And the Winner Is...

If any of you have ever heard me talk about my roommate, you might have heard me mention how much she loves movies. Not so much the shallow films cranked out once a year by major companies for the sole purpose of boosting box office returns, though, if the movie is "good" (subjectivity implied here) she'll enjoy those as well. Really though, Amanda has a passion for movies that best embody the true art of film making. Long before college she and her mom has a tradition of going to see all of the Oscar nominated films and indulging in the Award season. Over the past four years I've been sucked into the excitement.

Did you know the Oscar nominations were announced this morning?

Yes, there are awards for best picture, actress, actor, and all sorts famous categories, but I want to spend some time talking about the category that I allow myself to get lost in every year: original film score.

Have you ever noticed the music playing just underneath the current of the action and dialogue on the screen? Many people don't. It's usually the first thing I notice, mostly now because I've trained myself too, I suppose. Regardless, I think film scores possible contribute as much to our movie going experience as that great actor and actress working magic on the screen with not even half the notice. These scores unconsciously leads the audience into the time period of the piece, the social class of the characters, and provides the inner commentary on the emotions of the scene. Ever watch a movie where the main character, over coming all adversity, makes your heart swells with pride and bring tears to your eyes? You're pride for the character is the actor's doing. The physical response belongs to the music. I would never cry at the end of Titanic if that stupid music didn't start just as Rose realizes that Jack is a Popsicle.

Without further adieu, the 2011 nominees for best film score ( with added commentary by moi):

'Inception' Hans Zimmer- Zimmer gets a nomination every year. Seriously, the man us up there with John Williams as one of the best film composers of the twentieth/twenty-first century. He's scored The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Sherlock Holmes, and Da Vinci Code. I wouldn't necessary recommend this score for pleasure listening, from what I remember it is much more background noise to aid the intensity of the scene, and it was vastly successful.

*'The King's Speech' Alexandre Desplat- I could not for the life of me figure out where I heard this name from when it ran after the credits, I had to search him up on Wikipedia, but then I remembered Julie and Julia. He's also done the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and II, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Queen. The beauty of this soundtrack is that it strives to put the audience in the setting of the British Royal Family in the 1930s. It mixes alot of classical elements to achieve this successfully.







*'127 Hours' A.R. Rahman- I haven't actually seen this movie, so I can't speak to the quality of the soundtrack (though I'm certain it's fantastic). What I can tell you is that Rahman composed the music for both the Elizabeth movies with Cate Blanchett (gorgeous) and won the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire.

*'The Social Network' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross- Again, haven't seen it and can't say much about it. It won the Golden Globe this year and from what I put
together the score seems to be very minimalist. Reznor seems to be fairly new to film composition having explored other areas of the music industry and Ross doesn't have any other notable distinctions.

*'How to Train Your Dragon' John Powell- words cannot describe my excitement over seeing this nominated. It went without acknowledgment at the Golden Globes more or less and I was incredibly worried that it would get no recognition, mostly because this movie came out right after the awards last February. Powell hasn't received alot of notoriety, mostly because I think he's done a lot of animated movies like Dragon. He also did Antz
and Shrek. However, he scored Hancock, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and all three Jason Bourne movies. How to Train Your Dragon far outshines the rest of the competition. It is my favorite soundtrack of all the ones I own (averaging around 50). I loved it the moment I first saw the movie, and have been pulling for it ever since. Give it a try, there are moments honestly when you know the world has to be a beautiful place because music like that can't exist anywhere else.

Two scores that I would have liked to have seen nominated:
Black Swan by Clint Mansell and True Grit by Carter Burwell.

Particularly True Grit because it is so steeped in time period in which the movie was set. Drawing on hymns such as Leaning on the Everlasting Arms and What a Friend we Have in Jesus, Burwell was credited for having said that the only place for a character like Mattie Ross to find her True Grit was from church. Consequently these are the songs that "Mattie would sing if she had time for such frivolity. ... The backbone of the score... grows from Church piano to orchestra as Mattie gets father and farther from home.

It just goes to show you, there is almost as much symbolism in the scoring as there is in the movies themselves. Sometimes we need to listen closer.