When music lovers compile their lists of the greatest singer-songwriters of the latter 20th century, one name that should lead the list is all-too-often ignored. Warren Zevon never achieved the superstardom of Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Billy Joel, Don Henley, Bob Dylan or many other luminaries. That is a tragedy partly brought on by Zevon’s ...
Documentary films about Mt. Everest often sound like a catalog of mountaineering horror movies. Everest: The Death Zone, Storm Over Everest, Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, Into the Thin Air of Everest: Mountain of Dreams, Mountain of Doom. As filmmakers like David Breashears know, documenting Mt. Everest is almost always shadowed by death. Whether ...
Nearly anyone can whistle the “Galop Infernale” from the operetta Orpheus in the Underworld if I called it by its less formal–and more well-known–name the “Can Can.” But could you name which religion its composer, Jacques Offenbach, followed? Yes, we have a member of the tribe to thank for an addictive classical melody and popular ...
Errol Morris remains one of cinema’s best documentary filmmakers. However, despite his amazing back catalogue of true-life films, he remains absent from the Criterion Collection. That looks like it is about to change. IFC President Jonathan Sehring said in an interview that Criterion would plan on releasing a number of Morris’ films. Nothing has been ...
What exactly is a genre of music? It is a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique. You may have heard of the basic genres that exist, like rock, blues, country, jazz, hip-hop, christian, and pop. There are many more that you may not have heard about and that ...
The fact that the music of films often has powerful effects on its audience is undisputed. Careful examination of the reasons behind these effects, however, has been largely ignored. We tend to compare previously unassociated dramatic pieces we hear to film music – but what piece cannot be compared to film music nowadays? Every pre-composed ...