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The Beautician and the Beast
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Orchestrated by:
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Patrick Russ
Pete Anthony
Geoff Alexander
Greg Knowles
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Release Date:
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February 11th, 1997
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release, but out of print by 2000.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Eidelman | |
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The Beautician and the Beast: (Cliff Eidelman) Nearly a complete failure
as a film, one of the few bright aspects about The Beautician and the
Beast is its score by Cliff Eidelman. The film is a romantic fantasy which
revolves around the outlandish premise that a hairdresser in New York could
accidentally be confused as a tutor for the children of a foreign king, and of
course, the unlikely love the spawns in that situation. Any charm that the film
might have hoped to convey is nearly shattered by the comical dialect of Fran
Drescher, whose voice becomes so intolerable by the end of the film that it is
difficult to hear the music behind it. For the score, the filmmakers chose to
mix a few traditional Eastern Block classical/choral pieces with the talents of
Cliff Eidelman, whose career was looking upward at the time. Aside from The
Beautician and the Beast, which gave him the opportunity to go to the U.K.
to record with the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Eidelman would also produce an
impressive score for the third installment of the Free Willy series that
same year. Little would indicate that The Beautician and the Beast would
be the last boisterous score from Eidelman over the next several years.
Eidelman's score had to reflect two separate worlds colliding for this film. The
primary setting of the film would be the fictional, but functional, Eastern
European country of Slovetzia, led by a perpetually angry Timothy Dalton.
Eidelman decided to bypass any New York influence in the score, and concentrate
on forming a score with a foundation built on European waltz rhythms. The
majority of cues on the tracks, whether in robust performance or simple
underscore, have a tint of waltz-like behavior. The consistency of this choice
remains strong throughout the score, with a pompous and almost comedic title
theme of romance fit to a modern waltz. The theme prances along with character
and spirit, much like the main character of Joy in the film. Just as Drescher's
voice can cause an ill mood in the film, the title theme gets old rather
quickly, playing too hard to the romantic comedy side of the emotional scale
while trying to maintain the rhythms of the waltz. The only performance of the
title theme in full which breaks loose with a less constraining rhythm is the
final marraige cue at the end. This makes sense, given the character Joy's
growing influence over the dictator king, and the prevailing romance over
tradition. The other two more memorable cues from the film are actually the two
traditional pieces contained on the album, and not composed by Eidelman; some
confusion might have arisen when fans heard the cues in the film, however,
because Eidelman's original score fits very snugly with those classical
cues.
The highlights of the score for The Beautician and the Beast, although
short in length, are many of the more sensitive cues composed for the underscore
during the second half of the film. As the true occupation of Joy is revealed
and the king tries to decide what to do about their growing affections in spite
of this crisis, Eidelman inserts a few very touching variations of his themes.
They aren't remarkable in the larger scope of film music, but cues such as the
11th and 16th tracks on the album provide some of the sincere emotion that fans
of Eidelman have becomed used to over the years. The album was Eidelman's first
and only (so far) on the Milan label, and it quickly vanished from record stores
as the film failed miserably in theatres. Now reduced to an occasional find on
the secondary market, the The Beautician and the Beast album contains
only 26 minutes of actual original score composed by Eidelman (which is a
typical length for most of his scores on album during the 1990's). Of that 26
minutes, which are divided into cues no longer than 2:20 minutes, roughy five
minutes are remarkable. The rest will be pleasant to the ears of Eidelman fans,
and some might even find it a refreshing change from the often somber tone of
many of Eidelman's scores of the period. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Prelude (1:12)
• 2. Joy Falls on a Cloud (1:18)
• 3. The Castle (1:37)
• 4. Party Preparations (1:40)
• 5. Walking on the Edge (1:28)
• 6. Falling for the President (2:35)
• 7. Pochenko Meets the Peasants (2:07)
• 8. L' Internationale - Traditional (1:45)
• 9. Kleist Blackmails Joy (2:02)
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• 10. His Excellency (0:34)
• 11. Cinderella's Confession (1:51)
• 12. The Chicken (1:09)
• 13. Ballroom Waltz (1:31)
• 14. The J Waltz - Traditional (2:43)
• 15. Boris' Proud Speech (1:10)
• 16. You Are a Beast (2:10)
• 17. Going Away (2:20)
• 18. The Prince and the Princess (1:35)
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The insert includes notes about the film.
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