Rising A Year Away – The Official Trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” is finally here

As most cinema goes are just getting down from their Harry Potter highs, induced by the franchisees highly successful and well crafted finale Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) [which will be discussed further in an upcoming post], I have been looking ahead to the finale of a smaller film franchise. Emerging onto our screens in 2005, Christopher Nolan exposed international cinema goers to the dark, corrupt and shockingly realistic world of Gotham City, a city run by the mob, controlled by unbureaucratic cops and oh yeah a billionaire playboy who dresses up as a Bat.

Yes, we all know the story for the highly successful Batman Begins (2005) which reinvented the Batman franchisee after an 8 year absence, following the ridiculously camp Batman & Robin (1997). By bringing a new cast, led by Oscar winners Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, Nolan exposed audiences to the deeper humanity and realism within Bob Kane’s original comic book series, creating a Gotham that could represent any major metropolis across the world. His commitment to a realistic story, layered characters and mind-blowing action saw the films’s sequel, The Dark Knight (2008), break box office records and, indirectly, bring about one of the biggest changes in the Academy Award’s history, with the Academy extending the Best Picture category from 5-10 films (and now from anywhere between 5-10 films) in order to prevent any other publicly and critically regarded films from being unjustifiably snubbed. However, the film did secure two wins out of eight nominations, including a well deserved posthumous win for Heath Ledger (The Joker).  Together these two films have garnered a large international fan base, millions of dollars in box office/DVD/Blu Ray sales and created an incredible online excitement around the franchises final installment The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which is currently filming in the UK.

But as the first teaser trailer was released yesterday, via the Warner Brother’s YouTube account, I cannot help but feeling sad that this monumental franchise will come to end next July. For this series, like Harry Potter in many ways, has changed how people view going to the movies, creating a buzz and excitement that is felt across almost every person. While I too am excited for Nolan’s next offering, and I will be speculating about what the plot will entail (is Bane working for the League of Shadows? Will Selina Kylie/Catwoman be an enemy or foe? Will Marion Cotillard’s character really by Talia al ghul (the daughter of Liam Nesson’s character from Batman Begins?) I will also be sad to see another great franchise end after less than 10 years.

If you haven’ already watch the teaser, speculate yourself and feel the bipolar emotions of excitement and grief as we prepare for what will be, no doubt, 2012’s Best Film of the year!

The Silent Hero: A Tribute to Film Music

The famous American film director Stanley Kubrick was once quoted as saying:

“A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings.” – Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) When I first read this quote I was blown away by how profoundly correct it was in both its depiction of incredible film-making but also the importance of musical scores in the storytelling process. Utilised as the only tool for effective storytelling in the silent cinema era of the early 1900s, music was the single most important film technique for engaging an audience on an emotional and personal level. Charlie Chaplin (silent cinema comic icon and film industry pioneer) in his first feature-length silent film ‘The Kid’ (1921) developed a musical score inspired by Tchaikovsky’s 6th sympathy to help the audience grasp the humourous and emotional story of an orphan boy who develops a fatherly relationship with Chaplin’s iconic ‘Tramp’. Without the musical accompaniment this film, and many others during this era, would have been completely unmarketable to the mass public. In the years before dialogue, music was the only voice a film had. And then in 1927 that all changed, when Warner Bros released its first talking motion picture ‘Jazz Singer’ (1927), where Al Jolson said the first lines in cinematic history: “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet” Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer (1927) And he was right, we hadn’t. But that wasn’t just from a dialogue perspective. Some of the greatest musical scores ever written have come from films outside of the silent cinema era, where composers were faced with the challenge of writing music that effectively complement the complex levels that films could now cover through the use of sound and dialogue. Gone with the Wind (1939), for example, challenged its musical composer Max Steiner to find creative ways to convey the epic nature of the American civil war while continually emphasising the personal pleasures and pains that the film’s lead heroine, Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), was experiencing throughout the course of her life. As our films have become more multilayered, through realistic visual effects, three-dimensional characters and breathtaking cinematography, film composers have been forced to develop musical scores that can carry the complexity of the story in an immersive and emotional way. When I think about my own movie experiences, some of my fondest memories are of musical scores that have catapulted me into the emotional centre of the story from the very first note, even before a single word has been spoken. Musical scores such as Out of Africa (1985), Titanic (1997), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3), Babel (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) and most recently Inception (2010) have all illustrated the sheer brilliance of music/film collaborations within our modern era. Each composer has devised a score that conveys the truth and purpose of the story while also characterising the unique settings and personal influences that encompasses the films overarching plot. It is musical moments like these that can take your breath-away and stay with you long after the movie has concluded. Such film scores can even evoke emotions and stories of their own, acting as reminders of a time in your life when you saw or experienced their beauty for the first time. Whenever you hear that soothing piano or heavy metal drum sound playing through your headphones, you can find yourself being transported back to a cinematic world that you only thought existed “Once in a lullaby.” So after this first dissection, it is clear that music was once and still is an important part the film-making process and it is important to remember that when we watch and enjoy films. It is an aspect that can regularly go unrecognised outside of the awards season, but is an element so important that no successful film can survive without it. And it was only from Mr. Kubrick’s quote that I realised how important music is in conveying the story of a film while also creating their own.