Cues »
Parts that may be greater than, or equal to, the sum.
Organized Chaos
“Movies allow and encourage avant garde music that wouldn’t play in the concert hall,” said jazz historian Gary Giddins. When I was covering the “Jazz Score” exhibit last year at the Museum of Modern Art,
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Daddy’s Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird
"Only Aaron Copland could have come as close to creating the musical Americana that [Elmer] Bernstein put into his score." So said Page Cook in his original review of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Even
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He Was Born To Be Hanged
Once a bastard, always a bastard? That question lies at the heart of Henry Fielding’s classic TOM JONES. For those who missed out on the Kritzerland reissue of John Addison’s Oscar-winning score, you’ll have to
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In the Lion’s Den
“It’s 1183 and we’re all barbarians…” And barbaric it is! THE LION WINTER follows an aging King Henry II (Peter O’Toole) who has summoned his exiled queen, Eleanor of Acquitaine (Katharine Hepburn), to court to
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The Biggest Word You Ever Heard
When I was young, my mother would drum words into my head night after night in preparation for the yearly spelling bee. Other kids struggled over “antidisestablishmentarianism.” Though you won’t find it in a bee, my
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It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane!
Summer 1978 and the buzz was “super” for SUPERMAN. At age 16, I considered it uncool to show my anticipation for the film. Sure, I had fond memories of watching George Reeve on TV as
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Urbanissimo
“There’s a remarkable connection between animation and jazz,” Faith Hubley once observed. “There’s something about jazz’s bending of time within a rigid format that also applies to animation. Film time is different from regular
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A House Is Not a Home
The producing/directing team of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory brought to the screen some of the loveliest films of the 1980s and 90s. While some critics berated their films as nothing more than extended
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Auntie Em! Auntie Em!
Judy Garland in a gingham dress singing “Over the Rainbow” against a sepia-toned backdrop. That’s the musical image most viewers take away from THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939). But there is more to the
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Here Comes the Sun
Sometimes a President’s rise bears more drama than his tenure in the White House. Though Franklin Delano Roosevelt experienced his share of drama in office, his personal trials form the basis of SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO
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