Scoring The Messenger
A Hype at Fire's Center
by Gerard Dastugue
The long-awaited new movie by stylish French director Luc Besson is
now on screen. A medieval action movie featuring a she-warrior hearing
voices from beyond seems a rather reductive summary, because The Messenger
is far more interesting and surprising, following aesthetic and dramatic
points of view that the director totally assumes and defends.
Luc Besson's The Messenger establishes the myth of Joan of Arc
in its modernity, just like Baz Lurhmann did with Shakespeare's Romeo and
Juliet. It can be clearly felt as a MTV-like attempt to attract young people's
attention on a rather dark and abstract topic, i.e. a part of French history.
But it is mainly entertaining and greatly shot: besides the costumes and
the sets, Thierry Arbogast's cinematography increases the contrasts between
the stunning beauty of the French countryside, the clinical coldness of
the siege with the operatic violence of the battles and the stylized emptiness
of the jail...
The movie goes straight in the continuity of Besson's previous productions.
There is here a blend of La Femme Nikita, The Professional
and The Fifth Element, as if these preceding protagonists and situations
were the draft of this (very strong) female character in this (very hard)
time of war. This feeling of development may prove the newly mature integrity
of Luc Besson's way of thinking and shooting his projects. The musical
score makes obvious that Eric Serra is maturing. His usual experiments
have been put aside in favor of a huge and powerful orchestral flavor according
to the gigantic adventure of the little maiden. A choir embodies both religious
and tribal dimensions, reaching its climax in the Taking of Orleans and
the Coronation. And of course, the synthetic characterization accompanies
the visions, as a bridge between dream and reality, between schizophrenia
and sanity, between past and modern times...
The score is undoubtedly full of the same lyrism that opens the movie,
a scene that could be extracted from The Sound of Music or Little
House in the Prairie. But this rather strange and hybrid impression
does not go further thanks to an elliptical editing that gives the movie
its particular rhythm. As the plot is divided in three parts (the childhood,
the battles and the trial), the music just follows Joan's evolution (fortunately,
the disc tracks are chronologically presented). The light and angel-like
sound of the oboe quickly turns into brass, just like Joan's wood stick
becomes a sword, and the poor dress a shining armour. The rustic innocence
tends to reach nobility and splendor through the sound and fury of arms.
Joan hears voices and gets supernatural anguish (so does the spectator).
Luc Besson transcends the usual imagery of the myth (here, Joan DOES NOT
grotesquely stare at the skies, asking "Yes God?" in a soft-spoken
obsequious voice, as if waiting for Obi Wan's orders!) to a cinematic epiphany
where sounds become moving pictures. So, the composer has to develop the
alternate way. Thanks to his synthetizers and samples intelligently lost
in the symphonic crowd, the score concurrently emphasizes the spasms of
Joan lost in the soldiers crowd.
All the battles echo with the orchestral power of the brass sections
that cover that innocence in the uproar. But as soon as Joan is abandoned
by her companions, by her King and by God himself, the oboe comes back
with her redemption, and the whole orchestra and choirs explode in a finale
too much inspired by Carl Orff's Carmina Buranna...
But it is not enough to spoil your pleasure. The movie is not perfect
but it is good, fun and much more complex that we could expect from that
kind of blockbuster. Luc Besson does not only show his style, but his style
does mean. Inspiring every shot, inspired in each second, Milla Jovovich
has found her role: she fiercely runs, cries, fights, and screams. Fierce
creature -- Heavenly creature -- The former top model and the preceding
Fifth Element is no longer that hyped icon: she is definitely the
Messenger. And despite some easy options but thanks to subtle orchestrations
by Geoffrey Alexander, Eric Serra develops and improves his style, though
losing maybe a bit of fun and mood. The music can't really find its way
without accompanying Joan's visions. But just go and see the movie and
it will accompany memories...
Article courtesy of www.traxzone.com
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