YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

Ah - describing Jansen's music will take another 3 paragraphs. My post above is already long-ish, so I can type about it in more detail here.

LES BICHES is similar in overall tone and content to Lalo Schifrin's THE FOX.
Both THE FOX ('67) and LES BICHES contain scenes of Lesbian relationship, female masterbation, and 'straight' lovemaking (when one of the ladies also begins an affair with a man).
However, if one is unfamiliar with THE FOX, then this comparison will leave one none the wiser.

LES BICHES commences with aggitated strings during the main title credit sequence (not unlike a string quartet with percussion) and communicates a psychologically unsettling state of mind.
This soon seques into a very beguiling lyrical theme, which becomes this picture's main theme and which depicts femininity and beauty (shot in the South of France).
There's secondary themes, too. One has the character of a Mediterranean folk melody, whilst the most bewitching theme underscores the voyeuristic love scenes.

What especially endears Pierre Jansen's LES BICHES to me are its chamber-music type variations on its main theme. Each of the instruments used (flute, English Horn, French Horn, bassoon, etc.) gets its chance to 'shine' performing the main theme as a soloist.

The LES BICHES soundtrack is one of the finest representatives of the tema con variazioni approach to film scoring. (IMO )

Yes, THE LAST VALLEY is worth seeing. Much better than its troubled distribution might indicate.
Also, there's not many films in English with Brazillian actress/model Florinda Bolkan. Bolkan, around this time, was appearing with regularity in Euorpean co-productions, many of which were scored by Ennio Morricone.

THE LAST VALLEY is a different sort of historical film - one which exudes an anti-establishment perspective reflecting its year of production: 1970.
Michael Caine even shouts out, in one scene, that there is no God! (apparently Caine's Captain from 1640 read the same cover of LIFE magazine that Mia Farrow saw in ROSEMARY'S BABY proclaiming that God is dead).

A great score, one you made me aware of.

My #11 can only be STAR WARS - by John Williams

One of the greatest ... blah ... blah ... blah ... All right, a really great score.

Williams takes Stravinsky, Strauss, Korngold, Holst, Mendelssohn and his very own genius and turns it all into a masterpiece.

There is so much going on here thematically! Only the sound of the OST remains rather poor.

The Force is strong with Johnny.

Volker

It will be a while before I can continue posting in this thread beyond nr. 10. I need to set aside time for sitting down and plotting out the remaining 40. FYI.

Oh, Top 50 non-film would be MUCH easier!

#12: SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961) by Elmer Bernstein, on RCA LP ('62) & Kritzerland CD (2011).

Around 1988, I had gotten this LP and was hypnotized by its musical contents. SUMMER AND SMOKE has been an Elmer B. favorite of mine ever since and the Kritzerland edition only improves upon the previous album.

Bernstein's writing here is at its most impressionistic. The swirling orchestral colors make an enchanting listen, as if Maurice Ravel had written music for Tennessee Williams' deep South.

SUMMER AND SMOKE is not really French-sounding, though. It's evocative southern folk music, but also transends it. It is music of sighs, heartbeats, unspoken thoughts ... and eternity.

Timmer, your number one arrived today (the 3CD version). First time I've owned it on disc, been meaning to get it forever. It's a classic but enjoyment-wise your #3 Krull beats it for me. I need to start chiming in here with my favorites but I have a real hard time placing any score on #1.

Hmmm? I am deliberating on one future choice ( no, it's not a John Barry score ), it's a score I once had on LP but was unfortunately stolen in an incident way back in the early 80's, I now own the score on a Universal France CD but after the particular score I don't play much of the rest of the CD, so by my own criteria of playing full albums it no longer qualifies for listing......or does it qualify by default??

Try not to be too hard on yourself when choosing a placing, given a different mood on any given day I could quite easily juggle my top 20 around. Because of my own criteria of choosing scores it's worth me pointing out that some of my all time favourite scores will not be making this list simply because the album may contain a track or two that I prefer to skip while playing.



You prefer my #3 over this eh? I'm sure I can live with that.

Anyway, good to see you on this thread francis and I look forward to your choices.

I have "Regarding Henry" by GD. Great lable indeed.

I totally did not know about that "Papillion" release. Instantly ordered. Thanks, mate!

I have remembered one vinyl album that may have made the list but unfortunately it also went in that early 80's incident. It was Peter Schickele's SILENT RUNNING, it's never been released on CD

Yeah! VS so needs to release SILENT RUNNING on a club CD! At least we do have a recording of the theme from Silva Screen.

Volker

Maybe they can't get to terms with Joan Beaz?

FYI, Timmer.

There's quite a number of compilation albums, such as the one you mention, which I've excluded from my 50 because the listening experience of the entire program dilutes the potency of the score which I like best.

I think we should limit ourselves to albums with a single musical program, unless an album contains 2 or 3 scores which are uniformly favorites.

Hmmmmm... I would like to put in this list the following ones: American Beauty, Finding Nemo, Signs, To kill a Mockingbird, Vertigo, Psycho, Up, Ratatouille...