Belleville Rendez-vous

Belleville Rendez-vous (aka Les Triplettes de Belleville) is without doubt one of the most bizarre yet original cartoons to emerge from France. Only in that country could you produce a film about a septuagenarian triplet singing group, the tour de France, mafia kidnappings and a dog.

The soundtrack for the film by Canadian guitarist Ben Charest is great fun and mixes songs and instrumentals that hint at Benny Goodman, Django Reinhardt, Lalo Schifrin, Surf Music, French Chansons, Musique Concrete, Jacques Louissier to name but a few. C'est magnifique

DIVA - a study in style

Oozing style, sophistication and gallic charm from every frame, Jean Jacqus Beineix' Diva was the surprise hit of 1981. Its soundtrack, by Vladimir Cosma is as original as the movie itself.

Given that it was released at a time when the "high concept" antics of Simpson and Bruckheimer et al were ruling the nation's cineplexes, Diva should not have logically been the success it was.

Adapted from the virtually unknown (in the UK anyway) novella of the same name by Delacorta (Daniel Odier), Diva was French for a start so there were those pesky subtitles to deal with and it was about, a postman, murder and opera - hardly a great night out. Therein lies its charm and perhaps the root of its success. It was the perfect 80's yuppie date movie. After all, you could hardly impress a prospective date with Die Hard or Porky's 2. But by taking them to a French movie that looked as stylish as a pack of Gitanes and featuring a beautiful soprano singing opera, you became 'super intellectual' in one fell swoop!

In all seriousness, Diva was, and remains a joy to watch. Vladimir Cosma's stupendous soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment and features the titanic tonsils of real life Opera diva Wilhemenia Wiggins Fernandez and Cosma's own thoughtful compositions, the creme de la creme being the appropriately named Sentimental Walk. The Diva soundtrack is a reminder that not all films in the Eighties had to have the obligatory 'exploding helicopter' sequence and a song by Kenny Loggins.

Hey..get your Car Washed today

Directed by Michael Schultz and written by Joel Schumacher, Car Wash (1976) was generally regarded as the first "disco" movie of the 1970's.

Featuring a lively cast including Richard Prior, Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, actor/director Bill Duke plus a number of unknowns, Car Wash recounts a day in the life of the employees at a Los Angeles car wash presented as a series of loosely plotted vignettes. When compared to its contemporaries, Saturday Night Fever and Thank God It's Friday, Car Wash looks the least dated despite the preponderance of big 'fro's.

Even with a lack of real plot the film still retains a freshness that is underpinned by former Motown supremo Norman Whitfield's driving funky soundtrack that never misses a beat. Nestling among the familiar hits by the likes of Rose Royce and the Pointer Sisters reside some rock solid instrumentals that are a masterclass for aspiring bass players. Cheesey it most certainly isn't.

Jonny Quest

In the early 1960's, TV cartoon gods William Hanna and Joseph Barbera hit upon the idea of creating an animated adventure series that could appeal to not only a young audience but also keep the adults happy. The result was Jonny Quest.

Mixing adventure, science fiction, espionage and a bit of magic and laughs on the way, Jonny Quest followed the exciting adventures of the titular Jonathon Quest, the 10 year old son of leading scientist and inventor Dr Benton Quest, former footballer Roger "Race" Bannon, Hadji, an 11 year old indian boy and Bandit the bulldog.

Featuring better than average animation for a TV show, Jonny Quest first aired in 1964 and boasted entertaining but intelligent scripts that didn't patronise the audience. The show only ran until 1965, cancelled no doubt by a network concerned over the programme's portrayals of violence. It was updated in the 1990's and repackaged as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and featured 3-D computer animation and upped the educational content.

For me though the 'real' Jonny Quest was Hanna-Barbera's original series with its big jazzy score by Hoyt Curtin, composer of many of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons' popular theme songs, including those from The Flintstones, Top Cat and The Jetsons. Curtin's Jonny Quest score was later updated to reflect the James Bond craze on the Jonny Quest story LP called 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Even though Curtin's jazz tinged cues were used many times thoughout Jonny Quest and other HB cartoons they always evoked the action magnificently and as such are a legacy to a great and relatively unsung talent.

The Knack (and how to get it)

Over forty years after its release, it's hard to imagine how new, fresh and original 'The Knack' was. Borrowing heavily from the French New Wave in terms of look and feel, the film and its pop-jazz John Barry soundtrack are a fascinating snapshot of the so-called swinging sixties in London.

Whilst The Knack has some stunning elements - the stark black and white photography, the white on white decor and the views of London (somehow familiar yet quite alien) the film is not what it was.

Perhaps its original elements have been copied or pastiched so many times that the film is now a cliche. Scenes of 'wacky' youth leaping around in the street have been done to death. For fans of the movie's director Dick Lester, The Knack is closer to A Hard Day's Night than Help! which he also directed and like those films it has a cool soundtrack.

As with many Barry scores, many of the tracks are variations on the title theme, but each has its own identity. With Alan Haven's groovy jazz organ to the fore it's one of Barry's more overtly jazzy scores. There's some great arrangements with Barry's tradmark swooping strings, bold brass and that sexy muted trumpet used so effectively in his mid-Sixties output. In fact many of the musical styles he used for the Bond soundtracks like Thunderball are evident and there are times when you can almost visualise a tuxedo clad Connery prowling a casino instead of the hapless Michael Crawford looking vacant by the Thames.

If you want to hear well crafted melodies equisitely arranged and performed then look no further than The Knack.

TV and Movie Scores in a Blue Note style

Blue Movies: Scoring For The Studios is an uber-cool collection of famous movie and TV scores given a dust off and a new set of funky threads, care of classic jazz label Blue Note.

UK readers will immediately recognise Billy Taylor's good time I Wish I Knew How as the theme music for the long running BBC film programme. The great Leroy Holmes adds his unique spin to the James Bond theme, while no self respecting Bond fan should be unfamiliar with Count Basie's swingy arrangement of From Russia With Love. Grant Green and Dianne Reeves' sexy Down Here On The Ground from Cool Hand Luke will have you thinking of anything but boiled eggs. Soul Diva, Marlena Shaw's Last Tango In Paris now sounds like some great long lost Bond theme. Elsewhere, Richard 'Groove' Holmes elevates the lachrimose Love Story to something more palatable and punchy. Don't take my word for it, check out these great Blue Movies.

Exiled - an Asian Wild Bunch? (Updated)

Johnnie To's explosive gangster movie "Exiled" aka "Fong Juk" owes more to the elegaic westerns of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah than John Woo. Whilst it has its balletic scenes of stylised gun play, the movie focuses on the Western values of friendship, honour and loyalty.

Guy Zerafa's awesome soundtrack with its twangy guitars and understated strings echoes Morricone and although I'm not aware of an official soundtrack release, at least two of the tracks are identified as:

"CAMILLE"co-composed, arranged, orchestrated and recorded by Guy Zerafa and Dave Klotz. From the recording entitled 'Azul' performed and composed by Diego Marulanda (2000 - unpublished)

"DOLPHIN SKY"co-composed, arranged, orchestrated and recorded by Guy Zerafa and Dave Klotz. From the recording entitled "LIVE PERFORMANCE"performed by Paul Royes and Guy Zerafa. Composed by Paul Royes (2002 - unpublished)