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| Doyle |
Une Femme Française (A French Woman):
(Patrick Doyle) For any man who has been forced to leave the love of his
life behind to serve his country, the 1995 movie
Une Femme
Française is something is an unromantic nightmare. The wife
of a French military officer is the titular main character, and when her
hubby goes off to fight in successive wars from World War II onward, she
can't help but avail herself to the penises of other men. One of these
lovers becomes her favorite, and efforts by the husband to forgive the
woman and move her away from this main competition repeatedly fail.
Eventually, while the officer is off fighting in Algeria, the woman dies
from a broken heart when she learns that the lover, who eventually
decided that the whole situation was no longer palatable, had himself
passed away. It's a grim movie all around and makes one ponder what the
heck their spouse is up to when he or she is on their own for a while.
But given that it's a French romance starring a hot young actress who
can't resist her quest for pleasure,
Une Femme Française
has its audience. The film is the work of director Régis
Wargnier, who long specialized in his location shooting and
collaboration with Scottish composer Patrick Doyle for his soundtracks.
Many would argue that Doyle's music for Wargnier's projects represented
the best dramatic material of his career, starting in 1992 with
Indochine and spanning another five films until
La Ligne
Droite in 2011, considered the composer's top career entry in the
genre. The scores on either end of the Wargnier/Doyle collaboration tend
to receive the most notice, but the music in between was often solid if
not occasionally outstanding. The score for
Une Femme
Française may not be as melodramatically lyrical and
extroverted as many of the composer's other efforts for Wargnier and
beyond, but it remains highly respected. Mostly a string and woodwind
score with some brass backing, the ensemble has no prominent piano, an
unusual choice for Doyle. The performance lacks passion and resonance in
most cues, the ensemble treading water most of the time as it
mechanically conveys the composer's themes. Collectors of the composer
will forgive the score's rather somber and restrained tone because it is
largely tonal and thus easily digestible throughout. Doyle had to
contend with the employment of source material in several key sequences
in
Une Femme Française, and these inclusions may cause a
need to reprogram the listening experience on album.
For the title sequence, "The Marriage," offers
Mozart-like classicism and is original, but "The Russian Ball"
references Prokofiev's "Cinderella's Departure for the Ball" while "The
Separation" borrows Beethoven's Op. 131 in C-Sharp Minor. Not by Doyle
is "Mambo," a reasonably effective, zesty diversion. Aside from the
first cue, Doyle tackled the film with a core set of identities that he
lumps together as one collective theme but is really three separate
ideas for each member of the romantic triangle. The main theme for the
woman uses repetitive phrasing that doesn't yield much warmth or
interest, but it's pretty. Developed throughout "I Dream of You" on
strings, this theme emerges briefly from the secondary lover theme at
0:47 into "The Lovers" and is lightly melodramatic in "The Return." It
struggles to enunciate itself in "The Ruins" and is muted on woodwinds
in "Irreparable." Doyle explores two offshoots of the theme at the end
of the work, one on solo female voice over the ensemble in "A French
Woman" with a distinct Ennio Morricone feel for the end credits. A light
jazz rendition for saxophone and piano follows in "Jeanne and Louis."
More interesting and prevalent in the score is the theme for the two
suitors, and it is appropriately split between a pair of key components.
Often rolling or descending with determination, the melody of this theme
is almost an inverted form of the main one. Under it is a separate
rhythm that is the highlight of the score, often undulating with superb
woodwind lines accenting strings well. The rhythm diminishes in the
second half of the score, though, likely as the husband is marginalized.
That rhythm opens and closes "The 2 Brothers," the melody isolated at
0:46 in oboe and continuing in a cautious and dark posture at the outset
of "The Temptation" without the rhythm. Both components open "The
Encounter" and persist throughout the cue. Very slight on strings in the
first part of "The Separation," the theme opens "The Lovers" on
moderately dramatic strings, the rhythm joining late under woodwinds.
That rhythm is a tad anxious at the outset of "The Kidnapping" under the
theme but becomes dominant over repetitive melodic phrasing near the end
of that cue. The theme dances against more frenetic fragments of the
rhythm in "Vertigo," interrupts pieces of the main theme in "The Ruins,"
stutters throughout "The Scarlet Dress," and turns distinctly positive
on strings in "Jeanne Leaves." Finally, the lover theme provides an
interlude to the main theme in the middle of "A French Woman" and closes
the cue. Together, there is enough attractive dramatic material to
appeal to any Doyle enthusiast, but be prepared for a short and
melancholy experience in need of some rearrangement. It's a score that
always leaves you wanting something more despite achieving its aim.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Patrick Doyle reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.67
(in 42 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.39
(in 27,998 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes notes about the composer and film,
mostly in French.
