Favorite Film Scores

A Tale of Two Sisters

Hello! Since I've been listening to a lot of film scores recently, as well as composing some piano music, I thought I'd share some of my favorite movie music:  

Midnight in Paris

(Stephane Wrembel)

I have a special place in my heart for this little film, and that's probably in no small part due to its easygoing yet heartfelt score. Woody Allen's love of jazz shines through here and Sidney Bechet "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere" has never sounded more timeless.   

A Tale of Two Sisters 
(Lee Byung-woo)

A classic K-Horror film, A Tale of Two Sisters takes a searing look at familial cruelty. Visually, this is my favorite film of the bunch and its main musical theme is gorgeous.     

Hana-Bi 
(Joe Hisaishi)

It would be possible to fill this whole list with scores by the incomparable Joe Hisaishi! This violent cop movie is visually arresting featuring artwork created by the director, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano (who also stars in the film), juxtaposed against bloody brutality. The main theme is one of Hisaishi's saddest compositions.

Amélie
(Yann Tiersen)

One of the most famous film scores of all! The arrangements aren't as intricate as Hisaishi's, but it would be hard to pass this one over.   

***

Sadly, movies are one of the few places to hear new classical music that isn't atonal, though I've heard that's changing a bit. Regardless, I'd like to hear music like this get more mainstream play. What are your favorite film scores?

--Pianoesque    

England Retrospective

Last summer, I spent the month of the July in Oxford, England at Lady Margaret Hall, and between learning to punt on the Thames, reading Nabokov in the lovely gardens, and seeing/meeting so many interesting people, it was an extraordinary trip. Perhaps I'm a bit nostalgic with Wimbledon starting tomorrow, but I'd like to share a few pictures here. I'll also be uploading many more pictures from the trip to my Flickr account. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

LMH College

On the River Thames 

Wedding at Blenheim Palace

Tower of London

 --Pianoesque

Cinematic Savior: Monsieur Lazhar

2012 has been a disappointing year as far as movies go, but I've finally found something special in the beautiful Canadian-French film, Monsieur Lazhar.

Directed by the modest Philippe Falardeau, this film, set in Montreal, centers around Bashir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant who begins teaching an elementary school class after its beloved teacher commits suicide.  Lazhar, played by Mohamed Saïd Fellag with aplomb, is the kind of teacher who elevates his students, taking them to see Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid and reading them Balzac for dictation.  At the same time, he's also deeply invested in them on a personal level, knowing that their grief parallels his own.

There are a number of interesting themes here, all handled with a deft touch: immigration and cultural identity in Canada/Quebec; the student-teacher relationship and its politicized, but sometimes imaginary boundaries; and unexplainable loss and the grief that accompanies it.  There's also an interesting meta component to the film as Quebec itself has defiantly struggled to maintain its own cultural identity from the rest of Canada (there's an amusing joke about this at  Lazhar's immigration hearing).

A compelling thread in the film surrounds loss and grief.  After the class's teacher hangs herself  in her own classroom, the administrative response is to move past it quickly, having the room painted a new color and using the school psychologist to "cure" the students.  No one wants to talk about the suicide and why it happened, save for the children, who are disturbed by it in various complicated ways--none more than the two children who saw their teacher's dead body: Claire and Simon (Sophie Nélisse and Émilien Néron).  Lazhar, recognizing this, defies the administration and provincial parents to give his students an outlet for honest communication.  In a society obsessed with "closure" and neat endings, it was refreshing to see a film challenge such notions head on.

Fellage is the movie's anchor, though Sophie Nélisse and Émilien Néron are perhaps the true stars here, giving the kind of unaffected performances that only children can.  The cathartic resolution of their conflict is a gut-wrenching moment in the film, instantly relatable to anyone who has tortured himself with secret guilt for too long.

The score features original compositions by Martin Léon, as well as lovely performances of Mozart's famous A-Major Piano Sonata and Scarlatti, all of which lovingly imbue "la belle province."

Monsieur Lazhar is a terrific film, easily better than that piece of cotton-candy, The Artist. In watching it I felt grateful that films like this are finding the light of day, and was reminded of how much I care about good, thoughtful art--and that's something that I hadn't felt in a long time at the movie theatres.

--Pianoesque

Trailer

Philippe Falardeau Interview

New York City Weekend

Here are some pictures from a trip to New York.  I went to a Japanese restaurant with a friend near Astor Place and while the food didn't compare to what I've had in NorCal and Toronto, it was still a lot of fun.  It's a lovely section of the city and better than the meal were the Puddin' Pops from Puddin NYC on St. Mark's Place.  Sadly, we ate the pops too quickly to photograph.

Saki Cocktails

Salmon Skin Avocado Salad

Not quite as spicy as I had hoped for

"Sputnik Sweetheart"

***

I also chanced upon a new clothing line, Maison Kitsuné, which has a boutique inside the NoMad Hotel in Chelsea.  The store is quite minimalist, but still inviting.  A collection inspired by The Great Gatsby was showcased, which I thought was a lot of fun for a high-end Parisian line in the city.    

The palette above appealed to me

New York Times article on the store

--Pianoesque

New Tennis Sneakers

Hello, and happy Friday! 

So, after much deliberation, I decided to buy the new Roger Federer tennis sneakers.  They were a bit pricey, but I'm a big fan of a previous version and Federer = GOAT.     

Federer at the 2012 Australian Open

                                                      
 Nike Vapor Tour 9

They're essentially a running shoe with the support and stability of a tennis shoe.  When I first saw the colors, I wasn't a fan, but they've grown on me.  I realized, though, that they're a fun fashion item and that I should get another pair of tennis sneakers for practice sessions and training. After all, I don't want to destroy such a cool shoe.

My solution was to get a pair of the Yonex SHT-304R, which I'd had my eye on for a while now.  They're a bit quirky, but very comfortable and as is typical with Yonex products, well-designed and constructed. 

Yonex SHT-304R

I like the details.

Which sneaker do you guys prefer?  That's all for now, but there's more to come soon :-)

--Pianoesque

Sunday Night Ice Cream

Tonight I went to Emack & Bolio's with a friend and took some pictures.  In addition to the ice cream, there's a big assortment of candy, cookies & other sweets.  The vibe is somewhat similar to Ben & Jerry's (though it's actually older been around longer), but with a bit more character.  I definitely recommend it!  

Lanterns 

Vanilla & Cookie Monster Sundae 

                           

The Pianist

--Pianoesque

Weekend Review Part Two: Borromeo String Quartet

Hello friends,

I also had the pleasure of hearing a concert by the Borromeo String Quartet last weekend and, wow, was it terrific!  The musicians played Dvorak's "American" quartet and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" quartet.  In addition to being out of this world musicians, they're also quite progressive in terms of presenting classical music to audiences in new and interesting ways.  To the point, they used laptops instead of paper scores, using foot pedals to turn the pages.  As Nicholas Kitchen explained, this setup is quite useful as they can easily see the entire score, as opposed to just an individual part.  They also displayed some of the Schubert score on a projector screen for the audience to view and played a recording of another group's interpretation of the Dvorak piece for comparison's sake.  Some people might not like multimedia finding its way into the concert hall, but everything was so seamlessly integrated that I found the experience illuminating and not at all distracting.  A YouTube video can't do them justice, but here's them playing the final movement of "Death and the Maiden" from a different performance.  Enjoy!

http://www.borromeoquartet.org 

--Pianoesque

P.S. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my own piano playing with you guys in the coming weeks.