“You played it for her; you can play it for me. If she can stand it, I can! Play it!”
Okay, okay… Take it easy, Mr. Rick!
You’ll get your share of music from Academy Award winning favorites this afternoon, on a special three-hour “Picture Perfect.”
There will be plenty to enjoy as time goes by, from 4 and 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
And the winner is… us!
It’s that time of year again.
Regardless of how you may feel about the current state of the movies, the #AcademyAwards are always an excellent excuse to cast a nostalgic look back on Oscar history.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” there will be plenty of popcorn and champagne to go around, but true nourishment will be served up in the form of a SPECIAL THREE-HOUR PLAYLIST encompassing the best of the best. We’ll sample from all five of this year’s nominees for Best Original Score, of course, but also revel in music from some of the most honored and beloved classics of all time – including “The Godfather,” “Star Wars,” “Titanic,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Ben-Hur,” and “Gone with the Wind.”
Whether or not the movies’ best days are behind them, we’ll find plenty to celebrate with THREE HOURS OF QUALITY FILM MUSIC, on a special expanded edition of “Picture Perfect” – this Friday only, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST – on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Happy birthday, John Williams!
Williams is 87 today. We’ll hear a suite from his lovely and rarely-heard score to “Jane Eyre” on “Picture Perfect” tonight at 6:00 EST, part of an anti-Valentine’s program devoted to doomed love and Gothic romances.
But tune in a little earlier – between 4 and 6 – to enjoy a few additional Williams surprises. I’ll have something for you in each of my three hours on the air, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Get out your handkerchiefs.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll take a nostalgic journey down Memory Lane with Michel Legrand.
Legrand died on January 26 at the age of 86. The recipient of three Academy Awards (he was nominated for 13) and five Grammys, Legrand wrote music that tugs at the heart even as it lifts the soul.
We’ll honor this multifaceted musician with indelible selections from a handful of his over 200 film and television scores, including “Summer of ’42,” “The Picasso Summer,” “The Go-Between,” “Yentl,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”
Le Grand, indeed! Join me in remembering Michel Legrand, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of summer bummers, as I play to your fears of what lurks below.
“Beneath the 12-Mile Reef” (1953) stars Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, and Peter Graves in a Romeo and Juliet story about two families of competing fishermen along the Gulf coast of Florida, one working class and of Greek origin, and the other a family of privileged WASPs. Gilbert Roland is the Greek patriarch who runs afoul of an improbably large octopus. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music, which employs no less than nine harps (one for each arm, and a spare).
A young Henry Mancini was one of three composers to work on “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). Mancini, soon to be world famous for “Moon River,” “Baby Elephant Walk,” and “The Pink Panther,” was teamed with veteran film composer Hans J. Salter and Herman Stein. None of the three were credited on screen – typical of what was then considered just another low-budget B-movie.
What can I say about John Williams’ masterful music for “Jaws” (1975)? It’s right up there with “Psycho” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” in terms of most recognized and most frequently parodied. Everyone remembers the primal shark theme, but what is sometimes overlooked is that “Jaws” is also one of the great adventure scores, the music effortlessly navigating the choppy waters of suspense, horror, and seafaring swashbuckler. The composer was recognized with a richly-deserved Academy Award (his second of five).
The conflict in “The Swimmer” (1968) is not a giant octopus, nor a great white shark, nor a prehistoric gill man, but rather the progressive psychological breakdown of an upper middle class Connecticut man who believes he’s living the American Dream.
Adapted from a short story by John Cheever, “The Swimmer” stars Burt Lancaster as the man, who acts on a quixotic impulse to travel all the way home, across county, by way of a network of suburban swimming pools. The adventure starts out well enough, with Lancaster and everyone he encounters full of optimism and fun; but the further he moves along his allegorical journey, the more the enterprise, the climate, and the people begin to grow cold.
“The Swimmer” is a decidedly downbeat tale which could make the viewer as reluctant to dip a toe into a chlorinated in-ground swimming pool as the shark-infested waters of Peter Benchley’s Amity Beach. The score is by Marvin Hamlisch, of all people, and it suits the film brilliantly.
Join me, if you dare, for an hour of aquatic traumas, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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