also, the formatting is v basic - I couldn't carry over footnoting, italics, other little academicisms... will just see how it goes...
I'm experimenting with a longer form screen sound newsletter on Buttondown (I'm hearing dubious things about Substack). My first piece is available to read here, and if you like it you can subscribe. The formatting is basic - not sure if I'll be able to add audio, but learning as I go...
...and driving around drab bits of Yorkshire in a crap van. Please give some indications I won't be led to disappointment, I haven't seen it/had it on my radar (I have this kind of Batfink like shield of steel against promotion & popularity)
is it? I love the Beiderbecke shows, is it really up to that? Music wise? Because the best thing about Beiderbecke, beyond the wonderful, authentic Nick and Nora like banter between Bolam and Flynn, is the delightfully perfect mismatch between trad jazz (reinterpretations of the Bix B sound)...
and sometimes it's good to be forced to stop and commit to catching a film at a particular time. I had to literally re-manouevre the whole family in order to watch Tati's Trafic the other afternoon, as I'd wanted to see it for decades, and was so glad I did.
it's a baffling situation that rewards pointless speculation. And it's the only place I was ever able to track down Hey Rosalinda! I've an uncomfortable feeling about the live events though, I'm not sure I'd fit in...
"In the same way as an effect is built out of the pieces of film by the act of montage, so will little portions of sound be built up into new and strange noise. The process of short-cutting in visual images will be paralleled in the mixing of sounds" (Paul Rotha, 'The Film Till Now', 1931)
A soundtrack to love? Peter Strickland's 2012 Berberian Sound Studio is a film sound nerd's dreamfilm. It's stunning soundtrack was done by Broadcast, one of the best, and most underrated, British bands of the 21st century. If you like the sound of Giallo, Morricone, and chiff chaffs, have a listen.
I saw this earlier this week. Wasn't getting my hopes up, but LOVED it. Has reinvigorated a slight obsession with him that makes me feel young again. Just the *slightest* disappointment there wasn't more on the overdubbing & music. But really not enough to spoil its utter joie de vie.
Richard Linklater transports viewers back to the Paris and the Cannes of 1960, in his charming tribute to Jean-Luc Godard (mind: he occasionally betrays the spirit of the late French filmmaker)
In cinemas for the third weekend tomorrow:
dmovies.org/2025/05/17/n...
I suspect a rogue element is working for TPTV programming at the moment, getting in the kind of wonderful films that used to be shown on Ch 4 in its prime. Unfortunately these are never on their catch up channel. @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social
wonderful. Thank you for sharing. It's a curious thing about TPTV lately that when they have a bona fide film gem (this, Trafic, Breathless Nights of Cabiria) they don't do much to promote it, but are always posting about events with Melvin Hayes and Mike Read.
for anyone in the Bishop area, this will be a treat
Today's recommended soundtrack from the other room - The Third Man. Not just Anton Karas's famous zither, but huge chunks of film audio, still all mixed together. On Qobuz, because it's more ethical than Spotify, who I have abandoned. Coming soon: Film in the Other Room on Substack.
Wonderful release out today on Buried Treasure. I had the pleasure of writing a short essay for the CD sleevenotes too.
The soundtrack to one of my favourite films, The Shout. Finally released 47 years later on Buried Treasure. Includes fetching Alan Bates badge, which I shall sport for the winter season. Plus an essay in the sleeve notes, what I wrote myself. #theshout #soundtracks #filmsound #electronicmusic
Lulu vs Alan Bates. Who would outshout who?
yes, this is what I suggest in my sleevenotes to The Shout, ost, available to order from Friday on Buried Treasure. Nothing to do with Lulu.
Rupert Hine's visceral sound design still makes you shudder
www.bfi.org.uk/features/40-...
It's coming... includes a short essay by yours truly in the sleevenotes. Be careful what you wish for.
Anyone in Cumbria area, Suzy Mangion will be at Full of Noises on Saturday night, screening/playing The Music of Uncertain Lives and having a talk with the audience too.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 9/9 #filmsound 📽️Watery laundry sounds become music to the ears, a waltz whirls with the washing, and for a moment or two everything shimmers in a twin-tub electric ballroom.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 8/9 #filmsound 📽️It’s all idealised and precarious. The piped-music is part of an entrepreneurial fantasy, one that primps the winter-grey suburban streets, the grim realities of racism, of inequality, lost opportunity and unhappy families.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 7/9 📽️But it’s a fragile fantasy, built on mirrors and tricks. Jaffrey’s Thatcherite Pakistani businessman publicly dances with his fur-coated white mistress, unaware his nephew Omar is screwing ex-National Front Johnny (Day-Lewis) in the back room behind a one-way mirror.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 6/9 #filmsound 📽️At the grand opening, music drifts out from speakers into the now mirrored, muralled and neon-signed laundrette, transfigured into an improbable ballroom where Saeed Jaffrey and Shirley Anne Field dance to the synthified muzak of Waldteufel’s Skater’s Waltz.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 5/9 📽️ This transformation of washing machine music mirrors the film's dreams, and ironies. It focuses on Omar’s transformation of a rundown laundrette into ‘Powders’ - a palace of dreams, of neon fantasies, built on immigrant determination in Thatcher’s Britain.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 4/9 #filmsound 📽️
It is transformative music, taking everyday sounds and turning them into a score, using some of the alchemy more commonly associated with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop style.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 3/9 This memorable motif uses bubble noises, synths & sounds to create a general impression of washing machines that don’t actually sound like real washing machines, or even sound library recordings of them. They are a musical, dream version of washing machines. #filmsound 📽️
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE 2/9 I think of this motif as the film’s ‘theme’ tune. The score was composed & produced by the team of Stanley Myers & a young Hans Zimmer, under the pseudonym Ludus Tonalis. The actual full ‘theme’ version, of which this snippet is only a part, isn’t too interesting.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (Frears, 1985) An unusual film from the heyday of Film on Four, immersed in realism, that uses certain elements to escape those trappings. The bubble & electric whirl, swish swoosh of washing machines comprises an important musical motif. 1/9 #filmsound 📽️
