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Harrison's Flowers
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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, Conducted, and Produced by:
Co-Orchestrated by:
Penka Kouneva
Paul Henning
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release, though out of print as of 2007.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... only if you're prepared for an appropriately mind-numbing and
subdued, but effectively dramatic string and piano-dominated score of
introversion.
Avoid it... if you require your melodramatic love and war story film scores
to exhibit an outwardly engaging and convincingly emotional personality.
BUY IT
 | | Eidelman |
Harrison's Flowers: (Cliff Eidelman) Few motion pictures can
truly capture the most brutal aspects of war, and while Harrison's Flowers
has a few structural problems within its narrative, it certainly paints an
appropriately grim picture of the war between the Serbs and Croats in the early
1990's. The story of Elie Chouraqui's film involves the emotional and psychological
perils about the reporting of war around the world (and how it can affect those
close to journalists when they go missing in war torn areas). In this case, the
wife of a journalist, a photographer herself, decides to pursue her missing husband
into the former Yugoslavia, not only drawing a sense of conclusion about her
marriage but also witnessing some of the worst that human behavior has to offer.
The somber subject matter is eventually overshadowed by the fact that it is also a
romantic love story, albeit set in horrific circumstances. A French film that
debuted in Europe more than a year before its opening in America, Harrison's
Flowers suffered from the circumstances of studio legalities and Universal
Focus was forced to replace the film's original score written by Bruno Coulais.
Chosen to rescore the film was Cliff Eidelman, whose job was to capture both the
devastating setting of war while also reflecting a sense of hope that endures in
the love story. After a few years of sustaining a career on smaller compositional
and conducting assignments, Eidelman had been attempting to work his way back into
the mainstream of film scoring in the early 2000's. The previous year's An
American Rhapsody marked his first feature film score after two years, and
2002's Harrison's Flowers was his first large scale project in roughly five
years. Instead of heading to the extremes of either war or passion, Eidelman chose
to tackle the task by providing a steady and consistent score on safe middle
ground. The sequences of war are not treated with overbearing music; they contain
neither fright nor force to conflict with the low key drama of Eidelman's
overarching tone. Even the worst of the war's projection on screen is represented
by a mellow and subdued meandering of strings and electronic vocals. Both "The
Bosnian War" and "Real War" tackle the environment with somber restraint. There's
really little that the music does to accentuate the horrors of war above and beyond
its contribution to a mind-numbing haze of bleak contemplation. Eidelman uses
extremely heavy bass strings and no memorable thematic material to build to false
crescendos during the war cues, and this is the extent of the strikingly
melodramatic music for Harrison's Flowers.
No doubt, the music's functionality in the film is closely tied to
an introverted and internalized struggle by the woman who goes searching for her
lost husband. If there is terror involved, then it is in the mind, and not an overt
expression or physical explosion. The score was clearly meant to extend the
dramatic element of that struggle rather than the extremes of emotion that are
often associated with war. Either way, the score for Harrison's Flowers is
anonymous enough that it could very well work for a small town drama in the
heartland of America. No ethnic elements that would be associated with a film about
distant war are even attempted. The romantic moments addressing the love that
exists between the journalist and his wife are scored with the piano as a central
identity, which is no surprise for Eidelman collectors. The theme representing them
is subtle and gentle, often barely recognizable in its slight construction. In the
middle portions of the score, this piano work is sparsely rendered. The finale cues
(represented by the final two tracks on the album) offer the most significant
development of the title theme for the two characters, even crossing over into the
strings that dominate the rest of the score. But in the case of establishing a
strong romance between these two characters, the score fails to summon enough
strength of heart to really convey any such caring. In fact, the entire score for
Harrison's Flowers lacks power, depth, and emotional enticement. It is
pleasant in a relaxing and aimless fashion, with the scenes of war handled in a
remarkably similar fashion to the scenes of the two main characters together. The
work has no real beginning, no real climax, and no real conclusion. Part of that
lack of identity may be due to the small production values of the recording. The
ensemble consists primarily of strings, the piano, and an occasional electronic
sampling. It is a very restrained score about a significantly more troubling
subject matter than the music would indicate, and although the circumstances about
why such an under-dramatic score was provided for film are unknown, it may suffice
in context nevertheless. On album, Harrison's Flowers is a work of the same
subdued level as One True Thing and An American Rhapsody, though
without the same attractive tone of easy harmony in parts. Ultimately, this is a
pleasant, though sometimes uninteresting listening experience on album, and only
devoted collectors of the composer will be interested in its consistently
depressing mood. The score by Coulais, incidentally, isn't particularly memorable
either, making Harrison's Flowers an underachiever in the music category no
matter the country of release.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Cliff Eidelman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 17 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.2
(in 8,876 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Bruno Coulais
John Smith - June 12, 2002, at 1:34 a.m. |
1 comment (2621 views) |
Did you know ? Expand >>
Fakry - April 7, 2002, at 1:48 p.m. |
3 comments (4296 views)
Newest: December 21, 2003, at 3:11 p.m. by
Demetris Christodoulides |
Total Time: 36:22
• 1. Harrison's Flowers (1:34)
• 2. Lover's Play (2:11)
• 3. A Lover's Promise (1:27)
• 4. The Bosnian War (2:24)
• 5. The Pulitzer (0:56)
• 6. Lighting the Flame (1:45)
• 7. Pulled Away (1:05)
• 8. Don't Say It (2:05)
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• 9. A Dangerous Decision (2:54)
• 10. Real War (3:57)
• 11. A Site of Evil (1:52)
• 12. Courageous Desperation (1:22)
• 13. Sarah and Harrison Alive (5:29)
• 14. Awakened (2:19)
• 15. I Only Photograph Flowers (4:56)
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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