Under Paris (Sous la Seine): (Alex Cortés,
Anthony D'Amario, Edouard Rigaudière) What if the sharks actually
win in the end? Such is the premise of
Sous la Seine, otherwise
leading the Netflix charts as
Under Paris in June of 2024. It's
essentially a spin-off of the
Deep Blue Sea concept, but this
time, the genetically mutated shark spawns a whole army of similar
beasts and destroys the heart of Paris with the help of a humorously
massive amount unexploded World War II ordinance at the bottom of the
Seine river. The humans in the tale include a group trying to interface
with and stop the shark, and they, along with the movie as a whole, have
a serious environmental message with which they're going to slap you
across the face. That portion of
Under Paris is just the sideshow
for the main entrée, which is the unlikely domination of the
French military by a homicidal group of sharks that successfully treat
the city like a fast food joint by the time they're done flooding it
with the ordinance. If some of this plotline sounds fishy, then don't
bother to pause to consider that the type of sharks shown exist only in
saltwater oceans. The movie was panned widely, but that didn't stop
bored viewers from making it a Netflix success story, if only because of
that hysterically ridiculous attack scene at the end. (Who knew the
French would have such bad luck with endless quantities of 80-year-old
unexploded ordinance?) The rather mediocre special effects are matched
by an equally sufficient but not spectacular original score by French
composers Alex Cortés, Anthony D'Amario, and Edouard
Rigaudière. The trio had collaborated on several film scores for
French movies over the previous decade, none of which as high profile
internationally as
Under Paris. Their combined effort is as
efficiently basic as it is workmanlike, precisely the kind of sonic
wallpaper expected for this caliber of movie. At some point, it doesn't
matter if any of the rendering of the score is genuinely orchestral or
merely sampled. (Much of it is actually organic here.) Their intent was
to provide the general sound of an orchestral action thriller with a few
guitar, synth, and keyboard accents to root the concept in contemporary
times. Structurally, the three composers rarely attempt any complication
in their constructs, and the entirety of the long score tends to bleed
together into one wishy washy mass of stock ambience and thrashing
action, the latter betraying the synthetic edge more ready. The
electronic tint of the more dramatic portions, however, function well
enough for a watery environment.
The narrative of the Cortés, D'Amario, and
Rigaudière score for
Under Paris is anchored by a series
of thematic ideas that are all rendered with mostly the same tepid,
unenthusiastic orchestral tones. The only true winner among all these
ideas is the theme for Lilith, the primary shark. This motif is the
score's de facto main theme, and it's highly memorable simply because of
its defining two-note progression, a slurred perfect fifth rise from key
by whining strings. Introduced in "Lilith," this theme is all over the
score and can be applied like a convenient stringer when necessary. It
occupies prominent placement in "Under Paris," "Headquarters," and
"Hunters & Preys," shifting to pure horror by the time you get to "A
Thousand Sharks." Among the other themes, the one for the lead human,
Sophie, consists of an elegantly descending phrase repeated with
different harmonies and is as pleasant as it is anonymous. This idea is
sadly underdeveloped in the rest of the score. Another lead human is
represented with his own theme in "Adil," a somewhat pointless, echoing
acoustic guitar motif that is deconstructed a bit in "Coward." His
troupe, the River Brigade (who seem completely incapable of aiming at a
fin moving in the water), receives a chopping string identity of more
propulsion in "On Patrol" and "Briefing," neither of which remotely
exciting. An environmental community theme is a sibling to this idea in
"Headquarters," where it is laced extensively with Lilith's theme. This
advocacy theme is more robust in "Save.Our.Seas," where its combines the
synthetic and orchestral tones with the Lilith material quite well.
Meanwhile, also related to the political messaging of the film is the
composers' theme for water, which is an appropriately undulating phrase
that debuts on low strings in "7th Continent" before a somewhat more
cerebral rendition in "Dead Whale." It parlays into "Aftermath" at the
conclusion of the picture, in which the composer blend the water motif
with Lilith's ascending phrase and keyboard performances closest to
Sophie's theme in character. That final cue is a fairly decent wrap on
multiple ideas from the score, but it comes after several really wretch
action cues. The handling of brass lines in the score isn't anywhere as
interesting as some of the string usage. The outright horror portions in
Under Paris are treated to insufferably abrasive music,
"Submarine Threat" a terrible warning of the kind of synthetically
obnoxious climax to come. In the end,
Under Paris is a functional
score with some smart ideas around the margins, but its themes never
create a meaningful tapestry, and the rendering of the general style
isn't distinct enough to remain in memory. The long album will test your
patience, your desire for anything truly compelling from the music never
satisfied.
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