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I'll have another listen to those cues, thanks!
I think part of it is that these are little motifs of a couple of notes, repeated a couple of times at most, where the style I most love from Doyle is big, sweeping, melodic themes, stated repeatedly and morphing throughout the film as the situation demands. "Hummable" themes, I guess is the best way to put it.
I could hum any of the melodies from the scores I posted, but I couldn't really hum anything from Nile. Indeed, I'm not sure I could really hum the Daisy Armstrong theme from MotOE either, it's a fairly subtle theme that doesn't have a clear, arresting melody.
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I'll have another listen to those cues, thanks!
I think part of it is that these are little motifs of a couple of notes, repeated a couple of times at most, where the style I most love from Doyle is big, sweeping, melodic themes, stated repeatedly and morphing throughout the film as the situation demands. "Hummable" themes, I guess is the best way to put it.
I could hum any of the melodies from the scores I posted, but I couldn't really hum anything from Nile. Indeed, I'm not sure I could really hum the Daisy Armstrong theme from MotOE either, it's a fairly subtle theme that doesn't have a clear, arresting melody.
I think that’s right. It might be more accurate for me to say that the mood and feel of those chord changes get stuck on my head and all the little tweaks and nuances Doyle does with it throughout the album doesn’t lend itself to as easily hummable. But it’s there. I believe the first track we hear the theme is halfway through the second track What About This?
Ans you’re right, these motifs are definitely more on the subtle side. Also, from like track 17 to 22, it’s definitely more on the boring side, even for me.
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I enjoyed the Doyle Orient Express more on repeated listenings, but though I don't like any of his scores as much as Bennett's Orient or Rota's Nile (two all-time faves), I wish the 1990s Doyle of Dead Again and Frankenstein could have scored these films.
I'm reading Death on the Nile for the first time since the late 70s and mentally comparing the adaptations (the 70s version is an all-time favorite movie, and the Amsel poster hangs mere feet away from me). Fascinating the way the scripts adapt the book - some suspects are dropped completely from both versions, while Tom Bateman's Bouc (the other carryover from Branagh's Orient) combines plot and character elements from several characters in the book (while fulfilling roughly the same role as the book's Colonel Rice, played by David Niven in the 78 version).
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Hey James! All good. I think all of your points are totally valid. I’m not sure there are major melodies to point to, which is to your point. There are a few small motifs/themes that recur in various forms that get stuck in my head that are all around the same harmonic minor scale chord changes. I really like the harmonic minor scale for its mysterious, exotic, beautiful tone and atmosphere. They occur in but are not limited to the songs The Pyramids, Immortal Longings, Abu Simbel, Inheritance, Perhaps, and Death on the Nile.
I also really like the songs Bourgeois Nightmare, and The Cost of Love.
The song Newly Weds replaces the same minor chord change of the movie with its major chord sibling dramatically changing the feeling of the motif itself. Which I think is great considering the nature of “love” in this movie being misleading.
Hope that’s helpful for you. Sorry if it’s not!!!
Thanks for sharing other great Patrick Doyle stuff. I need to get more into him as I regrettably don’t have too many of his soundtracks.
I'm giving it one more listen now. 
I see the motif you meant in the Pyramids track, it didn't really stand out to me last time because it's just a sort of standard "exotic" motif for Egypt. The one thing I did notice about this seven-note motif the first time I listened to it is that the first five notes are identical to a motif Graeme Revell used in his brilliant score for The Saint, among loads of other richer melodic elements there. I'm sure it's just a coincidence it appears here, there are only so many notes that can be combined in so many ways.
The other tracks have moody little motifs that come and go. I'm not sure that I'd call any of the motifs in the film melodies or themes, in the way I think most people are familiar with them.
The music has a rich, lush, beautiful sound, but I find it tough to remember, even as I'm listening to it.
It's difficult, because I'm sure this is exactly the kind of music Doyle was required to write by Foxney - lots of deep bass, lots of moody tones, lots of low, trilling strings. It's a world away from the emotional, melodic sound of something like All Is True, written only a couple of years ago. I'm thrilled for Doyle that he gets work on these big studio films, and they have a very clear musical mandate, it seems.
I have to confess, a second listen to the album didn't change my opinion of it as bland and wallpapery, but I'm happy for anyone who enjoys it.
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I was disappointed at first, also because I loved MOTOE so much.
But after listening to this one again, I began to appreciate and even love it, too.
It is different and more of a slow burner. But Doyle really delivered a great score here.
Give it a second chance, if you expected another Orient Express.
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Agreed.
#2 best score of the year, after The Batman
Really engaging, nice dramatic and suspense writing (this come from someone who really likes Murder on the Orient Express), after watching the movie, grows more.
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Um… maybe a third time?
Nah, I respect your opinion, of course. This is all about enjoyment.
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Posted: |
Mar 8, 2022 - 3:32 AM
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By: |
jsmiley108
(Member)
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The review below (from ABC Arts, by Luke Goodsell) pretty much sums up my feelings for the film (albeit the added death created a bit more tension for those who knew the story well). I did enjoy the film and as I had really disliked the over-the-top action elements in MOTOE, this seemed to be an improvement. However, I was not really convinced by a lot of the cast, particularly Gadot, Hammer and Bateman. The review doesn't touch on Doyle's score but to me the balance between source and underscore favoured the source just a bit too much. I love some of Doyle's earlier work and this one was servicable if somewhat bland/unwieldy.
"If you ever wanted to see an origin story about a moustache, well, you're in luck. In Kenneth Branagh's new Agatha Christie thriller Death on the Nile, the actor-director's super sleuth Hercule Poirot gets a portentous prologue to explain those fantastic follicles, because nothing – not even facial hair – escapes the modern screenwriting curse of the elaborate backstory. So much for mystery!
In truth, you can almost forgive the film for its hirsute obsession. Branagh's bombastic bristles – a multi-storied imperial 'stache that looks like a giant tarantula escaping his nostrils – were the most memorable part of 2017's largely flavourless Murder on the Orient Express, and they once again prove to have more screen charisma than most of the actors in this dreary, DOA sequel.
Originally slated for release back in 2019, Death on the Nile's endless, COVID-related delays meant Branagh had time to go off and make the Oscar-nominated Belfast, and he'll be relieved that it's the latter that's taking up the column inches. After spending five minutes in his vacuum-sealed Egypt, audiences may well yearn for the relative comforts of strife-torn Northern Ireland.
The film's bad luck was exacerbated, of course, by the gruesome allegations levelled against its star Armie Hammer, whose presence was largely obscured in the film's trailers. But unlike Murder on the Orient Express's then-scandalised headliner Johnny Depp, who was polite enough to expire in the first reel, Hammer is very much front and centre in the sequel.
As dashing chancer Simon Doyle, Hammer makes a swarthy, sexually charged entrance, slow-grinding co-star Gal Gadot's wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway in a swinging London nightclub in 1937 – much to the chagrin of his soon-to-be-ex, and Linnet's friend, the sultry socialite Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey).
In no time the swooning new couple are holding a lavish wedding at a hotel on the Nile, a ceremony attended by the usual gallery of Christie eccentrics and aristocrats – including a seemingly vacationing Poirot, his confidant Bouc (a returning Tom Bateman), and the latter's wealthy, coddling mother Euphemia (a shamefully underused Annette Bening).
Like its predecessor, Death on the Nile is shot by Belfast cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos on 65mm large-format film, yet aside from the occasionally sparkling panorama the scenery may as well be Apple TV screensavers; the Egyptian locales look so patently fake that you'd swear the visual effects team were playing a practical joke on the production.
Throw in Gadot's already notorious, deliciously camp line reading – "Enough champagne… to fill the Nile!" – and the film has all the presence and appeal of a luxury cruise commercial.
Working from a script by Murder on the Orient Express and Jungle Cruise writer Michael Green, Branagh spends an interminable hour getting to know the wedding guests and their supposed intrigues, as the party sets off on a sightseeing cruise aboard a luxury steamboat wending its way down the Nile.
Despite the collective talents of the cast, each of the guests are typically reduced to two dimensions: among them the bride's rich, wannabe-communist godmother (Jennifer Saunders) and her live-in companion (Dawn French, reuniting with her old comedy pal); the bride's ex (Russell Brand); her cousin (Indian star Ali Fazal); and a travelling blues singer (Sophie Okonedo) and her niece (Black Panther's Letitia Wright), both of whom seem to exist primarily as romantic interests for Poirot and Bouc.
As the party-crashing jilted ex Jacqueline, Mackey gets to savour a few tasty morsels; but the film's most lively performance comes from a computer-generated crocodile snapping away at the edges of the frame.
Death on the Nile does gather some steam once one of the guests finally meets their end, and Poirot's hunt for the murderer steers the film into its classic whodunnit template.
Might the killer be a spurned lover of the deceased? Someone with a vested financial interest? One of the crocodiles, bored with gobbling up riverside pelicans for sport? (One can dream.)
Even if you're not familiar with Christie's mega-seller, which was famously adapted as an all-star 1978 film, it's a struggle to invest in a mystery where the characters are so flat, and so many of its actors appear to be going through the motions.
Death on the Nile won't be done any favours by the inevitable comparisons to Rian Johnson's hit Knives Out, a film that reinvigorated old detective mystery tropes via some knowing twists and loopy performances. Next to Daniel Craig's eccentric, Christie-inspired Benoit Blanc, Branagh's Belgian and his fruity affectations look pretty tame.
The star's lightness of touch was a welcome ripple in Murder on the Orient Express, but that twinkle has given way to a ponderous, unnecessary emotional backstory in the sequel. Where Murder at least had some fun gesturing at Poirot's penchant for precision in an imperfect universe, his character here is undermined by a contrived romance that – like so much else in this creaky, plasticky film – never quite comes to life.
Still, you have to admit that moustache is spectacular."
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