A legal thriller about foster care available for digital download from 1st March, Foster Boy, is based on the true story of foster care victim Jamal Randolph (Shane Paul McGhie) who wants to take a for-profit foster care company to court for the abuse he received in their homes.
Written by Jay Paul Deratany and based on his experiences as a trial lawyer, the story begins with Jamal, in court for another misdemeanour and as the judge (played by Oscar winner Louis Gosset Jnr) puts it, he has seen him more times than his own grandchildren, we imagine this is just another social misfit stuck in a cycle of repeat offences. But the judge notices the boy has another case pending against a foster care company, which until now there hadn’t been a lawyer to represent him. Step up reluctant attorney Michael Trainer (Matthew Modine – Stranger Things), a high flying corporate lawyer just leaving the courtroom after winning another lucrative litigation, when he is hauled back by the judge and told to work pro bono i.e. for a client who can’t afford it, and fight for the young offender’s civil action case.
These two, from very opposite sides of the track, are forced into an alliance. We find the win at all costs lawyer and the foster care ‘thug’ who refused to take a $50,000 pay off, are capable of healing one another. As we delve deeper into the case the kid has genuine grounds to claim negligence against the privately run foster care company who had put a violent sexual offender into the same foster home as him. The problem is, can he testify with his PTSD symptoms and is there any concrete evidence to convince the jury?
They’re up against a corporate foster care company that makes money taking contracts from the state to find homes for kids, a very nice little earner they will do anything to protect. When their initial pretrial payment is turned down they begin with stronger tactics approaching Jamal’s lawyer to see if they can come to a favourable arrangement but when an even higher offer is rejected they find out this case isn’t about the money. Their tactics become more unsavoury as they try to scare off the opposition and show an unnerving level of power and influence as a series of unfortunate events follow.
The producer of the film, Peter Samuelson, is the founder of First Star, a charity that gives academic support to young adults in the care system. The statistics are clear on how coming from a disadvantaged background or without a stable family affects people’s futures. The lead Shane Paul McGhie corresponded with some of the kids who helped him prepare for the role and his performance made sure that whilst being a victim of horrendous circumstances he came through it showing great strength. Perhaps in the end the courtroom battle is a little too cliched as a film dramatisation with its don’t judge people by appearances message but it’s a heartwarming attempt to tell the story.
Film: Foster Boy
Director: Youssef Delara
Stars: Matthew Modine, Shane Paul McGhie, Louis Gossett Jr., Julie Benz
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Available on digital download from 22nd February, Gatecrash is a twisted psychological thriller about a couple who return home from a party having been in a car accident with a passer-by late at night. Their confused actions after the incident lead to repercussions that get even further out of control.
Directed by Lawrence Gough and based on an award winning play by Terry Hughes the film begins with Steve (Ben Cura – Marcella) and his French wife Nicole (Olivia Bonamy – Them) talking agitatedly and confusedly after the hit and run incident. Their relationship seems already distant and strained made all the worse by the accident, and the flowing accusations that spill out, quickly become threatening and physical as they attempt to figure out a plan as to what to do next.
Things take a turn for the worse when an oddball policeman (Samuel West – Darkest Hour) turns up and invites himself into the house at which point Steve makes a sharp exit left, leaving his wife to deal with some awkward questioning. The policeman disappears to take a look around their luxury pad and not wanting to leave the policeman to his own devices too long, Nicole goes looking for him in the labyrinth of rooms only to find some evidence of blood.
When we catch up with them again there is a surprising switch in circumstances as we see an interesting line in retribution being administered, along with some marriage counselling. This all happens before Sid (Anton Lesser – Game of Thrones) the actual victim of the incident turns up at the house some years later. We know some time has elapsed because Nicole has had a baby, a seemingly curious plot thread that isn’t as random as its first introduction, after she felt the need to take a timely pregnancy test during the height of the initial crisis.
Sid’s arrival at the house unannounced brings the 2nd act into play, a kind softly spoken older man who believes the couple had helped him on the night of the accident. The interplay between the characters has the feel of the original play throughout with the added dimension of some simple but effective visual storytelling. Olivia Bonamy brings some high anxiety as the bullied wife who gets trapped by a succession of tormentors, most notably her horribly obnoxious husband.
The film doesn’t hang around getting down to the scruples of the incident. Were they arguing in the car? Was he drink driving? …but reversing over the victim? This is a stylised psychological thriller that has elements of a farcical horror, set in a modern country house situated somewhere in a secluded part of the English countryside. The tension builds with some uncomfortable conversations assisted by some creepy sound mixing before a vengeful finale.
Film: Gatecrash
Director: Lawrence Gough
Stars: Olivia Bonamy, Ben Cura, Anton Lesser & Samuel West
Available on digital platforms from the 15th February Max Winslow and The House of Secrets is a family teen movie where a select group of high school students are invited to the home of eccentric entrepreneur Atticus Virtue to compete to become the winner of his mansion.
Local hometown technology billionaire Atticus Virtue (Chad Michael Murray), a sort of Elon Musk meets Willy Wonka, has an unusual influence over his former high school in Arkansas. His start up businesses in computer sciences and space flights are now redefining artificial intelligence and as the school’s major benefactor, having donated a whopping $45 million sports stadium, he is able to interrupt classes with a hologram broadcast to announce his latest challenge, a competition for 5 especially selected students to compete in a game for the key to his mansion.
The 5 students find out they’ve been chosen via smartphone much to their delight and are a mix of personalities and talents. The lead is Max (Sydne Mikelle) a geeky female computer programmer who’s the tech guru able to hack into her neighbours smart doorbells and can figure out just about everything except how to get a boyfriend. She has a crush on Connor (Tanner Buchanan) the high school lacrosse star who wants to sing and play cheesy acoustic guitar numbers much to his parents dismay. Then there is also Sophia (Jade Chynoweth) the glamorous social media influencer who is totally unapologetic about her superficial pursuit of getting likes online, Benny the 24 hour gamer (Jason Genao) and Aidan (Emery Kelly) the too cool for school rebel with a bad attitude.
Their arrival at the mansion doesn’t come without a certain amount of trepidation. There are rumours Virtue’s newly unveiled hi-tec pad has been used for human experiments. What kind of experiments is unknown only that he has been working on a top secret project to change reality. They are welcomed by the voice of Haven – the home automated venture, an AI system that controls everything in the house, basically a super tech version of Alexa. Haven is assisted by Sir Mordred the robotic knight, Virtue’s first invention, a menacing looking and sounding Jeeves the butler.
The kids trials begin when they enter the cinema room / golf driving range (the rooms are big and there are lots of them). They get locked in and they’ve only got 3 attempts to crack the code to the door before they are trapped there forever – the first sign that things in the mansion might not be too comfortable for our contestants. The game is now properly underway as the young competitors begin to explore the house accumulating points and solving puzzles, and as they enter the different rooms they come face to face with augmented AI realities of the biggest challenges impacting their lives.
Director Sean Olsen has created an entertaining teen movie that brings a futuristic world to the screen. Its simplified plot meanderings illustrate a vision of the future dominated by AI and an eccentric tech billionaire’s influence on school life whilst touching on some deeper teen social and family issues. It maintains a level of sweetness throughout that means the controlling AI system never gets too sinister and in the final drone onslaught the kids show they’ve got this in a soft teen Breakfast Club way.
Film: Max Winslow and The House of Secrets
Director: Sean Olsen
Stars: Sydne Mikelle, Tanner Buchanan, Jason Genao, Emery Kelly, Chad Michael Murray and Jade Chynoweth
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Interview with Dave McLean, writer and director of Schemers, a feature film about the very beginnings of his career whilst growing up in Dundee, Scotland before becoming a music promoter and manager to some of the world’s most famous bands including Nirvana, the Foo Fighters and Placebo.
Available on DVD and digital downloads from 25th January 2021.
Tell us about yourself and your new film
My name is Dave McLean, I’m the ripe old age of 65, based in Bangkok, Thailand.
I did a wee film about my early days in the music business with up and coming bands like the Cure, Ultravox and Simple Minds. It’s about the various escapades we had getting things started back in the day.
I wrote it, directed it and produced it and did the soundtrack. It wasn’t like I was making myself out to be some Svengali genius, I was kind of taking the piss out of myself about how bad it was. It’s like, look at this huge gig I got and what a balls-up of it I made.
I think we did well to get to the stage where we made a film, it got released in 250 cinemas and we’re doing worldwide digital deals all on a shoestring budget for a first time out cast and crew. It’s a good wee story, you know.
The opening scenes are reminiscent of Trainspotting, was that deliberate?
Actually it never even crossed my mind that it was like Trainspotting until people said oh it’s like Lust for Life. The film was done in 2, well 3 shoots because we had to do the Iron Maiden shoot again. The first shoot had quite a lot of problems. We had to change a few of the actors, rewrote 12 to 14 scenes and delete a load of stuff. Because of the continuity, we couldn’t use some of the scenes shot originally, so basically, we had to do a voice over thing at the start just to make the film work.
The guy that did the editing, Khaled Spiewak he was fantastic, he did it very much in the vein of the Guy Richie thing, The Snatch and Lock Stock and all of that sort of stuff. That’s where he got his ideas.
It kind of worked well and it was nice to be compared to them as well to be honest with you. When you read your name in the Edinburgh film festival, I had to really pinch myself when I was reading the reviews and it said Danny Boyle, Guy Richie and Trainspotting. I thought that’s crazy to be mentioned in the same breath. It is like wow; I definitely don’t have any complaints there.
What films influenced you?
None really. I suppose I was going for the gentle comedy aspect of say Gregory’s Girl, which is a very old film now. I just liked the gentle humour, there was nothing abrasive, nothing sharp, not a lot of swearing or anything like that, a gentle comedy. So I was going for that kind of line.
Then on the music front I was just going for the reality of what we were actually doing. I have never actually seen a film about the music business which shows fledgling days, promoter hustling, just taking a chance; so that was all original.
Actually I wanted to make it a bit edgy rock n roll stuff. A kind of toned down RocknRolla, I’ve always liked that movie, it had a good name for a start and it had a kind of dark side to it. We had a dark side, not as dark as that. A bit of a dark side but quite a lot of comedy.
How did the soundtrack come about?
I think there was about 27 tracks on the film and maybe 21 of those tracks we’ve either managed the bands, promoted the bands or had some kind of connection with the bands. Kyle, Kyle Falconer (the View), who I managed for a couple of years, we are great friends. I started to listen to the View and thought this band should have absolutely conquered the world and that track Grace I just thought wow, what a banger to open with. It was just like boom, let’s go. So we did that, we did Shock Horror, then when we finished we did Tacky Tattoo which was awesome. I just thought wow it is Dundee, it’s really raw, its grey, it’s sad. Kyle is a genius.
The cast looked like they were having a goodtime making the film
I thought the actual chemistry of the characters Scot, Dave and Jon (Connor Berry, Sean Connor, and Grant Robert Keelan) were brilliant, absolutely awesome. That came about because they all used to come to my house in Dundee for BBQs and drinks. They actually ended up being mates and you can see that on the screen.
The first time I met Connor I got on great with him, he’s such an easy going guy. I wouldn’t say he was a mirror image of me or anything but he had that right attitude, the right get up and go and he was a great worker and he was very professional about everything. I just felt this is in good hands. He won best new actor in the New York Winter Film Awards and he got best director as well, so he had won a few awards for up and coming actors. So I was really proud to have somebody like him.
Tara I found. I was stuck in a traffic jam in Bangkok and she was in this TV thing I was watching called the Fall with the guy who was in 50 Shades of Grey. We had to recast the girl that was going to play Shona. So I was watching this thing with Tara in it and I thought that’s it, that’s the girl for me. So I looked at her name at the end, got her agent, talked to the agent, talked to Tara. I flew to London 2 days later, Bangkok to London, met her and put her in it. She was awesome, she was really good but I never realised how good she was until I saw her on a huge screen. She’s got a lot of presence, I was really happy with that.
How did you get the 80s look on screen?
I think the people that did the whole set design and costume design, considering we were on a very, very tight budget, they did a bloody brilliant job and it kind of looks no bad you know.
Some of the scenes were set in places that hadn’t really changed much like where a few of the gig scenes were shot it’s got all these old posters in it. There was the old bar which has never changed in 150 years so that was good. Then there was Palais Tea Rooms which has got a 50s, 60s feel to it. Then you’ve got the pier which is just the way it has always been and Caird Hall. The record shop Groucho’s hasn’t changed much as well. So a lot of the things looked the way they are because they’ve not changed much. So it all looked good and authentic. Of course there is always somebody who will say, ‘by the way that lorry that turns up at the end is actually a 1992 blablabla,’ but it doesn’t really matter, it’s the best we could do.
Were you worried people wouldn’t understand the authentic Dundee, Scottish accent?
My co-producer, my long term business partner Alex Weston, she would always say, ‘you can’t say that, nobody will understand that. It’s too Scottish.’ I don’t really care, it’s about Dundee. It’s meant to be Scottish right. So we did subtitles when we played Raindance in London and we translated it into Chinese and Russian and various other languages.
Actually my friend in Dundee, this real Dundee guy, Gary Robertson, he’s won loads of awards for Dundee dialect and keeping it Scottish and all this sort of stuff. He tweeted about the movie and on his Facebook said, ‘great movie, fantastic, go and see it,’ and then one of his friends who commented on it said, ‘I didn’t like it, it wasn’t very Dundonian, the accents were terrible.’ So you can’t please everybody. It’s hard to get the balance but I think we got the balance.
In the film you turned down U2, is that true?
We had to change the original band I turned down to U2. The actual band I did turn down was Blondie! Blondie and the Ramones as a double header. I booked Siouxsie and the Banshees instead but because there was a big reference earlier on, we had to change it to U2. In later years we did do 30 gigs with U2 so there is a tenuous link there with Placebo.
How close to the actual events was the Iron Maiden concert finale?
That’s all true. I never had any crew, I never had any catering, I never read the contract, the support act was a balls-up, we hardly sold any tickets but people turned up on the night. The only thing that is not true that should be in the movie, we actually made money on Iron Maiden and what I did was lost it all. I’d made money and then lost it all on roulette.
Your career takes off after that. What happens next?
It takes off big time. I go to London. I think I’m going to take over the music business because I’ve done big bands but I’m forgetting there is competition in London. So the sequel shows the way I rose up through the ranks. We got all these bands and we got Placebo, who every single record company in the world wanted to manage and that took off enormously. It just took off you know.
How does the music industry compare to the film industry?
The music industry is much harder. The film industry is easy to be honest with you, now that I’ve done one film. The next film we could easily film and edit in 6-weeks because we’ll have the real A-team from the start. We’ll have a good film crew, we’ll have a good editor, we’ll direct it or co-direct, we’ll work together. We know what cast we’re looking at. We’ve already got a killer soundtrack. So the next movie will be a doddle. It will be a 6-week shoot, boom, done.
This is a Japanese action comedy on digital and DVD release from 25th January by Yoshihiro Nishimura, described as a “legendary director and effects artist” and renowned for his work predominantly in the horror genre, here he creates a crazy comedy alternative to the yakuza crime stories based on ramen noodles with little to no gore.
The story begins with 2 ex yakuza brothers being reunited after one of them, Tatsu, finishes a term in prison to find things are different on the outside. His brother, Ryu, is looking to put his yakuza fighting days behind him and is selling nato de coco drinks from his food truck. He has since had a message from the magical tattoo on his back, a Buddhist goddess, to start a Chinese Ramen restaurant. Tatsu is unimpressed especially with the food truck but when he gets a taste for the Ramen noodles, he suddenly sees the light and has to put his chef skills to good use to make people happy.
The idea of these violent yakuza’s starting a noodle restaurant is only the beginning of the non-stop gags and parody of Japanese films. The action swiftly breaks into a musical to really show the change in direction from the old yakuza ways. Their restaurant business takes off when they get a visit from a YouTuber (an uncanny Kim Jong-un lookalike with his sunglasses on) who gives their Tokyo Dragon restaurant sensational reviews. But it can’t last and when an old yakuza rival gang show up, the Ozawa Brothers, there is a Ramen noodle turf war hotting up.
The Ozawa brothers introduce their own YouTuber, Mimi the big eating idol with pointy ears, and boy can she eat. She starts pulling in the crowds with her amazing eating ability and her provocative pink PVC outfit, which is another saucy Carry On feature of the movie. Meanwhile there is Gizumo who is the young start-up looking for revenge on the yakuza who ruffed him up. He’s now a tech whizz with a third eye and he’s on a power crazed trip, looking to take over from the old yakuza with his own gang of enforcers wearing one-eyed face masks and going around putting the competition out of business.
There are some American influences throughout the film especially with the music, the rock n roll and it seems the Blues Brothers. The songs switch between Japanese and English and a couple of scenes make a link between languages. The first, is where Gizumo has a funny turn and starts singing in English, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”, in an intoxicated brainwashed trance, then the next scene shows Tatsu changing the complicated Japanese lettering outside the restaurant. Put the two side by side and they show how crazy the language differences are.
The film feels part of a trend in combining traditional stories with a food focus. Samurai Gourmet (Netflix) has a similar theme of combining the old samurai story with modern times and tempting looking Japanese food. The switch for Yoshihiro Nishimura from gore to food may not last long before a return to the more popular Japanese genres he makes fun of here. This gives a great flavour of Japanese film tastes without taking itself seriously and if you can do the same you will enjoy the madcap intense noodle tasting, which is quite special to watch.
The Exception is a Danish psychological thriller based on the book by Christian Jungersen, available from 22nd January on all major UK digital platforms including Curzon Home Cinema and Chili.
The film opens with notes being written in a book the Psychology of Evil 2, a study into the profiling of evil people based on the psychological tests of leading Nazis during the holocaust. The conclusions are unnerving and set the tone for the film.
The story centres around four women working at a Danish centre for Information on Genocide, Iben (Danica Curcic) the author of the book was in Nairobi, as an Africa aid worker and after being taken hostage is still dealing with the trauma. Malene (Amanda Collin), her best friend, is the good looking one dealing with her own debilitating health issues. She is also worried about her job and thinks Anne-Lise (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is after it. Anne-Lise, their new co-worker is getting the cold shoulder treatment for this reason, making life very difficult for her at the office. Then there is Camilla (Lene Maria Christensen), the quiet one who goes along with what Malene and Iben say, except that she has a reoccurring sexual fantasy for her Serbian ex-boyfriend.
The 2 close friends Iben and Malene receive anonymous email threats from an unknown source and as the relationships at work deteriorate, they begin to suspect one and other, despite a long list of more likely suspects already under investigation. With the intrigue and tension mounting all of this is suddenly lost when the girls attempt to make a psychological appraisal of their colleague and accuse her of making the death threats and having similar personality traits to a war criminal (when her only crime so far was a poor dinner party anecdote). But I guess that’s where the message of this film lies, the actions of ordinary people doing harm to each other as their feelings and emotions get the better of them. Here, their determination to find the other one out leads them to do more baffling and illegal things.
The film’s premise based on the history of genocide and the psychology of evil behaviour is cleverly run parallel to the office politics and bullying in the workplace, comparing genocide to the ordinary everyday where all of a sudden everyone is a suspect, capable of selfishness, capable of weakness and capable of what could be considered evil in some shape or form.
Whilst the psychology is interesting and the scenes beautifully shot with some nice interiors and a classical scoring adding suspense to the proceedings, overall the link between the extreme war crimes and the quartet of lovely female office workers becomes a fragmented farce in this ‘who done it?’ Danish caper. The book maybe the better option.
Away is available to purchase on digital platforms from 18th January as well as from Curzon home cinema from 25th January. It’s an award winning debut animation feature from 26 year old Latvian Gints Zilbalodis, a simple feel good story with a slightly dark undertone that follows the trials of a young boy who finds himself the lone survivor from a plane crash stuck on a strange island.
Told through the boy’s journey across the island and ultimately his survival, it doesn’t have any dialogue and relies upon visual images and symbolism to tell the story. It imagines a deserted island inhabited by a just a few animals, of whom he befriends a little yellow bird that becomes his companion and there’s also a giant shadow monster that seems intent on blocking his path – a path marked out with stone arches like a race course that he has to complete.
Written, animated, edited and scored by Gints, who has single-handedly created this animated world from start to finish, a feat not to be too quickly discarded when you consider the long list of credits that usually accompanies an animated feature, and so it is any wonder it took him 3 and a half years to complete.
He has managed to create an all-round cohesiveness using the animated software, zooming in and out of landscapes and close-ups to good effect. Its simplicity is its strength but it is not without a depth of meaning too that would appeal to both children and adults. The shadow monster is like the desert island’s version of the black rabbit in Watership Down, an omnipresent ghoul as a gentle allegory of life and death.
The fact that today’s cartoons and animations have never gone down the hyperrealism route with much success means that the basicness of this animation, which seems to switch between rudimentary graphics to impressive dreamscape sketches, doesn’t overly detract from its overall worthiness. The film has been divided into chapters, which provide momentary interludes but add little in the way of telling the story – perhaps a sign of the animator’s lack of confidence to deliver a silent animation feature, understandably considering today’s prerequisite for explosive action, but he needn’t have worried.
The film score like the animation itself is simple but effective, complementing the animation perfectly and is something Gints had to find out how to do from scratch. This is someone clearly learning their craft, showing a real knack for being able to build emotions through visuals and sound alone.
We can draw our own conclusions of the film’s messages but Gints himself describes it as being about his own creative journey and what it feels like working on an incredibly challenging project. It makes quiet relaxing viewing, simple but clever, it’s a heart-warming boy’s own story suitable for anyone with a challenging project ahead of them.
Marco Werba is an award-winning film composer with over 30 years’ experience in the industry composing music mostly for dramas, thrillers and horror movies although he has written for comedy and historical period dramas too. Marco has worked with and met many famous and influential film composers and film directors most notably from his adopted home, now in Italy. His father was an American reporter for Variety magazine in Madrid and his mother was a well-known abstract artist there before the family moved to Rome.
When he was young, he wanted to be a film director and made several super 8 short films, so his first love was actually film, not music. This changed when he went to see Logan’s Run at the cinema with his father. Directed by Michael Anderson the movie made such an impression on him he went to see it several more times, but it was the music by academy award-winner Jerry Goldsmith that left him spellbound and led to him wanting to study music.
Marco Were at Altroquando
His first film score won the prestigious Colonna Sonora Award in Italy for the film Zoo directed by Cristina Comencini. A very special moment for him not only winning the award for his composition but also for the opportunity to meet fellow film composers Ennio Morricone (A Fist Full of Dollars) and Francis Lai (Love Story) who were being awarded their lifetime achievement awards. A few years later Marco Werba had the opportunity to work with Francis Lai on the music of the Italian historical feature Amore e Libertà, Masaniello (“Love of Freedom”).
Marco would go on to win an Italian Golden Globe for his film score in Native, a low budget movie not expected to win awards but it had a song he wrote with Franco Simone that became a big hit. This just goes to show that it’s not always a big historical movie that can win an award.
Italian Golden Globes
His most successful collaboration was one with leading Italian film director Dario Argento on his thriller Giallo, starring Adrien Brody and Emmanuelle Seigner. The film score won 3 festival awards and Marco Werba felt the music for this film was even more accomplished than his previous work.
“A film composer is a strange job, in our lives every moment is not underlined by music. If we see each other with a woman or someone is killing someone there is no terror music. So why does an audience that goes to see a film accept there is music? The answer is the audience is not aware there is music at that moment. They don’t know that music is giving them the emotion. The fear, the sadness, the happiness most of the time it is given by the music. They receive music as an emotion of the overall movie, of the sound and the image.”
Finding the right balance between the music and the film is important to Marco as there shouldn’t be too much – no more than half of the film he recommends but every project is different with different demands. In the film Zoo he had to find a strange undefinable sound in the zoo, whilst in Giallo he used variations of music and sound as well as silence to help build the drama and emotion.
His influences are of course the iconic film composers who he reels off with great relish like Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Georges Delerue, Francis Lai all of whom he draws upon for a mix of classical and modern music inspiration.
For Marco the composer needs to be involved from the beginning of the process but in his 30 year career this has happened only once or twice, often only being involved in the post-production and left just 3 weeks to write, compose, arrange, synchronize and record the music. Ideally, he says, the composer should be involved before the shooting and then, during the post-production, where he can confirm the music themes and synchronize them with images.
“There are no precise rules. With experience one must determine which scenes actually require music to increase the dramatic pathos and the emotion given by the acting of the actors and the climax of the film. Directors are usually afraid of silence and tend to use too much music. It’s important to find the right balance between sounds and images. When this balance materializes, it is truly effective.
A composer who writes music for film needs to understand the meaning of the movie and to understand which music could help the movie, to help give the emotions. The inspiration comes from the film itself, from the story but sometimes also from the acting, from the colours, from many things and you can also have inspirations from other composers. The last word comes from the director. Not the composer or the screen writer or the editor. The director is the boss of the situation.”
Dario Argento and Marco Werba
The film L’Inverno, which Marco is now working on, is a World War II film set in Vienna, with music as a central theme. The main character is a Jewish violinist in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra who has a relationship with a German SS officer at a time when the Jews were being persecuted by the Nazi Germans. Vivaldi’s Winter (L’Inverno) from his Four Seasons composition is a focal point of the film, its string section expressing both the frightening hardship and vivacity of human life. It draws comparisons with Roman Polanski’s WWII film The Pianist (and Chopin), having a similar war time setting and famous classical music theme.
“L’Inverno is a beautiful film project. The script written by Sharron Aubrey is very interesting and I specifically love films set during WWII, even if I don’t know why. The title of the film refers to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons but in the film there are other important musical references, always linked to the classical and Jewish repertoire. Sharron has given me some indication, written in the script, especially about the source of the classical music. ”
The film has been heavily researched to give as accurate as possible telling of the story during the events surrounding the time. The classical music includes never before heard compositions from the victims of the holocaust bringing a haunting authenticity to the film and Marco has already written 2 strong music themes which he feels should fit the mood of the film.
“The first one is a very dramatic, powerful music theme that could work for the opening titles and for some key moments in the film. It’s a composition for the violin and big orchestra. The main titles and important scenes give the possibility to develop the music. In other moments where there are short thematic fragments there is no possibility of developing a musical idea, but these are part of the rules of the game. A film music composer must be accustomed to respecting the requirements of the film, as well as the sound effects and dialogues present in the film. The second one is a theme related to the main female role, the main violinist character, that has a melancholy flavour, more sad than romantic, that should reflect her feelings and the tragedy she is experiencing”.
The film is a perfect project for Marco, having previously written an adagio dedicated to the victims of Auschwitz, it is a story that he has great interest in especially because it’s a story about a violinist set in World War II.
“I worked for several years on this adagio, which initially started out as a string trio when I was a student of the “Mannes College of Music” in New York. Over the years I have developed the music and added a full strings section, solo oboe and timpani. This composition was chosen by an Auschwitz survivor (a member of the French resistance) to present his book on the internet, in which he describes his terrible experience as a prisoner of the camp, from which he survived by a miracle.
A few years ago I finally had the opportunity to perform the Adagio during a classical music concert under the direction of Lorenzo Castriota and to record it thanks to Antonello Martina’s “Soundiva Classical” music editions, with the Budapest orchestra under the direction of Péter Pejtsik.”
“Our dream or my dream for L’Inverno would be to record in London with the London Symphony Orchestra because in London they are the best musicians in the world. Amazing musicians, amazing orchestras.”
Marco Werba in Bulgaria
L’Inverno has all the properties to be a successful film and once the budget is in place the creative process can begin in earnest. Marco is very excited about working with award-winning director Roland Joffé(The Mission, The Killing Fields), whom he says it would be amazing to work with such an important director and, with a stellar cast yet to be finalized, the film has a chance to go to the Academy Awards. Something a fortune teller predicted would happen to Marco a long time ago.
“He said I would work with a well-known Italian director on thrillers and horror movies, which happened because I worked with Dario Argento and he told me one day I would have an Academy Award nomination. I am waiting to know for which film. Maybe it will be L’Inverno.”
Marco has worked with some amazing film makers and musicians over the years that have helped him develop his mastery of his craft. He brings an assured confidence to any film and in L’Inverno, a historical WWII film with a central musical theme, he has a film waiting for his magical touch and one we will be looking forward to seeing and hearing.
The Language of Film 