CD Reviews: The Others and Exorcist II
The Others ****
ALEJANDRO AMENABAR
Sony Classical SK 89705
15 tracks - 41:10
For nearly a decade, summer has been an annual bitching period for film
music fans, wherein we all complain about the lack of quality in blockbuster
scores. However, this year has seen a surprising number of good, possibly
great big-name offerings: A.I., The Score, Final Fantasy,
Planet of the Apes... even the extremely commercial The Mummy
Returns makes for fun repeated listening. And to top it off, director
Alejandro Amenabar, while not yet a big-name, has composed a gripping score
for his haunted house movie, The Others.
I haven't heard Amenabar's European scores, but his work here shows
a mastery of forces and a lot of imagination. Amenabar's liner notes reveal
that he's a film music fanatic; fortunately for us, The Others'
score proves he's also a fan of "good" film music. As you can tell from
the opening bars of the title cue, "The Others," this score is exquisitely
orchestrated (partially by the composer himself) and harmonically rich.
The main theme flirts with Bartokian mixed modality and brings to mind
what Jerry Goldsmith might have come up with for this ghost story had he
written it 30 years ago.
Critics have harped on the film's lax pacing, and even if they're right,
the fact that the film takes it's time building suspense gives Amenabar
a chance to show off his skill at moving along a boring story with interesting
music. The Others is a refreshing excersize in restraint. A lot
of the score is chamber oriented, which makes the larger panic sequences
seem that much more signifigant. The Stravinsky-esque flute writing is
a staple throughout, lending a necessary classical and dignified aura to
the film and especially to the cut and dry ethics of the Nicole Kidman
character.
As far as I can tell, Sony Classical's album contains the lion's share
of the score's best material. In the movie, the score pushes all the right
buttons and Amenabar knows when to stay the hell out of the way and let
the shocks speak for themselves (as in an early scene where a door closes
itself behind Nicole Kidman and my friend asked "Where's the music?").
The score's bigger moments ("They Are Everywhere") are string-laden and
appropriately disturbing ("Sheets And Chains" in particular features great
stagnant low brass writing). But it's Amenabar's quieter moments that will
stay with you, particularly his elegiac theme for poor, tortured Nicole
Kidman ("Old Times"). To say more about Kidman's predicament would spoil
the movie's shock twist (even if you've seen The Sixth Sense), but
Amenabar is able to sell the ending based solely on the heartfelt strength
of his closing cue ("A Good Mother"). Alejandro Amenabar is someone to
keep an eye on, as a director, and certainly as a composer. Unless his
orchestrators "ghost"-wrote this score for him. Just kidding. "Ghost"-wrote.
Get it? -- AK Benjamin
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) ****
ENNIO MORRICONE
Warner Music France 9362-46992-2
13 tracks - 34:59
While Morricone's followers might lament the lack of major new soundtracks
this year, 2001 is already shaping up to be a bumper year for stocking
up on his back catalogue. Expanded versions of The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly and Cinema Paradiso have already been met fan approval,
and the long overdue remastered CD release to John Boorman's banal Exorcist
sequel should be another winner.
In relative terms, 1977 was a quiet year for Ennio Morricone. He "only"
scored nine projects compared to 14 in 1976, but with that sort of prolific
output you'd still be forgiven for thinking that Exorcist II would
be a victim of quantity over quality. But you'd be wrong, because Il maestro's
soundtrack actually marks the beginning of a shift away from his Euro-pop
extravagances of the early '70s to a more Western sensibility. It also
features one of Morricone's most beautiful compositions, "Regan's Theme,"
a harpsichord-driven lullaby that individually merits the purchase of this
short Warner France release.
Overcoming an obvious handicap (the audience were expecting a reprise
of Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"), Morricone's approach to the project is
at once familiar (the melancholic strings in "Interrupted Melody" and the
choral chants in "Regan's Theme") and then diversifies into atonal carnal
growls and groans in the disturbing "Night Flight." The disco pop frenzy
of "Magic and Ecstasy" is priceless! But perhaps the greatest delight in
listening to this disc is recognizing sequences that would be later developed
in Once Upon a Time in America ("Interrupted Melody") and The
Untouchables.
Part of the criticism at the time of the movie's release was "Why did
they choose a European composer for this US-based/ themed film?" Perhaps
the question should be "Why not?" The movie already boasted an eclectic
mix of a British director and lead actor (Richard Burton), a Swedish priest
and African locales, so Morricone's Italian sensibilities sit comfortably
in the cosmopolitan concoction.
The liner notes by Christopher Conte are useful, if not exhaustive,
and the sleeve folds out into a poster should you have the unlikely desire
to pin your inlay to the wall. But it's not the tinted reproductions of
movie stills or the dubious Franco-English translation that's under scrutiny
-- it's the music. In this instance, you're advised to forget the turkey
that this film was written for, as this is arguably Morricone's best score
to his worst film. And with nearly 400 projects to his name, that's either
faint praise or a glowing compliment. -- Nick Joy
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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