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| M. Danna |
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| J. Danna |
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: (Mychael
Danna/Jeff Danna) Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that
Terry Gilliam was the man behind a film involving the meddling of the
Devil in the lives of a theatrical crew that in real life suffers from
freakish, deadly circumstances. There are odd parallels between the
portrayals of the lessons of personal choice in
The Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus and the tragedy that held up production of the film
for so long in 2009, but the fact that it was a Gilliam production seems
to have only enhanced its mystique even further. Aside from the
much-publicized death of lead actor Heath Ledger after the completion of
only one third of the film, producer William Vince died from cancer just
after filming wrapped and Gilliam himself was struck and seriously
injured in an automobile accident. Despite these setbacks,
The
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus received donated performances from
Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to replace Ledger in the
appropriate fantasy environment of the imaginarium and, with both
Gilliam and Ledger's faithful followers in support, the beleaguered
product grossed twice its budget. Reviews of the film were somewhat
mixed, though Gilliam's usual unique sense of cinematography and art
direction (both elements nominated for a range of awards here) tends to
automatically alienate some critics. The story depicts a battle between
the owner of a traveling theatre group and the Devil over the souls of
individuals in London who pass through a magic mirror and experience
their imaginations. That owner is none other than Christopher Plummer,
occupying a role that Gilliam fashioned after himself. Most of the crew,
as well as the replacement actors, were previous collaborators with
Gilliam, and that includes the Canadian composing duo of Mychael and
Jeff Danna. The brothers had split the duties on several scores
previously, one of which being Gilliam's 2006 venture
Tideland.
It's likely that most film score collections feature more of Mychael
Danna's major dramatic scores, whereas Jeff Danna's work has strayed
more towards workmanlike horror projects as of late. Both have a knack
for expert instrumental research (and both have used those talents to
write scores for religious films that dominated the years of their
release in the film score scene), and one of the interesting aspects of
their collaborations is how fluid and cohesive their combined work
typically sounds.
The palette of instrumental colors employed by the
Danna brothers for
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, one
familiar to Alexandre Desplat enthusiasts, is a bit predictable for both
the traveling circus and the villain. The theatre group receives
treble-heavy emphasis on harpsichord and other struck percussive sounds,
utilizing low woodwinds to enhance the bass rather than more powerful
alternatives. The battle of wills between Parnassus and "Mr. Nick" is
not surprisingly represented by the romantic pairing of cello and
fiddle, the former melodramatically conveying the score's primary theme
of lamentation and the latter coolly conveying its beauty. There could
be some debate that the Parnassus theme, the score's only lastingly
memorable thematic idea, is equally valid in terms of its application to
Ledger's character, Tony. Regardless of its specific aim, though, it
very accurately creates an atmosphere of both timeless elegance and
morbid despair. This theme is best heard in "Parnassus Alone" but is
also developed through "Once Upon a Time" and featured at the conclusion
of several cues, including "Sympathy for the Hanged Man." Its
progressions seem to connect it mostly to Jeff Danna's previous themes,
but that's simply a guess. A certain amount of dainty, rhythmic pizzazz
familiar to Danny Elfman's career defines the much of the score, dancing
through genres to suit each character that enters the imaginarium. Its
meandering spirit, sometimes graceful in a light, jazzy atmosphere and
sometimes as grim in its elaborate constructs as Bruno Coulais'
Coraline, defies an overarching label. Instead, individual
moments like the redemptive beauty of "Tango Amongst the Lilies" (owing
slightly to John Barry) and other accordion, guitar, chime, and violin
performances, stand out. The Devil's cues are offered an almost
Latin-sounding nightclub personality, smooth but somewhat vacuous. Three
action cues are more plucky than forceful, obviously intended to be
taken with humor. The same applies to two musical-style source songs,
the latter ("We Are the Children of the World") an obvious parody. A
synthetic choral effect occasionally provides some shallow sense of
majesty. Despite the free-spirited movement of this score through
several genres, the Danna brothers manage to keep the whole quite
cohesively listenable until the two songs near the end. There are no
overwhelming highlights to be heard in the music for
The Imaginarium
of Doctor Parnassus, but its album release is perfect in length and
its dry mix allows for an intimate appreciation of the Dannas' creative
interpretations of Gilliam's quirky imagination.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Mychael Danna reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.01
(in 4,432 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
