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Sideways: (Rolfe Kent) Serving as 2004's arthouse
surprise, Fox Searchlight's
Sideways has been picking up critical
and, to a slightly lesser degree, popular momentum as it launches itself
into the attention often given to such films during awards time. Directed by
Alexander Payne of
About Schmidt and
Election fame,
Sideways renews a collaboration with screenwriter Jim Taylor (who not
only worked with Payne on
About Schmidt and
Election, but was
strikingly out of his league with Payne on writing
Jurassic Park
III). Payne and Taylor seem to love taking jabs at American culture,
whether satirically or affectionately. Based on Rex Pickett's novel,
Sideways does the latter, following two middle-aged men on their
comical, narcissistic mid-life-crisis journey through the Northern
California wine country. One man a failed, divorced novelist and the other a
has-been television actor about to get married, the two spend most of the
film using discussions about wine as metaphors for real-life emotional
issues. The comedy of the story not only extends from the funny twists on
viniculture and the fine twists of metaphor throughout, but
Sideways
also features snippets of outrageous sexual material. Those flagrant
depictions of fornication and full-frontal nudity, along with a certain
amount of womanizing that occurs to the two lovely leading ladies in the
film, offer the foundation for Christian religious organizations and other
squeemish types to take aim at the film with protest. The vulgarity
throughout the picture is strangely soothed by Rolfe Kent's continuously
upbeat and light-hearted jazz score. Payne claims that he has been
influenced in the past by Italian composers more than any others, and it's
fitting for the wine-related subject of
Sideways that an Italian
genre approach be taken with the music this time in particular.
Rolke Kent is the regular collaborator for Payne, and
Kent's career there and beyond has been most widely publicized for its
modern and lightly orchestral comedy tones. Whereas Payne has asked for
lessons by Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone to be followed by Kent in previous
works, the
Sideways score is influenced by Piero Umiliani, reaching
into the nearly forgotten realm of 1950's and 60's Italian comedies and
1970's lounge jazz in America. If you're familiar with that genre of music,
then you'll immediately be able to hear that stereotypical sound in your
head. A small ensemble consisting of piano, saxes, trumpet, flutes, vibes,
bass, and drums/percussion constitute the entirety of this score, with no
orchestral backing necessary. What Payne was seemingly looking for is a
score that expresses both the comedy and drama of the characters'
personalities without ever becoming sentimental about those characters, and,
except for the cues of more solemn piano solos, Kent achieves that task. To
say that the score is melodic from start to finish would be correct, but
don't expect to be humming any particular theme after the film or album is
over. Despite a series of primary and secondary themes and motifs
established by Kent, it is the instrumentation and rhythm that really sticks
in the listener's mind. With almost no cue changes whatsoever in the middle
of each track recording, the album plays like a very consistent 60's-70's
retro jazz collection. When the piano, sax, bass, drums, and other
percussion perform alone, the sound is perhaps more easy to grasp for modern
sensibilities; the vibes and flutes, on other hand, firmly place this score
in the proper age group. Whether this score jives with your sense of
grooviness or not, its rhythms will sustain you from beginning to end. You
may be pulling your hair out by then, if not because of the constant,
faithful rhythms then maybe because of the irrepressible charm throughout.
It's a buyer beware venture, but as a background listen on a sunny morning,
it's a refreshing change from the usual film scores of today. The rather
short album appears in identical form on the Silva Screen label in Europe
and New Line Records label in America.
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The insert includes a note about the score and Rolfe Kent by the director.
