Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are an established collector of Merchant Ivory films or Richard Robbins' predictable period music for them. Avoid it... if you expect any particularly new avenue of style to be heard in this generally stale Robbins equation. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Golden Bowl: (Richard Robbins) To say that Merchant Ivory Productions of the 1990's appealed to a certain, narrow audience devoted to dramatic period films is not too controversial of a generalization. With dozens of adaptations of classic novels of that genre under their belts, the Merchant Ivory team continued in the 2000's 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 greatest successes), they 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 arguably stuffy characters. For some, these films become a wash, exhibiting the same kind of thematic character wrestling that binds them all together by common flaws on a fundamental level. The equation is much the same for The Golden Bowl, the team's third adaptation of a Henry James novel. To nobody's surprise, its plot involves two sets of characters (in England of the early 1900's) 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. Seeing Uma Thurman star in such a production, though, was something of a novelty. To be expected, Richard Robbins returned to score yet another chapter in the Merchant Ivory saga. Robbins' music for these films goes largely unnoticed; the assignments for such productions are split between himself and Richard Bennett, and some will argue that the latter actually writes more listenable music for them. Robbins 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. Without a doubt, The Golden Bowl is tethered strongly to the advantages and disadvantages of its brethren. Most film score collectors, when bored and in search of the next album to pull off the shelves, will skip past Robbins' scores for several reasons, all of which apply to this predictable entry as well. Since the Merchant Ivory tales tend to involve an insufferable amount of dialogue, the music is meant to simply provide a proper atmosphere to coincide with the costumes and art direction. The style of music you hear in these productions is often an imitation of what the characters would have heard in chamber orchestras of the era. Robbins is quick to point out the importance of this circumstance, though his adaptations of that sound often exist without much amplification or thematic development. Additionally, Robbins' scores all begin to sound alike after a while, and once again The Golden Bowl adheres to this rule. From a technical standpoint, there's nothing wrong with a continuation of style; it's like hearing Alex North readapting parts of Spartacus into Cleopatra. When you have so many films of similar time period and character traits, there's no need to vary the music much. As such, a work like The Golden Bowl is sufficient at every level for its film, but it borders on being insufferably boring for much of its length. For this entry, Robbins employed a medium-sized orchestra and manages to spread the generally harmonic performances of meandering motifs between all its sections. The lack of clearly delineated themes is compensated for by repetitious rhythms of strings and an overarching sense of melodramatic weight. Some of the tracks (almost half, in fact) involve very simplistic, repetitious statements of the strings, easily dismissible as meandering and drab atmospheric maintenance (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 in "Opening Credits" and "The Golden Slave." The end titles are scored with a Scott Joplin style of piano tune that coincides with the time, and this is the surprising highlight of the work. On the whole, however, The Golden Bowl is a stereotypical Robbins score for a Merchant Ivory film that undoubtedly succeeds in furthering the torment of the characters' relationships and their surroundings. The Milan album contains a long hour of neatly packaged music from the film, but unfortunately it's not the kind of material that most film score collectors will be able to digest. Only established fans of Merchant Ivory films or Robbins' career should approach it with confidence. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 56:11
All artwork and sound clips from The Golden Bowl are Copyright © 2001, Milan Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/15/01, updated 2/7/09. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2001-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
