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 Posted:   Sep 28, 2024 - 6:30 AM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)

Revisiting the dense and fascinating 1994 film on the Criterion Channel, I was also able to enjoy the BluRay commentary. Director and composer reviewed the entire film together. (Has there ever been anything comparable?) Their focus was largely, though not exclusively, on the scoring process. It came out of a long and harmonious collaboration that was already mature by the time of this, Egoyan's breakout film success. Fascinating stuff! Of particular interest was the creation of a low-frequency rhythm track for on-set use to coordinate the club dancers. It was dialed out when replaced by Danna's actual score. "Needle drops" for source and background score were Egoyan's choice. Danna went to India to develop ethnic instrumentation, spending most of the tiny music budget on his airfare.

The independent film was made just as Egoyan wanted, without endless executive meddling and preview-induced revisions. That's something that both men regretted cannot happen today in an industry so fearful for its multimillion-dollar investment. Both men voiced considerable dismay over the now universal practice of temp tracking. The problem is not just the pressure to conform. If the picture has actually been edited to the rhythm of the temp track, there is no way for the actual composer to sense the latent form of the footage and give it his own connective tissue. Hence, the depressing conventional similarity of so much contemporary scoring.

A separate feature is a 2022 conversation between Egoyan and Sarah Polley, who plays a small but important role in the film. Though she was only fourteen at the time of filming, this was her first experience with adult subject matter and marked the beginning of her interest in an acting career -- something she had found unsatisfying during her child star period. Director and actress had much to tell each other from the vantage point of nearly thirty years.

 
 Posted:   Sep 28, 2024 - 7:43 AM   
 By:   First Breath   (Member)

I used to have the CD.

 
 Posted:   Sep 28, 2024 - 10:02 AM   
 By:   Adm Naismith   (Member)

Love this score and album- I accepted this CD as payment for some sound engineering work I did early on.

 
 Posted:   Sep 28, 2024 - 3:49 PM   
 By:   nuts_score   (Member)

This is a score album that has stayed with me for so long. The Criterion Collection Blu Ray release of the film is just excellent. Bruce Greenwood gives one of the most overlooked performances of 1990s film in this one.

 
 
 Posted:   Sep 29, 2024 - 6:48 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

One of my favourite films, period. I saw it for the first time in 2002, and did this Cinema Club entry at the time:

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=10386&forumID=1&archive=1

I only have the old DVD, not the Blu-ray, but would have loved to hear that conversation between Egoyan and Danna. They're one of my favourite director-composer relationships, and I have everything they've done that's been released.

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 2, 2024 - 7:26 AM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)

Good comments in the other thread. You would certainly enjoy Danna's commentary. In this country Criterion periodically makes the features of its BluRay editions available on its subscription streaming channel. I suppose the channel is not accessible overseas?

Much as I appreciated Danna's and Egoyan's thoughtful approach to the scoring, it never occurred to me that the music would stand on its own. (Indian, rather than Arabic, instrumentation, by the way.) Well, now there's streaming. Spotify giveth and Spotify taketh away. Now we can audition an album before purchasing. Wonderful. But there's minimal documentation (fatal for choral music or opera), and even the track titles are buried out of sight. The music is subtly evocative and entirely appropriate for the film. Out of context an at an exploded volume level, it didn't do much for me on first listening. Is the first album, track even in the film?

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 3, 2024 - 1:44 PM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Much as I appreciated Danna's and Egoyan's thoughtful approach to the scoring, it never occurred to me that the music would stand on its own. (Indian, rather than Arabic, instrumentation, by the way.)

Indeed. Don't know where I got Arabic from. I blame it on my 24-year-old self.

 
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