Extreme Cinema

Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003) is one of the most popular and iconic of Korean films of the 2000s. A sensational and provocative piece of Asian extreme cinema, the film also has a superb score by Jo Yeong-wook, a regular composer for a number of Park’s works. Jo’s original score is rather eclectic in style - a mix of classical waltzes and modern electronica. Several tracks such as ‘Out of the Past’, ‘Dressed to Kill’, and ‘Frantic’ are inspired by the minimalist music of Philip Glass. There’s an unsettling quality to the music, particularly when it is haunted by the listener’s memory of the picture. Those who haven’t seen the film are likely to appreciate most of the tracks on offer here - the album is highly listenable and any fan of movie scores will dig this.

Filmmaker-svengali Josef von Sternberg escalates his obsession with screen legend Marlene Dietrich in this lavish depiction of sex and deceit in the eighteenth-century Russian court. A self-proclaimed “relentless excursion into style,” the pair’s sixth collaboration follows the exploits of Princess Sophia (Dietrich) as she evolves from trembling innocent to cunning sexual libertine Catherine the Great. With operatic melodrama, flamboyant visuals, and a cast of thousands, this ornate spectacle represents the apex of cinematic pageantry by Hollywood’s master of artifice.