: (Stephen Warbeck) This adaptation
of Sebastian Faulks' novel by Australian director Gillian Armstrong
involves a title character whose double love interests during the height
of Germany's aggression in World War II lead her into the depths of
undercover danger in France. The harrowing realities of occupation and
escape are balanced with the confused, but no less intense romantic
involvement in the story. The grim circumstances in which she operates
as a member of the French resistance leaves little hope of success by
the end of the film, and this tense environment bleeds into Stephen
Warbeck's properly trimmed and predictable score for
. A veteran of a host of European films and television
productions, Warbeck was quickly rising as a composer of fame in Western
Europe and the United States. Even with his Academy Award win for
, his popularity elsewhere was finding
difficulty gaining traction. For a project that was supposed to exhibit
an original score that steals the heart of a film,
from earlier in 2001 turned out to receive a lower critical
and popular response for Warbeck's score (and the film as a whole) than
many had expected. Nevertheless, Warbeck's strong employment of a
historically appropriate classical style of composition for considerable
orchestral ensembles continued to hold the curiosity of those who were
introduced to his energetic work for
and
wanted to hear more of the same exuberant romanticism. Ironically, while
that 1998 Oscar-winner had set a template by which American listeners
might have wanted to hear more, Warbeck's best known scores since that
entry hadn't allowed him to explore that same flighty line of
writing.
In the expected mould,
Charlotte Gray is a
classic example of a dramatic powerhouse of a historical European film,
with bittersweet romance countered by the drab tones of a time of war.
Thus, Warbeck was once again called upon to produce a frightfully
serious and emotionally gripping score. The work is defined, as
expected, by heavy bass string alternations between scenes of
character-developing romantic frustration and an orchestral churning of
wartime hide and seek. Neither of the two halves is allowed to take
flight (even during the scenes of parachuting and other engaging
activities, interestingly), though the work does end on a more positive
note. The romantic half is led by the piano and violin, both of which
offering the most engaging cues in the score. For the title character, a
mellow and unassuming theme is introduced with violin in a handful of
mid-section cues and is finally fully realized with the entire ensemble
in the final cue, "My Name is Charlotte Gray." Warbeck's tone represents
the desolate lack of hope in the early World War II years in France
rather well, though it may come at the price of being far too
predictable given the fact that similar scores in the recent past had
used the same avenue to represent that scenario. The piano is more
prevalent as a source of romantic inspiration for the film, and its
elegant performances provide the score with a desperately needed sense
of warmth. The other interspersed half of the music for
Charlotte
Gray is the ever ominous and rhythmically mechanical representations
of war. While Warbeck delivers these oppressive cues with accurate
emotional turmoil, they set the overall tone for the score as one of
subdued and faint hope. The melancholy and thematically restricted mass
of underscore for the film sets a strong impression of dusty ruins, but
also makes, not surprisingly, for a depressing and uninteresting
listening experience.
It should be noted that most of the criticism that the
entire film faced from critics existed along similar lines, with the
technical grace of the work defeated by its own solemn weight. That
said, the score for
Charlotte Gray has moments during which
Warbeck does put forth a choice of instrumentation that begs for another
listen. A highlight of this creativity is "The Village," a lengthy cue
representing a further German advance into France and utilizing a stroke
from an electric guitar to accent the first beat of some of the
measures, again painting the picture of soulless, mechanized war. In
subsequent tracks, the distant rattling of drums is another use. An
accordion is even presented in an early cue as an element of location.
In the end, though, the score will be made or broken on the power of its
shamelessly romantic material, which scratches at the surface of
classical technique while remaining restricted to the subdued tone of
their scenes' emotional dialogue. The piano and violin are often, in the
second half of the score, accompanied by the more personal touch of an
acoustic guitar, and although together these performers still don't
offer a bright thematic experience, they do cause the score to be easily
listenable for considerable lengths. The concluding cue, as mentioned
before, does finally allow Warbeck the chance to express his thematic
identity for
Charlotte Gray in full, but for listeners purchasing
the album in hopes of a more inspiring thematic fifty minutes of
orchestral writing, there might be some disappointment. Whatever hopes
of an Oscar nomination for Warbeck went down the drain with the relative
failure of the film, and those who are looking for another Warbeck album
with the same energy and vivacious orchestral performances as
Shakespeare in Love, which remains the international staple of
Warbeck's career thus far, then
Charlotte Gray's restrained heart
and often grim tone will not appeal to you.
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| Bias Check: |
For Stephen Warbeck reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 7 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 9,020 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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