Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
Spike Lee, Debbie Reynolds, and Gena Rowlands will receive honorary Oscars, Vanity Fair reports.
Listen to Clint Mansell and Ex Machina composer Geoff Barrow‘s 30-minute talk:
Vulture‘s Bilge Ebiri on Ennio Morricone’s 25 greatest musical cues:
Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight will be the first time that the legendary composer Ennio Morricone has scored an entire movie for the spaghetti Western–loving director. (Indeed, it will be the first time that any composer has scored an entire movie for Tarantino, who generally prefers his music repurposed.) Morricone, age 86, has continued to work fairly steadily, but it will be exciting for those of us who are fans of the composer to see the spotlight shine brightly on him once again. Because to say that Morricone is a great soundtrack composer — or even the greatest of all soundtrack composers — doesn’t quite do him justice. His influence is monumental across musical genres, and his innovations have been adopted even by avant-garde musicians. In fact, many people who’ve never seen a single film scored by the prolific Morricone can probably still easily identify many of his musical themes. Don’t believe me? Whistle a few tunes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or A Fistful of Dollars sometime, and you might find that even people who’ve never seen a frame of a spaghetti Western will know what you’re referencing.
Cate Blanchett will receive the BFI Fellowship at this year’s London Film Festival, Screen Daily reports.
Watch Jack Cardiff and Derek Jarman remember the talents of Michael Powell:
Chris Evangelista on the detective fiction horror of Alan Parker’s Angel Heart:
Harry Angel is looking for himself; he just doesn’t know it. Angel, a private detective, tries to crack a blood-soaked case in Angel Heart, Alan Parker’s deft blending of mystery and horror. When it comes to crafting a detective story, Raymond Chandler, arguably the most well-known and well-versed scribbler of the pulp detective genre, created a series of “commandments” in the early 20th century that dictated ideal structure and characterization. These tenants, while not set in stone, continue to provide a strong framework for setting up the best kinds of pulp fiction.