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Fateless: (Ennio Morricone) Based on the 1975
autobiographical novel by Imre Kertesz, and adapted to the screen by the
Nobel Prize-winner himself,
Fateless is an impressionistic
telling of one teenage boy's experiences in Hitler's death camps, and
his equally alienating experiences after liberation. It is the
directorial debut for cinematographer Lajos Koltai, who applies his keen
sense of disturbing beauty into a film that for the most part avoids the
representations of evil common to movie perceptions about the Final
Solution, instead treating the villains of the story as bystanders to
the boy's internal turmoil. Although uplifting in the fact that the boy
obviously survives several camps,
Fateless is still a largely
somber and horrific portrayal of a kid whose soul has been stolen and
turns away several opportunities at emotional redemption. Kertesz was
ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with veteran composer Ennio
Morricone, whose career in Italy since receding from the American
spotlight has hardly missed a beat. It has been five years since
Morricone's scores for
Mission to Mars and
Malena earned
him popular and awards recognition in America, but the composer, now 76
years old, continues to churn out at least half a dozen scores per year.
Writing for films spread across European nations, Morricone's total
score count now hovers somewhere near 500, and with six projects slated
for completion with his music in 2006, he shows no signs of slowing
down. Despite having composed darker chapters for such horrors on screen
before, Morricone handles
Fateless in a manner that is more
consistent with his upbeat positive drama and romance efforts, choosing
to provide a counterpoint to the primary character's seemingly lost and
uncaring soul. The tactic not only pulls the film out of the depths of
irreparable despair, but also translates into one of Morricone's many
uplifting, quietly beautiful works.
In its free-flowing structure of extended rhythms and
slow thematic development,
Fateless is as representative of
Morricone's own deliberate styles as it is reminiscent of John Barry's
easily attainable sense of scope. The performances (appropriately) by
the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and Choir are restrained in the statements
of outward beauty that many have come to expect from Morricone,
sacrificing power for a surprisingly even and effective delivery at
respectfully humbled levels. As such, several notable solo performances
are allowed to shadow the main character's withdrawn emotional state,
and in most cases, these performances float the score. A very subdued
series of performances by pan flute, including the opening main theme
statement, offer a hallowing solitude that only the instrument's most
restrained state can provide. The "Return to Life" theme opens with a
duet between organ and oboe and slowly evolves into a remarkable tribute
to survival for string and choir. The theme is then carried by wordless
vocals by Lisa Gerrard over counterpoint by choir. While many Morricone
collectors will recall the composer's fruitful collaboration with
vocalist Edda dell'Orso (and many have wondered why the composer has
seemingly lost interest in the use of such vocals lately in his career),
there's no reason to fret Gerrard's performances here. Bucking her
nearly new-age reputation since
Gladiator, Gerrard is given
material by Morricone that requires a far more classical, operatic
approach. Her handful of performances in
Fateless represent the
best the score has to offer, and stand as a worthy counterpart to any
other Holocaust remembrance music. Also at work in
Fateless is a
dulcimer, which excels mostly as an accent to the ensemble, and the
timpani, which, combined with the dulcimer and brass, offer the few
moments of terror in drawn out agony, such as "The Field." Overall,
Morricone continues to impress, and
Fateless, despite its lack of
outwardly emotional expression, is a slowly enveloping listening
experience not to be missed by his collectors.
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The insert includes a note from director Lajos Koltai about the score and film.
