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Composed, Conducted, Orchestrated, and Produced by:
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Carter Burwell
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Release Date:
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August 20th, 2002
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Burwell | |
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Simone: (Carter Burwell) Touted as one of the year's potential hits on
the big screen, Simone is the creative tale of Hollywood's first
computer-generated actress whose digital genetics are unknown to the public and
industry at large. The director, played by Al Pacino, has to contend with this
fraud when the actress turns out to be a big hit as a last minute replacement in
one of this films. Along with the fear of discovery, the director has to deal
with his own sense of reality involving the digital actress. The real director
of Simone is Andrew Niccol, whose Gattaca ran along similar themes
of futuristic identity. The writer's credits also includes The Truman
Show, leading the way for Simone to be yet another self-analyzing
satire of Hollywood. Composer Carter Burwell, whose technique at composing for a
dry sense of humor (especially with so much experience with the Coen Brothers'
films) is well documented, provides a similarly snazzy little score for a more
futuristic tone. The film, unfortunately, did not reach any of its expectations,
and it disappeared off the radar screens during a rather slow late summer 2002
season for films.
The movie, while having its tense and frustrating --if not heartbreaking--
moments, required a lighter, somewhat comical score. Burwell's product is, at
the very least, a pleasurable and consistent score. He's taken some of the same
light-hearted Americana spirit from his more country oriented works, such as
The Rookie (which is maintaining a popular following in 2002), and
twisted it into a postmodern, urban score with several electronic elements and a
partially stocked orchestra (of less than 40). The key, however, to the success
of Burwell's score is that he avoids the less accessible postmodern style that
Nyman used for Gattaca and instead utilizes a necessary and consistent
rhythm of minimal funk in order to keep this film in its satirical mode. There
is no readily impressive theme, but Burwell represents the digital persona, as
well as the general attitude of Hollywood, with appropriate pizzazz and funk.
The Hollywood setting is well represented by the frantic electric rhtyhm of
guitars and keyboards heard at the very beginning of the album and film, as the
real actress in Pacino's film quits. The rest of the score is sustained by a
slight futuristic atmosphere created with keyboards and synthesizer sampling.
Even as Burwell maintains the futuristic curve in the music, he manages to
insert a few classic moments of old Hollywood glamour --to an almost comical
degree of over-dramatism in parts-- and this plays to the all-important finale
cue of the film and album.
The highlights of the score are the outbursts of clunky, yet awkwardly
attractive musical moments for the artifical Simone. As her false fame takes
flight, the Simone score features more of her choppy, but rhythmically
flowing electric guitar and keyboarding motifs, complete with the nearly
constant tinkling of light percussion. The more sensitive one-on-one moments
between the director and his digital actress are poignantly performed by a
single piano and occasional woodwind instruments. That sensitivity grows until
its height in the "Virtually Forever" cue and bursts into a duet between the
small orchestra and an electronic chorus. Unfortunately, that climactic cue also
suffers from the album's only instance of sound distortion (perhaps it was mixed
at too high a volume at some point in the post-processing for the album). The
small size of the orchestra, while keeping the music restrained when Simone's
theme isn't prevailing with the quitars and keyboards, keeps this score from
flourishing in the glamour of Hollywood that the film could have used. The
electronic samplings during the more introverted parts of the film --represented
mostly in "Slendid Decay" cue on the album-- can occasionally become tiresome in
their unharmonious state, but their duration is typically minimal. Overall,
Simone is a small-time and mostly low key effort. For fans of Burwell,
there may be just enough quirkiness to sustain repeat listens on album. For the
general masses, this one (even though its functionality is never doubted) will
be a tad too unexciting and/or uninteresting for that amount of enjoyment. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Nicola Walks (1:35)
• 2. The Perfect Marriage (1:32)
• 3. Sorry (2:08)
• 4. Not Him (0:52)
• 5. Welcome to Simone (3:30)
• 6. Dark (Very) (1:08)
• 7. Captive (0:50)
• 8. Hollywood Love (2:14)
• 9. Enomis (1:41)
• 10. Presidential Suite (0:49)
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• 11. No One to Kill (0:49)
• 12. Splendid Decay (5:00)
• 13. $$ (2:03)
• 14. No Thanks (0:40)
• 15. Off the Records (2:04)
• 16. Virtually Forever (3:30)
• 17. Surprise Visit (1:04)
• 18. I am Simone (2:22)
• 19. Killing Simone (6:22)
• 20. Simone Two (0:44)
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Insert includes no extra information
about the film, but does contain a list of the partial orchestra employed for
the project.
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