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| Desplat |
Julie & Julia: (Alexandre Desplat) Start writing
online and you never know who might denounce you. In the case of young
blogger Julie Powell in New York City during the 2000's, her documenting
about her adventures in cooking each of the recipes in Julia Childs'
famous "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a single year led to not
only to national attention (and a book of her own about the experience),
but also condemnation from a 90-year-old Childs herself, who reportedly
considered Powell's actions to be a mere publicity stunt. Nevertheless,
Powell's experiences made her one of the most famous bloggers in
Internet history, and her book adapting those blogs is the subject of
one half of veteran "fluff film" director/producer/writer Nora Ephron's
2009 hit movie
Julie & Julia. Childs' autobiography was the
source for the other half of the film, and the narrative switches
between the 1950's and 2000's New York and Paris settings to follow both
the cooking and personal aspects of the two women's lives. Praised
widely for Meryl Streep's entertainingly accurate portrayal of Childs,
Julie & Julia turned into a surprising success for Columbia, more
than tripling its budget in box office returns after a wave of positive
reviews and other press. Composer Alexandre Desplat was a natural choice
for the assignment of
Julie & Julia, which utilized its original
score in between the high profile song placements typical to Ephron's
most well known films. Desplat was in the midst of a period of light
dramatic writing during a busy year of production, and his enthusiasts
often lump this score in with its equally lightweight siblings of that
summer,
Cheri and
Coco Avant Chanel. Interestingly,
despite Desplat's multitude of Hollywood projects in the late 2000's,
the French composer rarely truly allowed the sensibilities typical to
French film music to enter into the sound of his scores. His own
personal style of writing may represent certain elements of European
writing for some listeners, but in terms of stereotypical accordion-led
French film music,
Julie & Julia marks something of a departure
for Desplat. Because of the two distinct halves to the narrative of this
film, however, the composer was only able to truly identify that sound
with Childs' location, relying upon more contemporary tones to represent
Julie in New York. Like any skilled composer should, though, Desplat
blends the two halves of his score as the younger woman gains confidence
in working with Childs' recipes. The result is predictable but
charmingly innocuous and ceaselessly pleasant.
Although the score for
Julie & Julia does
clearly establish the two individual themes and character sets for the
two leads, Desplat maintains a consistent tone and familiar mannerisms
in all portions of the work. Most of the techniques that endear the
composer to his loyal fanbase are utilized here once again, from the
perpetual application of light rhythmic movement to the use of woodwinds
in roles normally reserved for percussion and, most importantly, an
attention to detail in creative orchestrations. The passing of melodic
and rhythm-setting duties between strings, piano, and woodwinds is
especially notable. A cheery attitude also carries over from other
Desplat scores, though it's especially saccharine here. Specialty
instrumentation begins with the aforementioned accordion, applied with
taste as to not overwhelm the soundscape in ways that instrument can.
For the New York setting, Desplat adds very discrete synthetic pulses
(not the deep throbbing ones that ruin some of his scores, thankfully)
and electric guitar that strums like its acoustic counterpart. Soft
xylophone tones vary between the settings, tingling high-pitched
representations of Paris translated to much lower registers for New
York. Brass performances are rare, but they do accentuate the waltz-like
movements of Childs' theme at times (as in "Leaving Paris"). The two
themes are conveniently conveyed immediately on the album release,
originally careful to stay true to their native instrumentation. As the
score progresses, Desplat begins to merge phrases of the two themes and
pass them between the instrumentation originally intended for the other
woman. This is especially evident in the bleeding of Childs' theme into
that of the contemporary blogger. The range of emotions is covered well
in the transition from the solemn solo piano interlude in "My Husband
Left Me" to the score's most bubbly expression of joy in "The New York
Times." A humorously downbeat moment in "Julia Hates Me" is a natural
conclusion to the merging of the two halves of the score before the
final statement of Childs' waltz-like theme in "Last Supper" wraps
things up with gusto. Desplat wrote an introduction to the song "Time
After Time," heard as the unofficial cue "Blog Ends" at the start of the
album's second use of that source piece. The song placements on the
Julie & Julia album (primarily a download-oriented product
offered on CD by Amazon.com's "on demand" service) are easy on the ears
but do distract from the overall experience of the score. On the whole,
this is a breeze of a soundtrack that extends beyond the usual primary
appeal to Desplat collectors to reach a mainstream audience interested
in a safe musical souvenir from the film that overflows with cheer.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alexandre Desplat reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.39
(in 31 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 16,383 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about
the score or film. As in many of Amazon.com's "CDr on demand" products, the
packaging smells incredibly foul when new. In this case, it is also misaligned so
that the spine artwork does not show correctly in that area.
