The Envelope In Print: The Music Issue (Dec. 5, 2007)

December 5, 2007

MOVIES

Songs to leave you 'enchanted'

Director Kevin Lima had a number of concerns in his struggle to film a script about an animated young woman who winds up in live-action New York. Among them, "that the audience be invested in the character, first, not the star."

December 5, 2007

LIGHTS, CAMERA . . .

Love, desire and danger compose 'Lust, Caution'

In our first conversation, director Ang Lee mentioned two of the most prolific film composers of the 1940s: Franz Waxman and Roy Webb. Waxman has always been a major influence on me. His scores to "Rebecca," "A Place in the Sun" and "Sunset Boulevard" are on my "short list" of best soundtracks. I knew Webb for his scores to "Notorious" and "Cat People."

December 5, 2007

AWARDS

Pitch perfect: These composers strike the right note.

The composer Igor Stravinsky once described film music in terms of its "wallpaper function." It should have the same relationship to the drama, he said, that "somebody's piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading." A film score is, almost by definition, background music, but Stravinsky's formulation grossly understates the role of music in advancing, enriching or even transforming a narrative.

December 5, 2007

CONTENDER Q & A

Marion Cotillard's life in pink

Marion Cotillard has appeared in more than 40 movies, including Tim Burton's "Big Fish," Ridley Scott's "A Good Year," Luc Besson's "Taxi" movies and, most recently, "La Vie en Rose," in which she played Edith Piaf. That performance has been generating Oscar buzz since before it was released in June. It's an astonishing feat of metamorphosis -- Cotillard managed to appear a foot shorter than she is to play the French singer and icon, and though she is 32, she plays Piaf convincingly from age 17 to her death at 47.

December 5, 2007

A MOMENT WITH ... EDDIE VEDDER

'Into The Wild' in unison

"Into the Wild" is the story of a young man who breaks away from his family and sets off to explore uncharted territory. The story of its soundtrack is much the same.

December 5, 2007

MOVIES

No academy CDs? Play live!

When Fox Searchlight acquired "Once" at Sundance, it bought a film that came equipped with its very own marketing campaign. The word-of-mouth indie hit plays out like a live-action mix-CD, a carefully curated collection of music from one lover to another -- the music often saying more or as much as any dialogue can.

December 5, 2007

RED CARPET REWIND

Charlize Theron raises the barre

There's a reason why Charlize Theron looks so at ease strolling the red carpet at the Oscars. The tall, slender blond studied ballet when she was growing up on a farm in South Africa and later joined the Joffrey Ballet in New York. And if it hadn't been for a bum knee, she might have stayed there.

December 5, 2007

THE BIG PICTURE CONVERSATION

Zadan and Meron make hits into hits

When you think of modern-day musicals, two names pop right into your head: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. A producing team for nearly 15 years, their film and TV musicals have won scores of Oscars and Emmys, most notably for "Chicago," which took home six Academy Awards in 2002. Their credits also include a TV production of "Annie" that marked Rob Marshall's directorial debut and a TV production of "Gypsy" featuring Bette Midler.

December 5, 2007

IN CONTENTION

They write the songs

Recent changes in the voting process and campaigning for music Oscars may be altering old patterns of who wins. Starting this year, contenders are no longer permitted to send audio CDs of songs and scores to members of the academy's music branch; voters now must experience tunes within the visual context of a film. In 2005, voters began determining song nominees by judging three-minute video clips from each film that are strung together at screenings held in Los Angeles and New York. Immediately after the screenings, PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants collect voters' ballots.