ÚBEDA 2011 (20-24 July)

Bregt wrote
I don't think I'll make it a larger holiday, like last year. Unless massive MT meetings are a possibility, I think I'm also going to skip a year, due to hassle of just going to Ubeda itself.

We inform you that the VIIth International Film Music Festival “Ciudad de Úbeda" is going to be held between 18th and 24th of July 2011, modifying the dates that were announced a short time ago (initially, from 13th to 17th of the same month).

This date change has been made in order to adapt the agenda of the guests who will attend this year's festival, making easier the programming of the Festival at all levels; the composition workshop, the conferences, and the concerts that are going to be performed (for which is necessary to have the opinion and availability of the composers coming to this VIIth edition).

The composition workshop is going to be held from 18th to 21st of July, while 20th to 24th of July are the dates assigned to attend the Festival and enjoy activities like the concert or the meetings with the composer’s (we will soon reveal the contents of these activities).

We would like to remember you that Bruno Coulais will be our new President of Honor, and Christopher Lennertz will be the Honorary Musical Director, in a Festival that’s going to perform a tribute to one of the greatest composers of film history, Michael Kamen (1948-2003), and which will also have the presence of Oscar Araujo, recently nominated for IFMCA Awards (the real “Soundtrack Oscars”) in best revelation composer and best composition in the world of videogames categories, for the game Castlevania: Lord of Shadows (that will premiere a suite in Úbeda, straight from the composer).

Next week we encourage you to follow us, as we’ll announce good news that will delight the attendants of the Festival, and soon after that, we will keep you in touch with updates on the guest composers and the opening of
the registration period for the Festival.

Bregt wrote
That is madness! Strikes in high season.

Our new guest to the VII International Film Music Festival - City of Úbeda is a true legend in the world of film music, the great French composer Philippe Sarde who has shown remarkable melodic and symphonic skills, always standing out at depicting the drama or the romance of the movies he has worked on.

During his presence in the VII Úbeda International Film Music Festival, Úbeda’s Mayor will present him with the distinction "Francisco de los Cobos’ Arts Merit" in recognition of his brilliant career, a distinction that was granted two years ago to Alberto Iglesias.

He began his career in film music in 1970 in his native country, alongside director Claude Sautet, a collaboration that comprised eleven films, beginning with the melodrama Les choses de la Vie, and continuing with films like the brilliant Max et les Ferrailleurs (1971) and Mado (1976), and finally Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud (1995).

Other collaborations in his native country include those with director Pierre Granier-Deferre (with pictures such as Le Petit Garçon (1995), L’Viuda Couderc and Le Chat, both 1971), and with the duo director / screenwriter Marco Ferreri / Rafael Azcona, specially in three particular films that shape a unique trilogy led by La Grande Bouffe (1973), along with Touché pas à la Femme Blanche (1974) and La Dernière Femme (1976), and finally, with director Bertrand Tavernier, in such films as The Clockmaker (1974) or La Fille de D'Artagnan (1994).

The Chieftains’ participation in a score by the French Maestro, for the drama Un Taxi Mauve (1977) deserves being highlighted as well, standing out in a film which features nothing less than players from the likes of
Fred Astaire, Peter Ustinov, Charlotte Rampling and Philippe Noiret.

He won the Cesar, the French equivalent to the Oscar, for his fine work in Barocco (1976), starting the same year a fruitful collaboration with Roman Polanski in The Tenant, a thriller that provided a good opportunity for Sarde to develop dark and gloomy music.

The pinnacle of his collaboration with Polanski is Tess (1979), a period drama with Nastassa Kinski in the lead, which will bring his only Oscar nomination to this day for one of his best scores. Finally he undertook a
final and unsuccessful project alongside the controversial director, Pirates (1986), which nevertheless boasted another great work by the French composer, one of his most celebrated scores, full of fanfares and great musical passages in the style of classic adventure.

The 80s bring the assignment to the French composer of a few American projects, such as the horror film Ghost Story (1981) by John Irvin, a magnificent and terrifying score, with a masterful choral section, and the
adventure film The Manhattan Project (1986), featuring a beautiful love theme, along with a masterly mix of symphonic music and synthesizer very distinctive of the time.

In 1984 he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and in 1988 he received the Radio-France Award for best composer.

His other great contribution in this period must be found in his work for two of French director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s best movies, Quest for Fire (1981), one of his more complex and perfect scores for this quasi-documentary film on the origins of men, when he was able to record the score with the London Symphony Orchestra, and the excellent The Bear (1989), a blockbuster, and another turning point in the French composer’s career.

In 1989 he worked for director Costa-Gavras's acclaimed legal drama The Music Box, where he composed a masterful score with folk and Jewish influences, most notably on the beautiful Ann’s Theme, featuring a dreamy vocal soloist.

Their collaboration ended in 1993 with the comedy Le Petite Apocalypse, although he composed additional music for the movie Mad City (1997), as a result of Gavras’ dissatisfaction with the score composed by Thomas Newman.

In 1990 he also composed the score of a new version of the classic Lord of the Flies, which features a dark and sinister musical side, with the presence of children's choir, referring to the protagonists of the film, children lost in a forest, imposing their law.

During the 90s he has worked mostly in French cinema, and in his work for producer Alain Sarde, brother of the composer, stand out three titles: the crime drama L.627 (1992), with a touch of Morricone, and directed by Bertrand Tavernier, the thriller Max & Jeremy (1992), with an exceptional score of the French composer in the spotlight, and the drama Les Voleurs (1996).

He has also worked for director Alexandre Arcady in several films,including two on Jewish suffering, such as Pour Sacha (1991), which includes an exceptional theme for violin, and K (1997), which uses choral groups to emphasize the drama, as well as an action drama called Entre Chiens et Loups (2001). An all-electronic score by the French composer must also be distinguished, Eve of Destruction (1991), which would be one of his rare appearances in the U.S. market.

In the new century, he has worked in the American comedy Sister Mary Explains It All (2001), a TV movie with Diane Keaton in the main character, as well as very recently in Bertrand Tavernier's new film, The Princess of Montpensier (2010).

Next Week, we are going to open the inscription period. We send us an email with the link and instructions.