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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy dense, intelligent rhythms for symphonic mayhem that often include an overactive percussion section. Avoid it... if you were lured by Dario Marianelli's Oscar-nominated Pride & Prejudice and are unprepared for his more ambitious and brutal orchestral capabilities. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
For Italian composer Dario Marianelli, V for Vendetta is yet another entry in his first year of scoring mainstream international films of significant attention. After his highly acclaimed, relentlessly dense score for The Brothers Grimm in early 2005, Marianelli wrote, among several other projects, a classically-inspired score for Pride & Prejudice that garnered him his first Academy Award nomination. Without missing a beat, V for Vendetta extends the orchestral and choral mastery heard in The Brothers Grimm with solid results. The most interesting aspect of The Brothers Grimm a year prior was Marianelli's ability to write music phenomenally active and intelligently layered without allowing it to become a chaotic mess. Like Debbie Wiseman's Arsène Lupin, Marianelli's work fascinated with dense, melodic structures that are refreshing to hear after years of repetitive and often underdeveloped American action music. Every bit as symphonically interesting, V for Vendetta presents a difficult, but rewarding array of brutal writing that impresses once again with its sheer weight. Somewhat missing from V for Vendetta, however, are Marianelli's acute romantic sensibilities, with even the thematic representation for the Evey character (a common victim played by Natalie Portman) languishing in restrained performances of a tonal, but troubled rising progression of underplayed tragedy. The only exception is the lengthy "Valerie" cue, in which a melancholy solo piano follows one of Marianelli's softer rhythmic progressions for strings and choir (and oddly similar in style to Batman Begins). The battle between government and rebel is done justice by Marianelli's militaristic cues, utilizing all of the percussive elements of The Brothers Grimm into outstanding rhythmic blasts of sound usually punctuated by seemingly overdubbed brass (or simply an expanded brass section size or mix). Even the opening of the score, with snare and timpani rips, features a crispness in sound quality that sets an ominous minor-key bass for the faintly heroic major-key brass that whirls in the shadows of Britain's glorious past. Choral mixes in V for Vendetta present the adult voices in appropriate crescendos, though the film doesn't afford Marianelli the ability to haul off with magnificent choral majesty as he has done before. Electronics play a larger role in this score as well, with some of the synthesized rhythms from his previous work accentuated as the rolling action of the film frantically ticks with an appropriate musical reference to explosives. Sparse electric guitars build the futuristic setting in the background. Aside from quiet religious chanting at the outset of "Lust at the Abbey," Marianelli's work here is always disconcerting in tone, balancing on the edge of becoming a horror score, though always maintaining enough elegance in execution to retain its dramatic roots. The final cue features a surprising climax: Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," complete with the sounds of fireworks added by Marianelli, once again symbolizes victory in Europe. This, as well as the three source songs (either from the classic era or in mellow contemporary performances), breaks the firm grip of Marianelli's score. It may not stun you with its memorability, but V for Vendetta will entertain you with Marianelli's continuously intelligent ideas. ****
* includes portions of '1812 Overture' by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. Beware of several annoying advertisement cards (for unrelated products) that will fall out of the packaging when you open it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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