FSM # 20: Final scores – best and worst?
- This topic has 34 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 5 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Yes, WAR WAGON is decent, as is 36 HOURS. But not on EMPIRE level for me. Thanks for the link, does indeed seem like GREAT CATHERINE was his last — the later two projects were in different capacities than composer.
Francis Lai’s final score was Claude Lelouch’s LES PLUS BELLES ANNÉES D’UNE VIE (2019), released posthumously. Lai died in 2018. It was also the last film of actor Jean-Louis Trintignant and actress Anouk Aimée. I seem to remember sampling this score somehow, when it came out, and it was okay. But we have to go back all the way to 1988 to what I consider his last GREAT score, i.e. BERNADETTE. Then again, there are many scores in the interim there that I need to properly investigate.
(I mean, I quite liked AMORE E LIBERTÀ – MASANIELLO [2006], which I even own on CD, but that was mostly Marco Werba’s baby, I think).
Franz Waxman is my favourite Golden Age composer. According to IMDB, his final film was a TV film called TO DIE IN PARIS (1968), which must have been released posthumously, since he died in 1967. But he had a spectacular last great year in 1962, with TARAS BULBA, HEMINGWAY’S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN and MY GEISHA, all wonderful scores. But HEMINGWAY remains my favourite of the three (featuring a young John Williams on piano).
Gerald Fried is an interesting case. Was away from film music for so long, and then he suddenly made a comeback with his retro score for the Snoop Dog STAR TREK spoof UNBELIEVEABLE!!!! in 2016 (his first feature-length film score since the late 80s). Where he could nurture his old style for the original series. Impressive note to go out on, he died in 2023.
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek died way too early, at 71 in 2024. We’ve talked a little bit about him in the Polish film music thread, as well as the ‘erotica’ thread that I’m the only person interested in. His final score was apparently something called LEGEND OF THE HAPPY WORKER, released posthumously in 2025, which I’ve never seen or heard. But his last GREAT score was LEONIE in 2010, IMO.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.