next blog,
sarah

Pride and Prejudice

Dear reader,

I was able to see for myself how our presuppositions affect our way of thinking, if not to say forms our prejudices. Two evenings ago the movie "Blood Diamond" was on tv. I knew it already, but wanted to watch it again and really see some of the actors this time. I didn't know them before or wasn't aware of them as who they were the first time around.

I didn't remember who composed the music for the film, but "suspected" Hans Zimmer. I don't like him. His music often is big, which is fine in and for blockbusters, but the music without the film is often quite exhausting for me to listen to. I don't listen to the few soundtracks of him that I have anymore. Sometimes I listen to a remix version of the title song "Now We Are Free" from the movie "Gladiator". It's the "Now We Are Free (Juba's Mix" from "Gladiator - More Music From the Motion Picture", one of the two cd's out there. I liked to listen to that one earlier. I liked it better than the other one. On it are pieces which Hans Zimmer composed, but never "made it" into to movie. It also has a couple of parts of dialogue from the movie. Even listening to the "better" one of the two cd's, I don't get passed the first 3 tracks. I then skip all of them except the last 2 tracks. And that it's it.

It took me a long time before I watched the Sherlock Holmes movie from 2009 and Inecption, because Hans Zimmer die the score for it. I know, I'm stupid. (The score for the first Sherlock Holmes movie, by the way, is exactly what I expected of Hans Zimmer: much of other movies and much repetition. To be exact "The Third Man" and this is repeated so much that I was bored, if not to say annoyed by it, even watching the movie. A couple of times I still listened to the soundtrack alone and thought it was okay.) The second Sherlock Holmes movie from 2011, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, I didn't watch, because the story didn't interest me much. Maybe I'll watch it some time. Inception and the first Sherlock Holmes movie I really didn't watch out of protest. I had no interest at all in Hans Zimmer.

Back to Blood Diamond. So I had Hans Zimmer in my head and a couple of times when I was aware of the music, I only liked it partly. Sometimes it was pretty good, I had to admit. Overall of course, I could not possibly like it, although some was pretty good. Then the movie was over. And? "Music: James Newton Howard. Ouch. He worked with Hans Zimmer on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. James Newton Howard gave both movies the emotion of the music, which Hans Zimmer cannot, because he can only do "massive blockbuster and action". James Newton Howard's wonderfully minimalistic soundtrack to "The Village" is my favourite. So he had done the score for Blood Diamond? I'll soon listen to it without the movie.

On saturday I told my mom about the quasi confusion and how I came to like the score just now because of that. She grinned and said, "See. See how our prejudices influence us." All I could do was grin back at her and nod.

The "pride"-part of this blog entry is this: James Newton Howard composed the music for the first two Batman movies together with Hans Zimmer, like I wrote before. He didn't work on the third and last one though and Hans Zimmer did it alone. Why? The other day I accidentally came across a page on the internet which stated that James Newton Howard seemed to have expected to work on Inception with Hans Zimmer, like they did work together on the two Batman movies. Nolan however didn't ask him. I don't know if it was defiance or pride or whatever, but Howard didn't want to work on the last Batman movie then. What an ego. Sad.

Until next blog,

sarah