L'Arnacoeur (Soundtrack) by Klaus Badelt - Review

Heart Funk
Review by Helen San

L’ARNACOEUR (English title: “Heartbreaker”) is a French romantic comedy (released in France on March 17, 2010) about a team of 3 con artists who specialize in breaking up couples. Their multilingual chameleon grifter, Alex (think super spy meets Don Juan), seduces women to help them see how unhappy they are in their relationships with philanderers and brutes. His sister, Melanie, serves as the team’s manager and her husband of 15 years, Marc, as the high-tech support. While their reputation as the best in the break-up business precedes them, things start to go wrong when Alex takes a job against his ethics: break up a couple that is truly happy. Overwhelmed by debt, he consents to be hired by a rich father to break up his daughter Juliette’s engagement to “Mr. Perfect,” a wealthy, handsome, generous, and completely smitten Englishman (Andrew Lincoln, who played Mark in LOVE, ACTUALLY). Stumped, Alex can find no fault with Juliette’s fiancé. Juliette is not falling for his usual tricks, and he unexpectedly falls for her.

Very well received by audiences and critics alike, the film is said to be witty and hilarious, hailed already as the romantic comedy of the year—at least by the French. The comedy is spiced up by Juliette’s penchant for George Michael songs and Dirty Dancing choreography. Of course, on the romantic count, being filmed on location in gorgeous Monte Carlo doesn’t hurt. Not one bit.

KLAUS BADELT’S score is, predictably, a mixture of romance and comedy, but not at the same time. BADELT takes his romance seriously, with heartfelt poetry and yearning. The love theme is a delicate and vulnerable piano motif that perfectly represents wondrous admiration and quiet lovesickness...

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SoundCast Interview: Greg Edmonson (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)

Recorded February 26, 2010

Published March 20, 2010

Marius Masalar interviews composer Greg Edmonson about his award winning score for Uncharted 2:  Among Thieves.

Episode Highlights

01:05 - From Firefly to Uncharted
02:38 - Scoring for games
06:08 - Motion capture and realism in Uncharted 2
09:01 - Writing themes
11:00 - Recording the score for Uncharted 2
14:03 - Buddhist horns/ other ethnic instruments from the score
16:19 - Scoring the sequel, learning from the first
17:12 - Writing for the characters
18:40 - Game vs. film/tv scoring and next steps
21:02 - Uncharted 2 CD release


Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

00:00 - "Nate's Theme 2.0"
00:52 -"Firefly - Main Title" (From Firefly)
03:37 - "Bustin' Chops"
06:27 - "Broken Paradise"
09:57 - "Reunion"
012:03 - "Take That!"
14:08 - "The Monastery"
20:51 - "Marco Polo"

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Game Soundtrack) by Greg Edmonson - Review

“A Shiny Sequel”
By: Marius Masalar

The rain is pouring down outside my window, which seems appropriate since I feel like I ought to be in some tropical jungle climbing improbably large ancient monuments and pillaging treasures instead of sitting here and reviewing GREG EDMONSON’s score for the multi-award-winning video game sequel, UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES. Good music will do that to you: it will move you, inspire you, and conjure up vivid images in your mind. In the case of UNCHARTED 2, the images are probably of a dashing adventurer performing various acts of extreme archeology with significantly less concern for the laws (of the country, of physics…) than, say, Lara Croft. All while trying to get his true love and true lust to get along as they accompany him for the ride. I’m sure we can all sympathize. Especially with such a rousing musical score to represent the journey.

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Soundcast Episode 14 - Oscar 2010 Post-Mortem

Episode 14 - Oscar 2010 Post-Mortem

Recorded March 8, 2010
Published March 9, 2010

Marius Masalar, Tom Hoover, and Helen San return to discuss Oscar winners, losers, things good and things bad.

Episode Highlights

00:25 - Introduction and Welcome
02:15 - What did you think of this year's Oscars?
05:48 - Reaction to Best Picture and Best Director
09:50 - Was Avatar snubbed?
14:25 - LXD's performance with the original score montage
21:45 - Owning up to our Oscar Picks
24:00 - Best Original Score winner reaction


Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

00:00 - There's No Business Like Showbusiness (Musikalische Spezialtitaten - Hello Dolly) Aniko Benko
36:45 - There's No Business Like Showbusiness (Pops Stoppers) The Boston Pops Orchestra

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The Hurt Locker (Soundtrack) Marco Beltrami / Buck Sanders - Review

The Art Locker
Review by Helen San

THE HURT LOCKER is a tense action drama about one soldier’s addiction to war, masterfully directed by Kathryn Bigelow (STRANGE DAYS, K19). The title refers to a place of extreme pain, often used to speak of those injured by explosions. Following three soldiers in the EOD (Explosives Ordnance Disposal) squad in Iraq, the story attempts to capture a glimpse of their heightened fears, hypervigilance, and fragile psyche for the citizens at home. Although the film’s accuracy has been disputed by Iraq veterans, there is no question the movie, realistic or not, is theatrically engrossing. It brings average Americans to the edge of their seats, as empathetic of the suffering of the EOD squad as we can be.

The film has already earned a Best Director award from the Director’s Guild of America, beating commercial favorite and Bigelow’s ex-husband James Cameron (for Avatar) and making Bigelow the first woman to ever win (in 2010 no less, can you believe it?). This is a good omen for Bigelow at the Oscars, where she stands a good chance for becoming the first woman to win a Best Director award there as well. Gender issues aside, I wanted to give the director an Oscar after seeing the film, before I knew who the director was. The storytelling, for the purposes of creating unrelenting suspense and dread, is flawless.

It is no surprise to me then, that THE HURT LOCKER is a critical darling which has earned a total of nine Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture and Best Music. This is composer MARCO BELTRAMI’s second Oscar nomination (the first was 3:10 to Yuma) and long time collaborator BUCK SANDER’s first. Like quite a few movies in Oscar history, once the Academy falls in love with a film, they nominate it for everything from sound editing to cinematography to editing to…you guessed it…music. In such situations, the question burning for film music fans is this: Is the nomination a reflection of public affection for the feature or the exceptional quality of the music proper?

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Soundcast Episode 13 - Anticipating the Film Scores of 2010

Episode 13 - Anticipating the Film Scores of 2010
Recorded February 27, 2010
Published March 3, 2010

Marius Masalar and first-time guest, Helen San, join Christopher Coleman to talk about their most anticipated film scores of 2010.

Episode Highlights

00:29 - Introduction and Welcome
01:10 - Helen San introduction
05:45 - Hurtful response to episode 12
07:45 - What have we been listening to in 2010 thus far
10:40 - Howard Shore scoring Twilight: Eclipse?
13:45 - Greg Edmonson (Uncharted) Interview Tease
15:33 - Most anticipated Film Scores of 2010


Music Clips (Select music clips contained in this podcast)

04:15 - Summon the Heroes (An American Journey) John Williams
06:41 - Hurt Locker End Credits (The Hurt Locker) by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
03:34 - The Hurt Locker (The Hurt Locker) by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
08:07 - Mt. Olympus (Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief) by Christophe Beck
14:36 - Nate's Theme (Uncharted 2) by Greg Edmonson
18:26 - Only the Beginning of Adventure (Narnia/Prince Caspian) by Harry Gregson-Williams
19:37 - Driving with the Top Down (Iron Man) by Ramin Djawadi
22:38 - Main Title (Lair) by John Debney
26:57 - The Strawberry Field (Snow Falling on Cedars) by James Newton-Howard
32:06 - Opening (Harry Potter/Half-Blood Prince) by Nicholas Hooper
40:44 - The Adventures of Mutt (Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull) by John Williams
41:53 - Code Blue (Ice Age: The Meltdown) by John Powell
42:32 - Tangiers (The Bourne Ultimatum) by John Powell
47:09 - Main Title (The Hulk) by Craig Armstrong
50:22 - Under the Greenwood Tree (As You Like It) by Patrick Doyle
51:33 - Yogi Bear Theme by Hoyt Curtain
54:29 - Introducing Flint (Cloudy/ Meatballs) Mark Mothersbaugh

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