Snow White sure has come a long way since Disney. From perky but bland cartoon to beautiful but bland live action cartoon earlier this year (MIRROR MIRROR) and now somnambulistic but bland live action corpse thanks to Kristen Stewart, she of the vacant, glassy-eyed, open-mouth school of acting. So it’s no surprise that director Rupert Sanders’s menacing take on the fairy tale—SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN—basically ignores its title and focuses more on Charlize Theron’s evil queen. for all its creative visual style, Sanders supplies a movie that is made up of singular moments—interesting though many of them are—that never quite coalesce into an engaging, cohesive film. Still, all that visual creativity gives James Newton Howard the chance to create his own menacing musical take on the oft-told tale.
For someone who worships THE OMEN, it might come as a surprise that I’m not a fan of horror films. And I like torture films even less. I don’t understand what entertainment value can be gleaned from watching human beings cause each other extreme emotional and physical torment. So to say watching LAST BREATH was torture is not only an obvious pun, but an understatement. On the plus side for film music fans is an effective horror score by Vincent Gillioz (recently released on Howlin’ Wolf Records) that goes beyond genre conventions.
Jealousy certainly does make monsters of us all. In A DOUBLE LIFE (1947), Ronald Colman stars as an actor whose latest role as the jealous, murderous Othello begins to take over his psyche, blurring reality.
More Charlie Chaplin birthday celebrating, this time with the sublime Petula Clark.
Happy birthday to the one and only Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)
A place to see and hear the wonderful world of film scores! Check the ABOUT page for more information on Film Score Click Track and its humble host, writer/editor Jim Lochner.
