Brain Dead and Loving it!

It's difficult not to think of Russell Mulcahy's HIGHLANDER when watching the new Netflix action film THE OLD GUARD . The story revolving around a group of immortal warriors having lived through centuries, which was a pretty original concept way back in 1986, can of course sound a bit familiar by now. But whereas Mulcahy's film, as entertaining and stylish as it was, dealt with the inherent contradiction of the gift and curse of immortality with a rather immature contest of champions where ultimately; ''there can be only one'', THE OLD GUARD tries very hard between its exciting action sequences to have a serious reflection on this duality, which gives a bit of heart and relevance to the fire and fury. Man has always been fascinated, for obvious reasons, by immortality, and one of the earliest record of a written saga in History, the Gilgamesh story (roughly 2300 years B.C.) features in fact an immortal character, Uta-Napishtim (who was the Ba...

It's always difficult and awkward when you have to change a perfect description of an individual. For decades, Maestro Ennio Morricone was known as the ''Greatest Living Film Composer'', and no matter how much love you can have for other living legends in the field like John Williams or young whippersnappers like Elfman, Glass or Zimmer, it would be hard to dispute the irrevocable truth behind that bold statement.. But now sadly, the word ''living'' has to be taken out of that expression. Born in Rome on November 10, 1928, Young Ennio showed early on a propensity for music, and at 18, got his diploma in Trumpet playing. 8 years later, in 1954, he obtained his diploma in Composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, and worked for a while as a composer for television and radio. This is where he got noticed by director Luciano Salce, who hired him for his first film score for the 1961 film  IL FEDERALE (The Fascist)...