Chose promise chose due, here comes the next episode:

Jeanne Moreau. She’s classic amongst classics.

Emmanuelle Seigner. Polanski’s wife. She’s Fafi’s favourite.

Nathalie Baye. Remember your schoolmate’s mother? Only better.

Isabelle Huppert. (What can I say, really?)

Juliette Binoche, ever smiling.

Emmanuelle Beart. Side A.

Emmanuelle Beart. Side B.

And last but not least, the one and only Brigitte Bardot, today.

In between two of those:

RITON and I took the time to shop for some groceries:

Add a bit of this:

And a little help from:

Stir with some of the hardest work in the history of show-business:

And soon we’ll be ready to take the plates out the oven:

STAY TUNED FOR A FIRST TASTE OF THE RITON/MEHDI CUISINE VERY SOON ON COOLCATS AND RITONTIME—

Little weekend selection for lazy laptop afternoons—

Top 10 NBA actions of the week. Number 6 is crazy.

Sorry to the non-french speaking but this one is golden. Dedicated to Busy P of course, and Supakitch for the hook-up.

Classic in the making via October’s Own. Never got enough of this.

Get your copyright criminal info on point, and dig in. Very interesting. Plus Maggie is a bit of cherry on top.

And finish up with another Mafia Music episode, my song for the day (jump that boring intro though).

—Y’all have a good weekend. Peace to my cousin DJ Feadz.

M.

This is a response to So-Me’s excellent post about Nino Rota.

Peeps,

The subject of narration in music (and with music) is fascinating to me.

In that respect, the narrative structure of HBO series THE WIRE (especially season 1) is a very interesting example. If you watch carefully, the only music you’ll hear is “diegetic”, which means you’re hearing it because the characters in the scene are hearing it (with the exception of the opening theme). A car blasts a Mos Def track. There’s funeral music at a wake. A band plays in a bar. That’s it. There’s no soundtrack, no ‘overheard’ sounds, no illustration of a feeling, or of an atmosphere. It’s all, well, “real within the fiction”, indeed adding a realistic effect to what you’re seeing. No artifacts.

Which is, of course, the exact opposite of how music is often used in modern cinema, especially in MARTIN SCORSESE movies (I understand that I could find youtube clips to illustrate my point better). Usually, a director would use “non-diegetic” sounds to set a mood, or a time, in an economy of effects. Example: Gimme Shelter by THE STONES takes you immediately to 1968. Or, put the opening guitar chords of Sound Of Silence, and you instantly feel the disarray of Dustin Hoffman in THE GRADUATE. Even cheaper, use any rap track (or classical music theme) to step down (or up) a notch in the social class where the scene takes place.

Great movie composers understand this better than anyone else. In my opinion, that’s why it is such a different skill to write songs opposed to movie soundtracks. To that extent, it could be a possible explanation of why, say, a Paul Mc Cartney, or a Stevie Wonder were never notable movie composers – and why an Elfman, a Burwell, even a Morricone, didn’t make old rags in the pop-song field. And of course why I can’t wait to see:

Françoise Dorleac. She’s Deneuve older sister. Got that ‘tragic’ feeling.

Sophie Marceau. An 80’s baby sweet dream.

Anna Karina. Godard’s muse.

Romy Schneider. She’s not really french, but she counts.

Marion Cotillard. She’s like the girls who were in Art class in my school.

Sophie Duez. She is pure France circa Mitterrand years.

Lea Seydoux. Nice feet.

Mylene Demongeot. So sweet, I’m gonna have to give her her own NOW WHAT post soon.

And Romain François Gavras.