John Farr, at bestmoviesbyfarr.com, has compiled his personal list of ten composers who he feels wrote the most memorable scores of the 15 years from 1959-1974. He chooses this period somewhat arbitrarily, claiming that the most evocative use of music in the past quarter century has taken the form of soundtracks (American Graffiti, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction).

• 1.) Bernard Herrmann, “North By Northwest” (1959) / “Psycho” (1960)
• 2.) Elmer Bernstein, “The Magnificent Seven” (1961)
• 3.) Henry Mancini, “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” (1961) / “The Pink Panther” (1964)
• 4.) Maurice Jarre, “Lawrence Of Arabia” (1962)/ “Doctor Zhivago” (1965)
• 5.) John Barry, “Dr. No” (1962) / “Goldfinger” (1964)
• 6.) Francis Lai, “A Man And A Woman” (1966)
• 7.) Ennio Morricone, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” (1967)
• 8.) Michel Legrand, “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968)
• 9.) Burt Bacharach, “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid” (1969)
• 10.) Nino Rota, “The Godfather” (1972) / “The Godfather, Part II” (1974)

Nice list, but it leaves a lot of room for expansion to other decades. Focusing on the past 20 years, I’d include Thomas Newman, Carter Burwell, Howard Shore, Michael Nyman, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, Alexander Desplat, Patrick Doyle and of course, John Williams. I know, I picked the obvious ones, but that’s a solid start for a list of Top 20 composers of the past 20 years. Who else belongs on that list?

David Letterman has a much stranger sense of humor than he normally gets to express on his own show. As offbeat as he can be, I first realized we had matching taste in movie comedies when he raved about One Night at McCools a few years back — a movie that got panned by most critics. I ignored the reviews, took Letterman’s advice, and discovered a dark twisted gem.

Unlike that sycophant on NBC, Dave doesn’t praise a movie unless he genuinely likes it, so last night’s interview with Seth Rogen has me really looking forward to Observe and Report, in theaters April 10th.

Letterman on Observe and Report: “It’s one thing after another, so carefully crafted as to be extreme and bizarre to the point where you start laughing, and you can’t help yourself. And every little thing, you think, ‘Oh they wouldn’t put that in th– Oh they did.’ And before you know it, you can’t stop laughing.”

Red and trailer for Observe and Report, after the cut.

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(click to enlarge)

The brooding teaser poster for Sherlock Holmes has the Baker Street sleuth striking a pose that reminds me of another fin-de-siècle eccentric. And another one. (Some have said that the dark tinted glasses are anachronistic — in the 19th century “it was common for syphilis patients to receive amber- or yellow-tinted lenses” — but here’s the Honorable Henry Cranston, Congressman from Rhode Island, stylin’ in his shades circa 1850.)

I wonder how long before some Photoshopaholic acts on the subliminal suggestion in the poster and extends Sherlock’s middle finger along the same plane as his pipe stem?

Don’t buy the new DVD or Blu-ray discs for Let the Right One In unless you like all the subtlety and nuance sucked right out of your movies. The subtitles for the theatrical release, as well as those on last year’s screeners, did a fine job translating the sly attitude and dark humor intended by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel and screenplay. But the DVD released March 10th hangs the movie upside down in a tree, slits its throat, and drains all the cleverness into a plastic jug. If you bought this DVD, you didn’t get the movie the rest of us saw last last year.

In a brilliant breakdown at Icons of Fright, you’ll find a dissection of this debacle with detailed comparisons between the good translation and the bastardized dim-wit subtitles they’re trying to sell us at Best Buy and Amazon. The new subtitles are dumbed down to the most simplistic level imaginable. They’ve done a terrific job of absolutely ruining the movie — and charged you 20 bucks for the Sesame Street edition. I’ll post an example or two after the cut, but please go check out the complete article at Icons of Fright, because they’ve done us all a great service by exposing this blunder.

Anyone who’s bothered by this can go to Amazon.com and any other retailer that allows customer feedback to give this DVD the lowest rating and explain why in the comments. That way we can warn people not to waste their money on it. You’ll find more reasons for this, and more ranting after the cut.

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We know Sharon Waxman knows exactly what’s going on here, and understands the game being played. Maybe she thinks nobody else does, because this gets reported in breathless gasps, as if we’re all supposed to be shocked and concerned.

Is Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno Too Raunchy? With outrageous sex scenes and racist humor that goes beyond Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen’s docu-comedy Bruno was just given an NC-17 rating. Can he clean up his act in time for the film’s release this summer?

Among the objectionable scenes is one in which two naked men attempt oral sex in a hot tub, while one of them holds a baby. In another, Bruno—a gay Austrian fashionista played by Baron Cohen—appears to have anal sex with a man on camera. In another, the actor goes on a hunting trip and sneaks naked into the tent of one of the fellow hunters, an unsuspecting non-actor.

Where does Waxman think we think the scenes for unrated DVD editions come from?

Director James Gray speaks out about the bizarre behavior of former BFF, Joaquin Phoenix. Gray is in the UK promoting Two Lovers, and he’s less than thrilled that the Phoenix’s antics overshadow his film:

“It’s like, Letterman was trying to get the movie out there, but the only thing that’s out there now is a crazy person with a beard making a fool of himself!” says Gray, still seething today at the “circus” surrounding Phoenix…

“If it is shown to be a hoax, then that’s great, because Joaquin will come back to acting. And he is something special. But if it isn’t, ye know, I think he needs, well, help.”

It’s all fun and games until your domestic box office stalls out at $2 million.

From the BBC: French composer Maurice Jarre, best known for his music for Hollywood films, has died in Los Angeles at 84, after suffering from cancer.

Jarre, father of the composer Jean-Michel Jarre, rose to prominence relatively late in life. His breakthrough came in 1962 when he wrote the score for Lawrence of Arabia, for which he was awarded an Oscar. He won two further Oscars for Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India, and composed music for more than 150 films.

His scores enhanced the work of some of the film industry’s greatest directors – among others David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston and Luchino Visconti.

Partial list of Maurice Jarre’s awards and accolades after the cut.

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Thanks to Jack Stark for tipping us to the trailer for Sugar, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year (Frozen River won) and nommed for Best Screenplay at the Indie Spirit Awards (beat out by Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the husband and wife team behind Half Nelson, Sugar gets its official theatrical release April 3. It’s the story of a promising Dominican baseball player drafted to play for an Iowa team, played by newcomer and non-actor Algenis Perez Soto. The New York Times says the filmmakers sought “a new way of telling an age-old story, of hopes, dreams and what happens when life throws you a change-up.”

A talented player, a genuine prospect, is burdened not just with his own future but also that of his entire family. That desperate desire to escape, against almost impossible odds, exposes him to cultural discombobulation and the seamier aspects of the business of baseball. The psychic dislocation that results for the vast majority of those strivers, those that don’t make it, is the focus of “Sugar.”

Love the nod to Bernard Herrmann with the trancy whirlpool harp à la Vertigo. And is that a shot quote from Notorious too? How many of our Spanish readers have seen Los Abrazos Rotos?

Brad Brevett at Rope of Silicon has this teaser poster scanned from the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. Looks like Scorsese (or at least the Paramount market department) is playing up the Gothic horror aspects of the story rather than the noir detective mystery, and that’s fine by me. The ghoulish font is a bit Fright Night but, really, what movie wouldn’t be improved by having its title writ in blood?

Philadelphia muralist Isaiah Zager is the subject of his son Jeremiah’s documentary, In A Dream, whose trailer comes to us via Cinematical. Winner of the audience award at SXSW Film Festival a couple of weeks ago, the film will be screening across the country on a schedule you can find at the In A Dream blog. Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Like the dazzling, colorful mosaics that Isaiah has pasted to buildings around town – crazy-quilt images of people (often the artist himself), shards of shattered mirror, cracked crockery, bottles, bicycle wheels – his life has been kaleidoscopic, yet singularly focused. Now 68, Isaiah and his wife, Julia, have been fixtures in Philadelphia since the hippie days of yesteryear. She runs the Eyes Gallery and he runs around town, looking for blank walls to cover. There are more than 100 of his murals in the city, and the “magic garden” in front of his studio has become a tourist destination…

Mixing old home movies, wonderful animated sequences derived from Isaiah’s art, and scenes of Isaiah at work, of Julia in agony, and of their eldest son, Zeke, grappling with his own demons, In a Dream captures a family imploding. Their lives are laid bare, in broken bits, like the ceramic that Isaiah uses for his art, and they come together in In a Dream with sadness and beauty, rage and insight.

Wikipedia says: “Embedded in many of his works are the words ‘Art is the Center of the Real World’. His murals reflect an appreciation for the imaginative human and sensual element in the potentially bleak urban environment.” Beautiful portrait of Isaiah Zagar after the cut.

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The Prince and the Frog has hopped forward a couple of weeks to a December 11 release date, providing some breathing room before Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel opens on Christmas Day. Disney’s 49th feature animation will premiere in limited release on November 25 in New York and L.A. We ran the teaser trailer last July, but the one on the next page is better quality.

Wiki reminds us that The Princess Frog is “an American fairy tale, Broadway-style musical set in the French Quarter of New Orleans.”

[SPOILERiSH] A prince named Naveen from the land of Maldonia, is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier. The frog prince asks a waitress named Tiana to break the spell by kissing him. However, the kiss doesn’t break the spell but rather makes Tiana a frog, as well. Together the two of them must reach the good voodoo priestess of the Bayou, Mama Odie, while befriending a trumpet playing alligator and a hopelessly romantic firefly along the way.

Anika Noni Rose and Bruno Campos (photos after the cut) voice the roles of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard are the voices of Tiana’s parents. These pretty stills show the hand drawn 2D animation reminiscent of vintage 1950s Disney princesses like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

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Putting the ho in Jai Ho. This is just the HQ audio only. Pussycat embedding disabled, so you’ll have to click through to view the video.

Wall Street Journal: This astonishing debut feature announces the arrival of a lavishly gifted filmmaker, Cary Joji Fukanaga. (He’s California-born, of a Swedish-American mother and a Japanese-American father.) The subject is immigration, the language is Spanish — with good English subtitles — the scope is epic and the achievement, though solidly grounded in conventional storytelling, is a revelation.

The filmmaker directs his actors — some of them seasoned professionals, some of them in front of the camera for the first time — with an absolute authority that’s absolutely invisible. Scenes play as if caught on the fly by a documentarian. (One of the movie’s most conspicuous strengths is its quasi-documentary detail.) “Sin Nombre” makes no judgments on immigration as a political issue. Mr. Fukanaga’s purpose is to evoke the immigrants’ experience, which he does with such eloquence and power as to inspire awe.

The poster and more raves after the cut.

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With this and Up, could 2009 be the year serious animation remembered how to be funny again?