2001

  There’s a problem with most filmed science fiction. It’s just surfaced again in the flawed but enjoyable Chris Pratt/ Jennifer Lawrence starrer ‘Passengers’ and it’s this; most SF films are about earthly, human situations with the words ‘in space’ added. Outland = Cop chases villains – in space. Alien = People fight beast – […]

Although I’ve written fewer of them in the last few years, I’ve always enjoyed a good supernatural story or film. In the last few years, the genre has become lost, without much of a way forward. Once it reflected simple fears of darkness and unknown lonely places, but subtlety is required to build the right […]

Admit it – when you saw the above picture a piece of music popped into your head, didn’t it? When Stanley Kubrick added a Strauss waltz to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ he created the most famous classical music/movie juxtaposition in film history. It wasn’t a new technique in Europe; ‘Elvira Madigan’ had used Mozart and […]

When you work on a film in any post-production capacity, you have to be prepared for the fact that the film will be ruined for you forever. The endless repetition of footage, sound and music cues deconstructs the scenes that touched your heart until they become little more than pixel rainbows. It’s worse when the […]

Films can be saved by music. Try watching the opening sequence of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ with the sound off – it’s like seeing someone’s terrible home movies. But with the John Barry score in place, it’s transformed to something special. This year, the excellent score to ‘Inception’ lifted the visual elements and showed […]