A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Cover photo © Los Angeles Philharmonic © 2019 Deutsche Grammophon On March 29, Berlin-based Deutsche Grammophon released Celebrating John Williams: Gustavo Dudamel/Los Angeles Philharmonic, a 2-CD set that presents 19 of the world-renowned composer-conductor's best-known (and best-loved) themes. Recorded live at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's (LAP) home in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the album showcases music from Maestro Williams' illustrious career, including selections from the Harry Potter series, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other films by Steven Spielberg, the 1984 Summer Olympiad in Los Angeles, and more.  No other world-class orchestra champions the classic film music tradition like the Los Angeles Philharmonic does - and the close working relationship its Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel has established with legendary film-music composer John Williams makes this the ultimate showcase album of the composer's greatest works. - B

On December 18, 2015, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures released Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh live-action film in the long-running series created by George Lucas and the first of three films that comprise the Sequel Trilogy. This first Star Wars movie since 2005's Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac, The Force Awakens is set 30 years after the events depicted in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The film was a huge success at the box office (earning $2.068 billion world-wide, which makes The Force Awakens the third biggest earner in movie history) and introduced a new set of heroes (the Resistance) and villains (the First Order) locked in the conflict between good and evil in a galaxy far, far away. On the same day that The Force Awakens premiered in wide theatrical release, Walt Disney Records also dropped Star Wars: The Forc