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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Man from Elysian Fields: (Anthony Marinelli) A film of redemption and the struggle for soul, The Man from Elysian Fields is a story rich with character style and substance. Director George Hickenloopers' richly performed and intimate film features the choices of a failed fiction writer who works a deal with the devil to help support his miserable life. He sells his soul to the devil, who, in this case, is none other than Mick Jagger, and it launches the writer into the world of high class male escort services. As fate would have it, though, his first client is the wife of an aging Pulitzer Prize-winning author who is the younger writer's hero. The triangle of relationships ensues, and the music of composer Anthony Marinelli assists in the intimacy of the story. Marinelli is a veteran of over 30 film scores, mostly for television, and runs a handful of recording studios from which he works. His career has garnered him several smaller-scale awards for scoring achievements, but his status as a performer and keyboardist on many well-known scores hasn't yet translated into his own compositional success for a mainstream Hollywood film as of yet (his best known works are for 15 Minutes in 2001 and Young Guns all the way back in 1988). His music for The Man from Elysian Fields would result in considerable attention for the composer. The score for The Man from Elysian Fields is necessarily understated for a film of this depth of character. It is a very warm score in heart and performance, with a small orchestral ensemble accompanied by several important soloists who add needed accents to the underscore. Despite the anticipated scariness of the topic of selling one's soul to the devil, the story doesn't take that path. Instead, it's a more inner-spiritual journey for the primary characters, leading to a subdued, but surprisingly poignant score. The foundation of the score is built upon the acoustic guitar, with the piano and orchestral strings sometimes taking the theme from those guitars. A slight tilt of passive jazz offers a glimpse into the world of high class escort services. The jazz is accompanied by a solo trumpet in parts, furthering the lofty and potentially seedy situations in which the younger writer finds himself. The majority of the score is typified by the first track on the album (which is probably why the more voluminous main titles are presented at the album's end). The theme is drawn out in a sense of agony --but is elegant nonetheless, with its final chord change indicating a sense of fullfillment and growth. The theme, and its chord progressions, have an almost European (and more specifically, a Mediterranean) feel to it, with similarities to the works of Luis Bacalov and Nicola Piovani. Instead of focusing on the development of that theme, however, Marinelli uses varying levels of solo artists to indicate which emotions are prevalent at which moments. The most interesting of these is the wavering, ghost-like female voice that is mixed into several cues. Perhaps representing the spirit and soul of the older writer's wife, the wordless vocals are as elegant as they are simple, and border on the edge of Middle-Eastern style. A sax and even a sitar are occasionally mixed in for an even more fantasy-like effect, seemingly placing the writer into the context of one of his own novels. But no matter what accent Marinelli uses to accompany the guitars, piano, and strings, the score features a slowly paced, internalized coherence that makes it a successful journey to accompany the film. There are no sharp cue changes, no serious deviations from the normal level of volume of the performances, and those performances are all crisp. There are no solo credits featured on the packaging of the album, but these artists need to take the credit for taking Marinelli's otherwise lifeless work and bringing to life in such a way that it both intrigues and soothes the listener at once. The album offers 35 minutes of pleasant harmony on a small, intimate scale, and is an easy listening experience. If the score has a weakness, it would its inability to expand beyond the suppression it exhibits throughout its contents, and even, perhaps, provide a bit more mirroring of the toil that exists in the mind of the young writer. A small sampling of this is heard in the "Byron Destroys" cue, but leaves the listener waiting for more. It is almost a two-dimensional score, but a compelling one at that. ***
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