The Golden Bowl: (Richard Robbins) To say that Merchant Ivory
Productions appeal to a certain, narrow audience of devoted and dramatic
period films is not too far of a leap. With dozens of adaptations of
classic dramatic novels under their belts, the Merchant Ivory team continues to
produce films of character development that take place in the 1800's or early
1900's. While these films always appeal to the arthouse crowds, and sometimes
even garner Academy recognition in their successes, the films are never
blockbuster hits. After all, nearly all of the Merchant Ivory films involve a
considerable amount of lengthy toiling between the talking heads of several
characters. For some, these films become a wash, exhibiting the same kind of
thematic character wrestling that binds all the films together on a fundamental
level. The Golden Bowl is the team's third adaptation of a Henry James
novel, and to no surprise, involves two sets of characters in the early 1900's
England involved in various love affairs, betrayals, and the problems inherent
in the relations between the rich and the poor (of course, the relationship
between rich and poor, or the rich and their servants, is nothing new). To be
expected, Richard Robbins returns to score yet another chapter in the Merchant
Ivory saga.
Robbins' music for these films goes largely unnoticed; the scores for these
productions are split between himself and Richard Bennett, and some will argue
that the latter actually writes more listenable music for Merchant Ivory films.
Robbins has had his fair share of success with the genre, winning respect and
praise for the glory days, shall we say, of the Merchant Ivory series in the
early 1990's. Howard's End and The Remains of the Day both
received Oscar nominations for Robbins, but since then, his music's popularity
has tapered off to an extent. One of the probable reasons for this occurance is
likely related to why I find it difficult to listen to Robbins' music aside from
the film. If you stand in front of your CD collection wondering what to listen
to next, Robbins doesn't exactly jump out at you... and this is due to several
reasons. First, since the Merchant Ivory tales tend to involve an insufferable
amount of dialogue, the music is meant to simply provide an accent for the
atmosphere otherwise created by the costumes and art direction. Therefore, the
music holds very true to the kind that the characters would have heard at the
time (as Robbins is quick to point out), and yet does so without much
amplification or thematic development. Second, the Robbins scores all begin to
sound alike after a while. From a technical standpoint, there's nothing wrong
with this --it's like Alex North readapting parts of Sparticus into
Cleopatra. When you have so many films of similar time period and
characters, there's no need to vary the music much. Some would go so far as to
say, "once you've heard one Robbins/Merchant Ivory score, you've heard them
all," and, to an extent, that is true.
As for the contents of the The Golden Bowl score itself, Robbins employed
a medium-sized orchestra and manages to spread the performances between all its
sections. Lack of themes is compensated for by repetitious rhythms of strings
and drums. Some of the tracks (half, I'd say) involve very simplistic,
repetitious statements of strings, and can easily be dismissed (if you think
John Barry can be repetitious at times, then Robbins could drive you mad). The
more interesting aspects of the score are the brassy statements of robust
movement of scene, such as tracks one and twelve. The end titles are scored with
a Scott Joplin form of piano tune that coincides with the time, and this turns
out to be the highlight of the score. On the whole, however, The Golden
Bowl is a stereotypical Robbins score for a Merchant Ivory film. In the
film, which will finally open in the whole of America's theatres in May, 2001,
the score undoubtedly succeeds in furthuring the torment of the characters'
relationships and their surroundings. The Milan album contains about an hour of
neatly packaged music from the film, but unfortunately, it's not the kind I
would recommend to all film score fans. You fans of Merchant Ivory films out
there know who you are, and unless you've gotten prior enjoyment out of those
films and their music, I would be weary of this newest Robbins score. **
• 1. Opening Credits (3:23)
• 2. Charlotte and the Prince (3:27)
• 3. Verver's London Home/A Fresh Start (1:45)
• 4. Green Park/The Golden Bowl/Fauns (3:20)
• 5. Charlotte and Verver/Photograph of Maggie (2:34)
• 6. Charlotte and Verver in Italy (1:22)
• 7. Lancaster House/Lady Gwendolyn's Galop (4:02)
• 8. Photographs/After the Costume Ball (2:38)
• 9. The Sofa Waltz/The Kiss/Candles on the Staircase (2:50)
• 10. The Inn (2:45)
• 11. Madame Tussaud/The Steam Museum (2:33)
• 12. The Golden Slave (4:34)
• 13. The Lecture/Maggie Finds the Bowl (4:01)
• 14. American City (1:12)
• 15. Verver in Despair (1:36)
• 16. The Broken Bowl (3:52)
• 17. The Letter/The Execution/Henry VIII (3:00)
• 18. To American City (3:12)
• 19. End Credits (3:54)
Notes and Quotes:
The insert includes a note from Robbins about the score and film.
