The greatest film hits of Nino Rota. Including "The Godfather I-II-III", various Fellini films, "Romeo & Juliet", "Death on The Nile" and many others, performed by Solisti e Orchestre del Cinema Italiano. Nino Rota was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli's Shakespeare films, and for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, receiving the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974).

Writing a soundtrack for Being John Malkovich couldn't have been an easy task for Carter Burwell. How many films so freely sneak between absurdity, fantasy, and dark melancholy–often in the same scene? Thankfully, the film composer rose to the task. The music of Being John Malkovich varies from introspective simple piano solos to a snippet of Bartók, but mostly revolves around an orchestrated theme found from the start of the movie (heard in the track "Puppet Love" all the way through "Future Vessel"). There are some odd surprises, such as Björk's dreamy contribution of "Amphibian" and "Malkovich Masterpiece Remix," in which the actor reciting his name is transformed into a goofy trip-hop tune. Track 17 is an excerpt of Burwell verbally explaining a scene to his orchestra; on track 18 ("Lotte Makes Love"), we get to hear the outcome. Just like the movie, this soundtrack can be repetitive at times, but it's a perfect accompaniment to this weird and wonderful film. –Jason Verlinde

Philip Glass' soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's Dalai Lama epic Kundun captures the grace, beauty, joy and melancholy within the film. Glass uses familiar minimalist structures, but works with traditional Tibetan instrumentation and monks, giving the music an alluringly otherworldly feel. It's an entirely original, evocative score, and one of Glass' high-water marks in the field.

Celebrating the 100th birthday of Academy Award-winning film composer Miklós Rózsa this three-CD box set captures his most memorable compositions. Present here are heraldic passages from the KING OF KINGS and BEN HUR scores the haunting piano concerto (with theramin!) from SPELLBOUND the lush and poignant love theme from THAT HAMILTON WOMAN the pastoral wedding suite from EYE OF THE NEEDLE and many more evocative symphonic works.

The music of The Lord of the Rings film series was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. Shore wrote many hours of music for The Lord of the Rings, 10 hours of which have been released in the Complete Recordings CD/DVD boxed sets. Additional music, including alternate and unused compositions, was released with the book The Music of the Lord of the Rings. Shore composed the music in an emotional, operatic way, threading through the scores over 90 identified leitmotifs, which are categorized by the Middle-earth cultures to which they relate. The scores for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King won Academy Awards in 2002 and 2004. The latter film also won an Oscar statuette for Best Song, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

Euripides wrote The Trojan Women in 415 B.C., but his tragic play about the aftermath of the fall of Troy continues to resonate many centuries after it was first performed. Eleni Karaindrou, best know for her film scores for Ulysses' Gaze and Eternity and a Day, composed this score for a 2001 production of The Trojan Women after being struck by the parallels between the ancient Greek story and the recent situation in the Balkans. Although she chose to use various folk instruments from around the Mediterranean, such as the lyre, an ancestor of the modern violin; the lauto, a Greek form of the lute; and the ney, an end-blown flute, her stark compositions are not folkloric recreations. Instead, she blends the ancient timbres of the instruments with a vocal chorus to create a sound that is not quite modern but not archaic either. Perhaps the best word to use in describing Karaindrou's austere, beautiful music is timeless.

World premiere 2-CD release of James Horner score for Oscar-nominated Ron Howard film! Highly regarded, award-laden film chronicles eventful Apollo 13 mission to the moon, heartbreakingly aborted late during trip due to an explosion aboard command module that jeopardized lives of crew and their ability to return safely back to earth.

Reynold da Silva's Silva Screen Records has been constructing a series of "essential" collections of major film composers' scores usually by making new recordings of portions of those scores or compiling recordings previously made for other projects, most often employing the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. For this Michel Legrand album, the label has actually enlisted Legrand as conductor of the Flemish Radio Orchestra (whose contributions are not noted until you examine the CD booklet), with a few additional jazz musicians, plus Legrand himself on piano and (during the extended suite from The Go-Between) harpsichord. Still, these are new recordings, made in December 2004, and should not be confused with actual soundtrack recordings. Legrand oversees excerpts from some of his most popular scores, leaning heavily on the major themes, such as "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, "Theme from Summer of '42," and "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair.

2 CD set with 24 page full colour booklet. Featuring the complete 100-Minute Film Score. Newly recorded and performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and 100-voice CPPO Chorus conducted by Nic Raine. Bonus Material including alternate cues and music from Conan The Destroyer. This Recording is Dedicated to the Memory of Basil Poledouris (1945–2006).

Michel Jean Legrand (1932–2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many songs. His scores for two of the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and additional Oscars for Summer of '42 (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Yentl (1983).

Presenting the Complete Philips Recordings of John Williams on 21 CDs, with the original jackets, celebrating the maestro's 90th birthday on February 8. This box set includes the original artwork and spined wallets, a 32-page booklet with new liner notes by Dr. Emilio Audissino (author of The Film Music Of John Williams and Film Music In Concert: The Pioneering Role Of The Boston Pops Orchestra). All packaged in a 2-piece lift-off lid box with V-shaped thumb-cuts on either side of the lid.

Explorers is a 1985 American science fantasy film written by Eric Luke and directed by Joe Dante. The film stars Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, both in their film debuts, and Jason Presson as teenage boys who build a spacecraft to explore outer space. The special effects were produced by Industrial Light & Magic, with make-up effects by Rob Bottin. Rushed into production, the film was never properly finished. Dante revealed that the studio demanded that he stop editing and rush for a July release where it was overshadowed by the Live Aid concert, which was held one day after the film's release and stiff competition from Back to the Future, which opened nine days prior. It was a box office failure upon its release, but it attracted a cult following with its VHS release.

La Boum (English title: The Party or Ready for Love) is a 1980 French comedy film directed by Claude Pinoteau and starring Sophie Marceau, appearing in her film debut. Written by Danièle Thompson and Claude Pinoteau, the film is about a thirteen-year-old French girl finding her way at a new high school and coping with domestic problems. The film was an international box-office hit, earning 4,378,500 admissions in France. The music was written by Vladimir Cosma, with Richard Sanderson singing the song "Reality". A sequel movie, La Boum 2, was released in 1982.

Film and orchestral music composer Eleni Karaindrou has made a beautiful and moving statement with THE WEEPING MEADOW. A native of Greece, Karaindrou's influences are decidedly European, and within the music, one can hear the stamp of impressionistic composers like Erik Satie, avant garde innovators like Bartok, as well as Greek and Balkan folk forms. Karaindrou's music also traffics in 20th-century minimalism, creating tense, atmospheric spaces that feel empty and dense at once (one of the composer's frequently used motifs involves "patterns" that recall the tingling, polyphonic gestures of Phillip Glass). Although several themes are reprised throughout the album, the combination of ambient textures, folk phrasing (accordions, guitars, and violins figure prominently into several pieces), and lush orchestral work keep the music consistently interesting. The pieces are often set in a minor key, so a somber, melancholic mood prevails yet never feels forced or melodramatic, and the spacious, tasteful arrangements are in keeping with the ECM aesthetic.

The French know and love their movies like no one else in Europe, so it's no surprise that they've produced a few top-notch film composers over the years. The folks at Crippled Dick Hot Wax, the German label that has unearthed all manner of offbeat film music, pay homage to a little-acknowledged side of French movie scoring with Shake Sauvage, a disc featuring cues from 15 different Gallic films released between 1968 and 1973 (with a bit of funky library stock music and one retro-styled cut from the '80s rounding out the track listing). On Shake Sauvage, the focus is on French music that seemingly channels hipper American sounds of the day, from the cool jazz-funk of Claude Bolling's "Full Speed" and the naïve neo-psychedelia of Roland Vincent's "LSD Party" (complete with some of the least fluid wah-wah guitar ever recorded) to the ominous spy movie sounds of George Garvarentz's "Les Temps des Loups," and the lush, seductive organ groove of Jean-Pierre Mirouze's "Sexopolis." Actually, lush organ is one of the dominant themes of this disc (Brian Auger appears on several tracks) along with a pervasive fondness for American pop music filtered through the lens of classic-era European cool.