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A Very Long Engagement: (Angelo Badalamenti) With
critical praise across the world,
A Very Long Engagement is the film
adaptation of the Sebastien Japrisot novel about love lost during the height
of the first World War. The film reunites director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and
lead actress Audrey Tatou from 2001's
Amelie and tells the sweeping
tale of a young woman who distrusts her government's insistence that her
fiancee was court martialed and sent to the front lines of the war for what
would likely be certain death. She launches herself on her own lengthy
investigation, allowing the audience to live through the trauma of loss with
her, and the film's main appeal exists in the scenery that contributed to
the film's sizable budget. An arthouse film at its finest, recognition of
the merits of
A Very Long Engagement have extended to experimental
composer Angelo Badalamenti's score for the project. Badalamenti is best
known for his collaboration with director David Lynch and all of the bizarre
results that are usually spawned from Lynch films. On the surface,
Badalamenti would be a curious, if not risky choice for a film with the
traditional emotional weight of
A Very Long Engagement, for the
composer's works are often punctuated by experimental synthetics. Despite
his orchestrally inclined scores for a handful of better known projects
(
Cousins,
The Straight Story, etc), it is outlandish music
such as
Arlington Road that defines his career. Badalamenti is no
stranger to foreign works, however, which is where most of his work exists,
and his work on
A Very Long Engagement marks the second collaboration
between the composer and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (the previous one being
The City of Lost Children). The accomplishment of Badalamenti for
this newest score is significant, however, because he manages to utilize an
orchestral ensemble to accentuate to mournful journey at the heart of the
story without resorting to any experimentation whatsoever.
In fact, the score's only weakness --and it might be a
significant one for some listeners-- is its extremely consistent somber
tone. It's a downer from the opening cue to the final minute, rivaling the
film's equally depressing journey with an attitude both respectful and
dignified while maintaining an extremely restrained minor-key solace. Built
almost entirely for strings, the broad strokes are accompanied by brass
whole notes in a fashion that combines the most grim moments of James Horner
and John Barry. In the opening cue, a very lightly mixed snare drum over the
heavy strings and whispering brass account for the most volume heard
anywhere in the score, with few crescendos heard throughout. Badalamenti
makes sure to break your heart with the few crescendos that do exist,
however, building up to them in the major key and eventually pulling you
back to the ground with a sudden return to the minor. Without much
counterpoint, the strings perform their simple themes in unison and never
with enthusiasm, creating a loneliness that does begin to drag the album's
enjoyability after 30 minutes. Variation is sparse, with electronic choral
sampling in "Heartbeat to a Gunshot" serving as perhaps the most
inconsistent element. Woodwinds occasionally flutter with distant tones, and
the percussion does make itself heard with an occasional rumble. The only
truly memorable aspect of Badalamenti's
A Very Long Engagement is the
title character's theme, appearing in full during "Mathilde's Theme," "Our
Soldiers' Letters," and "End Titles." If you're a fan of depressing
orchestral works, be forewarned that
A Very Long Engagement isn't
melancholy in overtly magical, Danny Elfman-like fashion. Nor does it have
the same overbearing, resonating power of a James Horner string ensemble.
True to its European roots, it practices restraint, and it is exactly that
drab and ultimately non-descript character that reduces the score's
listenability. For such a resilient young woman, there is surprisingly
little determination outside of the alternating string motif in the primary
theme. Still, beauty comes in many forms, and Badalamenti's score is
certainly beautiful, albeit in the kind of fashion you'd expect at a funeral
procession.
***
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
