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Review of Fateless (Ennio Morricone)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you are either an Ennio Morricone enthusiast or are willing to be enveloped by a respectfully restrained Holocaust survival score.

Avoid it... if you prefer the beauty of your Holocaust scores to be expressed with outward emotion and power.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Fateless: (Ennio Morricone) Based on the 1975 autobiographical novel by Imre Kertesz, and adapted to the screen by the Nobel Prize-winner himself, Fateless is an impressionistic telling of one teenage boy's experiences in Hitler's death camps, and his equally alienating experiences after liberation. It is the directorial debut for cinematographer Lajos Koltai, who applies his keen sense of disturbing beauty into a film that for the most part avoids the representations of evil common to movie perceptions about the Final Solution, instead treating the villains of the story as bystanders to the boy's internal turmoil. Although uplifting in the fact that the boy obviously survives several camps, Fateless is still a largely somber and horrific portrayal of a kid whose soul has been stolen and turns away several opportunities at emotional redemption. Kertesz was ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with veteran composer Ennio Morricone, whose career in Italy since receding from the American spotlight has hardly missed a beat. It has been five years since Morricone's scores for Mission to Mars and Malena earned him popular and awards recognition in America, but the composer, now 76 years old, continues to churn out at least half a dozen scores per year. Writing for films spread across European nations, Morricone's total score count now hovers somewhere near 500, and with six projects slated for completion with his music in 2006, he shows no signs of slowing down. Despite having composed darker chapters for such horrors on screen before, Morricone handles Fateless in a manner that is more consistent with his upbeat positive drama and romance efforts, choosing to provide a counterpoint to the primary character's seemingly lost and uncaring soul. The tactic not only pulls the film out of the depths of irreparable despair, but also translates into one of Morricone's many uplifting, quietly beautiful works.

In its free-flowing structure of extended rhythms and slow thematic development, Fateless is as representative of Morricone's own deliberate styles as it is reminiscent of John Barry's easily attainable sense of scope. The performances (appropriately) by the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and Choir are restrained in the statements of outward beauty that many have come to expect from Morricone, sacrificing power for a surprisingly even and effective delivery at respectfully humbled levels. As such, several notable solo performances are allowed to shadow the main character's withdrawn emotional state, and in most cases, these performances float the score. A very subdued series of performances by pan flute, including the opening main theme statement, offer a hallowing solitude that only the instrument's most restrained state can provide. The "Return to Life" theme opens with a duet between organ and oboe and slowly evolves into a remarkable tribute to survival for string and choir. The theme is then carried by wordless vocals by Lisa Gerrard over counterpoint by choir. While many Morricone collectors will recall the composer's fruitful collaboration with vocalist Edda dell'Orso (and many have wondered why the composer has seemingly lost interest in the use of such vocals lately in his career), there's no reason to fret Gerrard's performances here. Bucking her nearly new-age reputation since Gladiator, Gerrard is given material by Morricone that requires a far more classical, operatic approach. Her handful of performances in Fateless represent the best the score has to offer, and stand as a worthy counterpart to any other Holocaust remembrance music. Also at work in Fateless is a dulcimer, which excels mostly as an accent to the ensemble, and the timpani, which, combined with the dulcimer and brass, offer the few moments of terror in drawn out agony, such as "The Field." Overall, Morricone continues to impress, and Fateless, despite its lack of outwardly emotional expression, is a slowly enveloping listening experience not to be missed by his collectors.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 42:23

• 1. Fateless (3:12) • 2. Return to Life (5:59) • 3. The Field (3:29) • 4. Home Again (1:52) • 5. The Beginning of the Tragedy (4:01) • 6. A Song (1:55) • 7. At the Table (2:45) • 8. Psychological Destruction (2:02)

• 9. About Solitude (1:36) • 10. To Return and to Remember (1:55) • 11. A Voice from the Inside (3:34) • 12. A Mirror (0:46) • 13. About Solitude II (2:44) • 14. Voiceless (1:54) • 15. Fateless II (4:41)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a note from director Lajos Koltai about the score and film.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Fateless are Copyright © 2006, EMI and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/4/06 (and not updated significantly since).