Cloud Atlas: (Tom Tykwer/Johnny Klimek/Reinhold
Heil) Filmmaker ambition is an admirable force to be reckoned with, but
it cannot alone dictate success. Based on the sprawling 2004 book by
David Mitchell, the 2012 cinematic adaptation of
Cloud Atlas was
many years in the making by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. It struggled
financially and barely saw the light of day, its plight supported
through the years by lead actor Tom Hanks. As one of the most expensive
independent and German films ever,
Cloud Atlas sought to convey
the impossible in even its lengthy running time, spanning many centuries
in six segments that were filmed separately by the directors. (Ten years
later, it would have been a television series.) Actors rotate through
each segment to represent the souls of characters that persist
throughout time and place, with each segment building upon a narrative
element from a prior one. Issues of existentialism, sexuality, politics,
health, and everything in between are explored in the vast tapestry of
this tale, begging for repeat viewings to appreciate. Regardless of how
the consequences of life choices are examined in
Cloud Atlas, the
core commonality in most of the segments is that terrible things happen
to people and humanity is, essentially, corrupted by malice, stupidity,
and a severe lack of empathy. While some see the film as exemplary high
art of intellectual prowess, including Hanks, who continues to advocate
for it years later, others inevitably find it immensely depressing in
that souls, despite glimmers of hope here and there, can be involved in
repeatedly unsavory outcomes if reincarnated. The movie remains among
the most polarizing of its generation, with critics largely loving or
hating it for those reasons. Audiences generally didn't understand or
embrace the picture, and abysmal box office returns reinforced
persistent studio hesitancy about its prospects. All of the same
elements of taste and success apply to the soundtrack for the film,
which plays an outsized role in the narrative because of the prominent
role of music in one of the early segments.
The score for
Cloud Atlas was provided by Tykwer
himself alongside Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil; the trio was known as
the "Pale 3" and had collaborated on many Tykwer films previously.
Orchestrator Gene Pritsker provided arrangements on the main themes.
Their film scores have tended to defy convention artistically, and
Cloud Atlas is certainly no exception. Highly praised within the
film music community in 2012, the
Cloud Atlas score remains as
polarizing as the film itself. Some listeners appreciate Tykwer, Klimek,
and Heil's approach to adapting their thematic base to distinctive
styles over each of the six segments. Others will recognize that
strategy but be unable to overcome the sheer misery that much of the
music conveys. There is no doubt that the composers' choice to evolve
the score's two main thematic ideas over the centuries has appeal,
especially as those ideas eventually find their footing. Adapting
melodies to strikingly different circumstances has undeniable appeal.
But if the actual rendering of those themes is lifeless, repetitive,
grating, simplistic, and prickly throughout most of the picture, then
does the intelligence behind them even matter? This is the question that
will determine your level of passion or tolerance for the music of
Cloud Atlas. Sadly, the score's bleak demeanor is exacerbated by
the offensively obnoxious harmonies of the themes, the composers'
identities not entirely pleasant even in their most tonally accessible
performances. The lack of consistency in the instrumental renderings is
not as much a problem in context as it is on album, but the score does
struggle to clearly enunciate smart instrumental carry-overs from
segment to segment. There's a little bit of everything thrown into the
ensemble, though not as creatively as one would hope. Pritsker's
neo-classical orchestrations are defining in a few segments, though the
middle batch explores more synthetic, percussive, and choral influences.
The colors applied to the music of
Cloud Atlas are just as dull
as the constructs, though, the atmospheres often cloudy and understated
in such a way as to suggest intentionally brainy light-handedness that
sucks the life out of the recording.
Rather than discerning distinctive personalities in the
segments of
Cloud Atlas via their instrumental or genre choices,
the listener receives differences that are noticeable but not
appreciable; one has to be paying more attention than necessary to
discern the meanings of the stylistic distinctions even though they are
fairly evident. Most will likely find the consistently dour demeanor of
each segment's base modes to be the defining characteristic, as the
composers find a way in each time period to suppress hope and grate at
your nerves. Such dissatisfaction goes well beyond the score's
unpleasantly dissonant atmospheres and crescendos. Part of the
challenging environment in the score for
Cloud Atlas is due to
the aforementioned mismanagement of harmonies in almost Carter Burwell
fashion. The composers' efforts to generate intrigue via basslines that
don't harmonically match melodic or other action in the treble is a
constant frustration in the work. The two dominant themes include the
source-like "The Cloud Atlas Sextet for Orchestra," the labor of love
for the main character in one of the earlier segments. Its descending
figures have promise in their elegance, but the theme is intentionally
staggered in its overlapping performances as to suggest the plot's
notions on reincarnation, and the resulting recording has a tendency to
annoy. Amazingly, the premise in the story is that this composition is
considered by characters to be among the best of all time, and it simply
isn't. That alone is worthy of some eye rolls, as it's difficult to
credibly believe that characters on screen could be mesmerized by the
decent but generally prickly and disharmonious piece. The primary
seven-note phrase of the theme prevails in several cues in the score as
the piece and its on-screen creator shape the future. Debuting with
gusto in the middle of "Cloud Atlas Opening Title," the sextet theme is
suspenseful and melodramatic in "Temple of Sacrifice," informative of
the slapping in "Chasing Luisa Rey," and reduced to ghosts in the string
figures of "Sonmi's Discovery." Its accompaniment on muted horn and
piano over the turmoil in "New Direction" is commendable but rather
shallow and underdeveloped in its rendering, lacking much-needed
intensity and vitality.
The actual main theme of
Cloud Atlas is what the
composers deem the "Atlas March," which is a humorous misnomer in that
there is really nothing march-like about it outside of some extremely
tepid rhythmic thumping in the bass region that struggles to provide
depth or any sense of importance in "Cloud Atlas Opening Title." It has
more in common with a stagnant John Barry romance leftover, in fact. The
idea is introduced in the solo piano and slight strings of "Prelude: The
Atlas March" and is afforded the hesitant main title performance before
diminishing its presence in the remainder of the first half of the work.
The composers finally return in full to the idea at 1:41 into "Sonmi-451
Meets Chang" in arguably the theme's best performance within one of the
segments, its bass particularly resounding. Even here, though, the idea
is extremely simplistic in its arrangement and questionable in its
harmonics. The theme struggles to find anything new to express in
"Kesselring" and eventually becomes a nearly constant presence after its
brighter expression in "All Boundaries are Conventions," though even
here the pacing of the theme is never altered. The composers seem to
have no qualms about maintaining the same meter, key, and pace for the
theme in each of its performances, unable to convincingly manipulate it
beyond its connective purpose. The layers of instruments and resulting
volume can and do change, as in the apocalyptic choral accompaniment and
solo piano of "Sonmi's Discovery," but the theme's static personality
never achieves any true maturation beyond its confined origins. This
stagnant lack of development affects the two standout cues of the score,
"Cloud Atlas Finale," and "Cloud Atlas End Title." The former supplies
the main theme in Hans Zimmer power anthem mode, from the fantasy choir
on top to the pulsating strings and meandering ostinatos underneath, the
composers even emulating the slow build to a false resolution with
banging chimes and a deep choral sendoff. This cue on album, while
guilty pleasure bait for those seeking very simplistic themes in
accessible presentations, is also remembered for its embarrassingly
distracting studio noise between 2:30 and 3:00 into the cue, the sounds
of clanging metallic objects or shifting chairs easily disqualifying.
Thereafter, the lengthy "Cloud Atlas End Title" is an immensely
repetitive and tiresome presentation of the same theme.
While the main
Cloud Atlas theme has an
elusively wandering interlude phrase, the composers seem more enamored
with the primary phrases and their shifting harmonies underneath falling
progressions, this section of the theme repeating seemingly endlessly
without enough variation or strength of character to merit such myopic
emphasis. They can add layers to the same phrasing over and over again
in "Cloud Atlas End Title," but they cannot make it any more emotive.
Such is the problem with the entire soundtrack for
Cloud Atlas.
Harming its personality is the unattractive nature of many of its unique
cues of ambience or action for individual segments. Barely audible or
generally uninteresting ambience in "Luisa's Birthmark," "Papa Song,"
"Sloosha's Hollow," and "Catacombs" do little for the narrative. The
humorous comedy of "Cavendish in Distress" and sprightly movement in
"Travel to Edinburgh" improve the scenery, but their brevity only
worsens the somber feelings generated by surrounding music. Straight
action cues in "The Escape" and "Chasing Luisa Rey" are anonymous
emulations of John Powell's standard mode, with slurring and percussion
to denote slight ethnic influence; these generic string techniques and
electronics are a precursor to
The Matrix Resurrections. The more
powerfully melodramatic tones that attempt to emerge in "New Direction,"
"All Boundaries are Conventions," and "The Message" lead to "Death is
Only a Door," a cue that strives for ethereal revelation but fails to
really connect emotionally. (Listen for more studio noise around 1:51
into that cue.) The tentative and sparse passion of these moments
reminds of the serviceable but rather limp recordings of Thomas Wanker
and Harald Kloser scores. It's difficult to feel any excitement or
affection for music that is generated by performers who express
absolutely no intensity or passionate performance inflection. The static
movement of the main theme doesn't help this issue, as the performers
seem to be sleepwalking through the more dramatic portions of this
score. The recording mix is also dry and constricted, failing to allow
the fantasy element to soar. Ultimately, the general strategy of the
composers for
Cloud Atlas was intelligent but the execution poor.
The thematic constructs are offensively simplistic, repetitive, and
obnoxious while the orchestration and performances lack enthusiasm. The
result is a score that may sound superficially impressive in its
ambition but is revealed to be a lifeless zombie in search for its soul.
Few film scores elicit such a love it or hate it response.
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