Eiko Ishibashi provides more than just music for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s movies, with her compositions being central to the Japanese filmmaker’s dramas, so much so that they take on the life of a supporting character.
There have been consecutive Asian Film Awards (Afa) wins for Ishibashi’s work on, first, the Oscar-winning Drive My Car and, this past Sunday night in Hong Kong, Evil Does Not Exist. In both films, the composer’s music helps drive the narrative, as much as set the mood.
Evil Does Not Exist grew out of plans for a concert Hamaguchi and Ishibashi were working on. Such was the depth and breadth of their discussions that the filmmaker started to see specific characters and situations emerging, and he then gathered them into a screenplay that deals with an environmental flashpoint in rural Japan, which is shadowed by the looming threat of violence.
The long-time...
There have been consecutive Asian Film Awards (Afa) wins for Ishibashi’s work on, first, the Oscar-winning Drive My Car and, this past Sunday night in Hong Kong, Evil Does Not Exist. In both films, the composer’s music helps drive the narrative, as much as set the mood.
Evil Does Not Exist grew out of plans for a concert Hamaguchi and Ishibashi were working on. Such was the depth and breadth of their discussions that the filmmaker started to see specific characters and situations emerging, and he then gathered them into a screenplay that deals with an environmental flashpoint in rural Japan, which is shadowed by the looming threat of violence.
The long-time...
- 3/11/2024
- by Mathew Scott
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Few people would accuse Christopher Nolan of lacking ambition. But listening to Ludwig Göransson’s score for Oppenheimer, with its flurries of tremolando strings, tenderly arpeggiating harps, and surging orchestral minor chords, one thing becomes clear: most of this music could have been written, recorded, and slapped on a grandiose prestige picture any time in the last fifty years. Nolan’s blockbuster is not alone in this, and it’s not an issue confined to the year’s studio tentpole releases, either. Both Talk To Me and No One Will Save You, otherwise innovative lower-budget genre films with plenty of good ideas between them, are nonetheless let down by safe, overly familiar scores. The blame almost certainly isn’t to be laid at the feet of the composers. Even talented musicians like Bobby Krlic can end up producing middling fare when hemmed in by the wrong picture (witness the Midsommar...
- 12/8/2023
- MUBI
In an effort to defend trans rights in the United States, the U.K., and Canada, dozens of artists have recorded cover songs for a new compilation that will raise money for organizations in those countries. Joanna Sternberg recorded Caroline Rose’s “Everywhere I Go I Bring the Rain,” Rostam interpreted Lucinda Williams’ “Change the Locks,” Wednesday took on Elliott Smith’s “Christian Brothers,” and Model/Actriz perform the Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” on the 44-track Fader + Friends Vol. 1 compilation available on Bandcamp for one month, starting today.
- 11/1/2023
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Fader has released Fader & Friends Vol. 1, a real star-studded covers compilation benefitting charities fighting for transgender rights.
There’s a whole lot in these 44 tracks, but here are just a few notable highlights: CoSign alums Wednesday recorded their rendition of Elliott Smith’s “Christian Brothers,” Rostam covered Lucinda Williams’ “Change the Locks,” Ratboys did The Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” and NNAMDÏ did The Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”
While most of the performers on the compilation — including Caroline Rose and Joanna Stenberg, who covered each other — are relative newcomers, the crop of songs constitute a vast timeline. There are covers of Big Thief, Perfume Genius, and Ethel Cain mixed together with songs by Stevie Wonder, Abba, Tina Turner, and Selena. There’s even an old English folk song (courtesy of Helena Deland).
Fader & Friends Vol. 1 will be available exclusively on Bandcamp for the month of November only,...
There’s a whole lot in these 44 tracks, but here are just a few notable highlights: CoSign alums Wednesday recorded their rendition of Elliott Smith’s “Christian Brothers,” Rostam covered Lucinda Williams’ “Change the Locks,” Ratboys did The Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” and NNAMDÏ did The Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.”
While most of the performers on the compilation — including Caroline Rose and Joanna Stenberg, who covered each other — are relative newcomers, the crop of songs constitute a vast timeline. There are covers of Big Thief, Perfume Genius, and Ethel Cain mixed together with songs by Stevie Wonder, Abba, Tina Turner, and Selena. There’s even an old English folk song (courtesy of Helena Deland).
Fader & Friends Vol. 1 will be available exclusively on Bandcamp for the month of November only,...
- 11/1/2023
- by Abby Jones
- Consequence - Music
For Bill Fay‘s 80th birthday, Jeff Tweedy is giving him the gift of flattery. The Wilco musician has shared his rendition of “Filled With Wonder Once Again,” which originally appeared on the English singer and songwriter’s 2020 album, Countless Branches.
For more than two decades, Wilco has performed “Be Not So Fearful” from Fay’s 1970 debut album Bill Fay during their sets. In 2007, Fay joined Wilco on stage at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire to perform the song together. It marked his first live performance in three decades.
For more than two decades, Wilco has performed “Be Not So Fearful” from Fay’s 1970 debut album Bill Fay during their sets. In 2007, Fay joined Wilco on stage at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire to perform the song together. It marked his first live performance in three decades.
- 10/16/2023
- by Larisha Paul
- Rollingstone.com
By their third and last decade, Sonic Youth opted for their version of chilling out. Rather than reconceiving the idea and very sound of rock (the Eighties) or trying to contour their maelstrom for the mainstream (the Nineties), they spent the 2000s easing into their status as indie-rock heroes. As heard on 2002’s Murray Street and 2004’s Sonic Nurse, their music retained its ability to fly off the rails at any time but also felt looser, more relaxed. That same feeling comes across in this collection of mostly instrumental jams...
- 3/16/2022
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Japanese writer-director behind 2021’s epic drama Drive My Car, is something of a renegade: his breakout feature, 2015’s Happy Hour, about a group of thirty-something female friends, carried a fearless 5-hour runtime; and just five months before Drive My Car Hamaguchi premiered another film, the romantic anthology Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Drive My Car elevates a potentially sleepy premise—a middle-aged widower’s relationship with the Chekhov play Uncle Vanya—into the stuff of cinema history with its intricate dialogue, hypnotic editing, and a note-perfect soundtrack by Eiko Ishibashi.
Eiko is a bit of a renegade herself: her massive discography is littered with masterpieces of every stripe, from the Steely Dan-esque sophisti-pop of 2014’s Car and Freezer to 2018’s unsettling, engrossing The Dream My Bones Dream. There’s also, among many others: 2021’s ambient project countless dream; 2015’s live noise piece memory of a nearby factory; and her most recent release,...
Eiko is a bit of a renegade herself: her massive discography is littered with masterpieces of every stripe, from the Steely Dan-esque sophisti-pop of 2014’s Car and Freezer to 2018’s unsettling, engrossing The Dream My Bones Dream. There’s also, among many others: 2021’s ambient project countless dream; 2015’s live noise piece memory of a nearby factory; and her most recent release,...
- 3/1/2022
- by Matthew Danger Lippman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHong Sang-soo's The Novelist's Film (2022)The competition slate has been announced for this year's Berlinale, featuring the latest by Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Rithy Panh, Phyllis Nagy, Ulrich Seidl, and more. Find the rest of the lineup here. In an interview with Variety, executive Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian discuss their plans for the festival to be an in-person event. Actor Michel Subor has died at the age of 86. Subor captivated audiences with his performances in films like Jean-Luc Godard's Le petit soldat (1960)—he also was the narrator for François Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962)—and a number of films by Claire Denis, from Beau travail (1999) and L'intrus (2004) to White Material (2009) and Bastards (2013). We recommend reading Yasmina Price's excellent essay on L'intrus and Subor's distinct historiography as an actor. Recommended VIEWINGThe...
- 1/19/2022
- MUBI
This kaleidoscopic masterpiece, one of the most subversive, intoxicating films of the 60s and a classic of queer cinema, is a headlong dive into a dazzling unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas.
“Funeral Parade of Roses” will be released on Blu-ray – the first time it has been available on Blu-ray in the UK – on 18 May 2020, and will simultaneously be available for rental and download-to-own on iTunes and Amazon Prime. It will be available on BFI Player’s subscription service later this summer as part of a major new collection of Japanese films, BFI Japan 2020, which launches on 11 May and continues until October. This 2-disc Blu-ray is a strictly Limited Edition of 3000 copies.
Toshio Matsumoto, one of Japan’s leading experimental filmmakers, bends and distorts time, and freely mixes documentary interviews, Brechtian film-within-a-film asides, Oedipal premonitions of disaster, his own avant-garde shorts (eight of...
“Funeral Parade of Roses” will be released on Blu-ray – the first time it has been available on Blu-ray in the UK – on 18 May 2020, and will simultaneously be available for rental and download-to-own on iTunes and Amazon Prime. It will be available on BFI Player’s subscription service later this summer as part of a major new collection of Japanese films, BFI Japan 2020, which launches on 11 May and continues until October. This 2-disc Blu-ray is a strictly Limited Edition of 3000 copies.
Toshio Matsumoto, one of Japan’s leading experimental filmmakers, bends and distorts time, and freely mixes documentary interviews, Brechtian film-within-a-film asides, Oedipal premonitions of disaster, his own avant-garde shorts (eight of...
- 5/10/2020
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Not animal, not vegetable, not funghi...Regular readers may remember back in early 2013 we featured the first concept trailer for The Creeping Garden, a new investigative documentary from Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp into the beautiful yet baffling world of plasmodial slime moulds. Well fast forward 18 months and the film is very close to being finished, complete with a gorgeously composed original score from Sonic Youth's Jim O'Rourke, and a brand new trailer to go with it.The time lapse photography of the slime moulds had already sold me on The Creeping Garden last time around, but this new trailer gives us a far clearer idea of the conversations, explorations and pioneering applications of an eclectic group of scientists who are using the bizarre instinctive...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 6/23/2014
- Screen Anarchy
"Copper's" Francis Maguire spent most of Season 1 of the BBC America series as a hard working detective in New York City's Five Points, but he had some dark secrets and a dark side that took over as the show wrapped up its first run.
And it's this dark side that continues to be explored by actor Kevin Ryan, who plays the detective-turned-gangster in Season 2. He has killed in jail, he has killed on the street, and he's also now in cahoots with crime boss James O'Rourke.
Those things will no doubt cause more trouble for the ...
Copyright 2013 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
And it's this dark side that continues to be explored by actor Kevin Ryan, who plays the detective-turned-gangster in Season 2. He has killed in jail, he has killed on the street, and he's also now in cahoots with crime boss James O'Rourke.
Those things will no doubt cause more trouble for the ...
Copyright 2013 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
- 7/12/2013
- by nobody@accesshollywood.com (AccessHollywood.com Editorial Staff)
- Access Hollywood
For many readers, the name Jasper Sharp is familiar as a leading voice in Japanese film criticism, co-founder of MidnightEye.com and author of Behind The Pink Curtain, the Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Last summer, over a couple of late night pints at his incredible, one-of-a-kind film festival Zipangu Fest, Sharp told me about a documentary project he was developing on plasmodial slime moulds. No, I had no idea what he meant either, just that it sounded awesome but I was sworn to secrecy.Earlier today, however, Sharp formally announced the existence of The Creeping Garden, co-directed by himself and documentarian Tim Grabham (KanZeOn), and boasting an original score from Sonic Youth's Jim O'Rourke. He also released a 3-minute "taster" for the film, featuring incredible...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 1/28/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Voice of My Father
The International Film Festival Rotterdam, opening on January 25 and running through February 5, has announced two lineups today, the Tiger Awards Competition 2012 for first and second feature films — 15 films in all — and the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2012 with 21 films. Straight from the release:
Tiger Awards Competition 2012
De jueves a domingo (Thursday Till Sunday), Dominga Sotomayor, Chile/Netherlands, 2012, 96’, World premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film. Sotomayor’s feature film début, expertly shot by Barbara Alvarez, is a Chilean road movie set in and around the car belonging to a middle-class family. Seen through eyes of the kids in the back, they embark on a four day holiday trip to the north, while the marriage is falling apart. Dominga Sotomayor’s short film Videojuego was screened in Rotterdam in 2010. De jueves a domingo was selected for the Cannes Cinéfondation Résidence 2010.
Babamin sesi (Voice of My Father), Orhan Eskiköy and Zeynel Dogan,...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam, opening on January 25 and running through February 5, has announced two lineups today, the Tiger Awards Competition 2012 for first and second feature films — 15 films in all — and the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2012 with 21 films. Straight from the release:
Tiger Awards Competition 2012
De jueves a domingo (Thursday Till Sunday), Dominga Sotomayor, Chile/Netherlands, 2012, 96’, World premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film. Sotomayor’s feature film début, expertly shot by Barbara Alvarez, is a Chilean road movie set in and around the car belonging to a middle-class family. Seen through eyes of the kids in the back, they embark on a four day holiday trip to the north, while the marriage is falling apart. Dominga Sotomayor’s short film Videojuego was screened in Rotterdam in 2010. De jueves a domingo was selected for the Cannes Cinéfondation Résidence 2010.
Babamin sesi (Voice of My Father), Orhan Eskiköy and Zeynel Dogan,...
- 1/12/2012
- MUBI
Even as I carry on updating the entry on Doc NYC, there's quite a lot besides going on in the field of nonfiction filmmaking. Last week, both the International Documentary Association and Cinema Eye Honors announced the nominations for their respective awards, and yesterday, Cinema Eye unveiled "a new, periodic award called the Hell Yeah Prize, to be given to filmmakers who have created works of incredible craft and artistry that also have significant, real-world impact. The inaugural Hell Yeah Prize will be presented to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky for their HBO Documentary Films trilogy Paradise Lost, which played a critical role in securing the release from prison of the wrongly prosecuted and convicted West Memphis Three."
And the other day, when I pointed to Dennis Lim's review of Travis Wilkerson's An Injury to One (2002), "one of American independent cinema's great achievements of the past decade, just issued on DVD by Icarus Films,...
And the other day, when I pointed to Dennis Lim's review of Travis Wilkerson's An Injury to One (2002), "one of American independent cinema's great achievements of the past decade, just issued on DVD by Icarus Films,...
- 11/4/2011
- MUBI
Wilco: The Whole Love (dBpm)
The last two extra tracks on the deluxe version are "Speak into the Rose," a wonderfully propulsive Krautrock rip, and a less-plush alternate take of "Black Moon," a gently jangling ballad that delicately wafts the deluxe album to a beautiful, tender conclusion. Think about the contrast there, then imagine them combined in one song. You've basically imagined the whiplash-inducing opening track on the main album. I've had my problems with Wilco in the past: S/T was kinda boring, Sky formulaically pretty, the Jim O'Rourke-induced artiness of Ghost too stiffly self-conscious. Here, the beauty and the experimentation have been more organically merged, suggesting that Nels Cline has finally gelled as a member.
read more...
The last two extra tracks on the deluxe version are "Speak into the Rose," a wonderfully propulsive Krautrock rip, and a less-plush alternate take of "Black Moon," a gently jangling ballad that delicately wafts the deluxe album to a beautiful, tender conclusion. Think about the contrast there, then imagine them combined in one song. You've basically imagined the whiplash-inducing opening track on the main album. I've had my problems with Wilco in the past: S/T was kinda boring, Sky formulaically pretty, the Jim O'Rourke-induced artiness of Ghost too stiffly self-conscious. Here, the beauty and the experimentation have been more organically merged, suggesting that Nels Cline has finally gelled as a member.
read more...
- 9/29/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Wilco: The Whole Love (dBpm)
The last two extra tracks on the deluxe version are "Speak into the Rose," a wonderfully propulsive Krautrock rip, and a less-plush alternate take of "Black Moon," a gently jangling ballad that delicately wafts the deluxe album to a beautiful, tender conclusion. Think about the contrast there, then imagine them combined in one song. You've basically imagined the whiplash-inducing opening track on the main album. I've had my problems with Wilco in the past: S/T was kinda boring, Sky formulaically pretty, the Jim O'Rourke-induced artiness of Ghost too stiffly self-conscious. Here, the beauty and the experimentation have been more organically merged, suggesting that Nels Cline has finally gelled as a member.
Later tracks find their '70s rock fixation leading to some mildly psychedelic touches, some gritty garage-rock moves (even Mysterians-esque organ on "I Might"), a light-hearted update of The Band's sound...
The last two extra tracks on the deluxe version are "Speak into the Rose," a wonderfully propulsive Krautrock rip, and a less-plush alternate take of "Black Moon," a gently jangling ballad that delicately wafts the deluxe album to a beautiful, tender conclusion. Think about the contrast there, then imagine them combined in one song. You've basically imagined the whiplash-inducing opening track on the main album. I've had my problems with Wilco in the past: S/T was kinda boring, Sky formulaically pretty, the Jim O'Rourke-induced artiness of Ghost too stiffly self-conscious. Here, the beauty and the experimentation have been more organically merged, suggesting that Nels Cline has finally gelled as a member.
Later tracks find their '70s rock fixation leading to some mildly psychedelic touches, some gritty garage-rock moves (even Mysterians-esque organ on "I Might"), a light-hearted update of The Band's sound...
- 9/29/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
From today's New York Times, a piece by Ben Ratliffe on Jim O'Rourke and his move to Japan, his turn towards improvisation and film scores, his new album The Visitor (pictured), and his attempt to control context. An excerpt: Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. He’s taking a stand against the sound quality of MP3s; he’s also taking a stand in favor of artists being able to control the medium and reception of their...
- 9/6/2009
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Nearly four decades and 21 albums in, Sparks remains cultishly admired by a small group: Its unlikely fan base includes everyone from Bette Midler to Morrissey to Jim O'Rourke, and it's widely celebrated in the UK, but ignored nearly everywhere else. Unlike most long-term survivors, the duo—brothers Ron and Russell Mael—is nearly as essential and inventive now as when it started. Sparks' last two albums built songs around keyboards and vocals in minimalist 8- and 16-bar loops; Exotic Creatures Of The Deep features verses and choruses and only repeats each line once, which counts as relatively ...
- 1/13/2009
- avclub.com
Nearly four decades and 21 albums in, Sparks remains cultishly admired by a small group: Its unlikely fan base includes everyone from Bette Midler to Morrissey to Jim O'Rourke, and it's widely celebrated in the UK, but ignored nearly everywhere else. Unlike most long-term survivors, the duo—brothers Ron and Russell Mael—is nearly as essential and inventive now as when it started. Sparks' last two albums built songs around keyboards and vocals in minimalist 8- and 16-bar loops; Exotic Creatures Of The Deep features verses and choruses and only repeats each line once, which counts as relatively ...
- 1/13/2009
- avclub.com
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