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Frances
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(1982)
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1997 Southern Cross |
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Composed, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
Orchestrated by:
Al Woodbury
Co-Produced by:
John Lasher
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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Southern Cross
(1997)
Label X
(December 15th, 2005)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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The 1997 Southern Cross album was limited to 2,000 copies
and has long disappeared from the market. The more readily available and
expanded 2005 Label X album was a regular commercial release.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... if your insatiable desire for every slight variation of
John Barry's light suspense and tortured drama drives you to hear each
application of that highly familiar mode.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear anything remotely distinct in
this score, its techniques applied without any unique character and
better heard in other Barry works.
BUY IT
 | | Barry |
Frances: (John Barry) Regardless of what you
believe about the actual life of 1930's actress Francis Farmer, the
story is certainly one of tragedy and abuse. The 1982 biographical movie
Frances capitalized on a controversial, partially fictional
account of her life published in 1978 and generated a lawsuit from the
author, who had claimed that his book was the source of the more bizarre
information about Farmer's institutionalization. Her career started
promisingly in Hollywood but eventually went off the tracks in theatres
and television, her defiant attitude and carefree lifestyle eventually
causing her to become housed in a mental institution where she was
abused. It's unlikely she suffered a lobotomy as was claimed in the book
and this movie, but she did eventually find peace in a rural life after
an attempted comeback in the 1950's. This cinematic adaptation was
largely a vehicle for actress Jessica Lange, who received significant
praise for her portrayal of Farmer. Still, the movie failed to recoup
its budget and has been forgotten by the mainstream and even by casual
fans of its composer, John Barry. Director Graeme Clifford insisted that
Barry was the only composer he wanted for the assignment because of his
ability to capture the romanticism of sadness and yesteryear in his
simple constructs. The composer approached the film conservatively,
deciding to judiciously spot the film with only a minimal amount of
music as a strategic choice to avoid oversaturating it with emotion. Not
surprisingly, Barry didn't do practically anything to alter his own
mannerisms for application to Frances, the score residing
squarely in his 1980's method of stoic and slightly disturbed
romanticism for an orchestral ensemble. The structures of the score are
all simple and repetitive as per usual, but the composer does manage to
provide a disturbing sense of unease to most of his recording. As
expected, the strings are the centerpiece, their layering providing the
bulk of the volume. A harmonica is meant to represent the main
character's sense of nostalgia, and that instrument's planned use was
initially rejected by the producers of the film until it was recorded
and minds were changed. (A trumpet might have been a good substitute.) A
solo piano offers a sense of class while an acoustic guitar adds some
warmth alongside the harmonica in most instances. Aside from the more
openly melodic portions early and late on album, much of the score is
decidedly troubled, but it's never unlistenable and definitely within
Barry's lightly accessible suspense mode.
As a Barry score, Frances is inherently melodic
at almost all times. His main theme is elusive, a dramatically tortured,
melancholic, and marginally romantic identity. It's one of Barry's "call
and answer phrasing" themes, each line answered in counterpoint with
rising cello lines in the bass for each phrase a trademark of the
composer as well. The opening notes stutter a few times at the outset of
"Main Title" before the full theme emerges in troubled string layers at
0:25. It shifts to elegant solo piano at 1:24, with harmonica joining
the call and answer duet, and tragic secondary lines are explored in the
cue's second half before closing it out. The theme then opens "Okay Dad;
Mother Shut Up!" on piano and strings for a minute of lush treatment and
returns at 3:13 into "Home Again; Things Are Going to Be Slow From Now
On." A secondary theme of peace is more prevalent, and it's a slower and
more whimsical, almost dreamy alternate for the main theme. Its
additional descending lines of sadness debut on harmonica and then
strings at 0:21 into "Meeting Harry" prior to stewing at the periphery
of "Upset." The idea reestablishes itself on the harmonica and guitar
again in the second half of "Bug House" and opens "Home Again; Things
Are Going to Be Slow From Now On," the harmonica once more carrying the
tune. Dominating the middle of the work is Barry's desperation motif and
related material, the motif itself punctuated by rising pairs of notes
over a tumultuous string identity of anguish. Often set against
throbbing timpani or low piano rhythms, this theme opens "Late to Work"
in agony on low strings and brass and continues with increasing anxiety
in "Uproar" and "Frances and Doc." It is stripped down to piano and
string nerves in "Walk," increases its intensity in the second half of
"Okay Dad: Mother Shut Up!" with flute taking the lead, and turns more
defeated in the first half of "Bug House." There's only 27 minutes of
routinely average Barry material available on album, the original
multi-track recordings presumed lost long ago. Mixed with the score,
"Mozart's Sonata in A Major, K.331" is performed on solo piano as
source, though Beethoven's "Seventh Symphony" was not included on the
albums as heard in the film. Those products include a limited 1997
Southern Cross album and a 2005 Label X re-issue SACD with an additional
7-minute restatement of thematic highlights, "A Portrait of Frances."
There's no significant detraction to the music for Frances, but
there's no unique highlight, either. It's about as mundane a Barry drama
score as one could imagine, its components all explored with more
vibrance in other works.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.6
(in 40 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.33
(in 30,543 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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| 1997 Southern Cross Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 29:13 |
• 1. Main Title (4:03)
• 2. Meeting Harry (2:33)
• 3. Upset (0:57)
• 4. Late to Work (1:14)
• 5. Uproar (1:52)
• 6. Frances and Doc (1:05)
• 7. Walk (1:35)
• 8. Okay, Dad; Mother, Shut Up! (2:51)
• 9. Mozart's Sonata in A Major, K.331 (1:46)
• 10. Bug House (2:29)
• 11. Free at Last (1:34)
• 12. Home Again; Things Are Going to Be Slow From Now On (7:13)
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| 2005 Label X Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 35:56 |
• 1. Main Title (4:03)
• 2. Meeting Harry (2:33)
• 3. Upset (0:57)
• 4. Late to Work (1:14)
• 5. Uproar (1:52)
• 6. Frances and Doc (1:05)
• 7. Walk (1:35)
• 8. Okay, Dad; Mother, Shut Up! (2:51)
• 9. Mozart's Sonata in A Major, K.331 (1:46)
• 10. Bug House (2:29)
• 11. Free at Last (1:34)
• 12. Home Again; Things Are Going to Be Slow From Now On (7:13)
• 13. A Portrait of Frances (6:43)
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The inserts of both albums include information about the score and/or film.
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