For Italian composer Dario Marianelli,
V for
Vendetta is yet another entry in his first year of scoring
mainstream international films of significant attention. After his
highly acclaimed, relentlessly dense score for
The Brothers Grimm
in early 2005, Marianelli wrote, among several other projects, a
classically-inspired score for
Pride & Prejudice that garnered
him his first Academy Award nomination. Without missing a beat,
V for
Vendetta extends the orchestral and choral mastery heard in
The
Brothers Grimm with solid results. The most interesting aspect of
The Brothers Grimm a year prior was Marianelli's ability to write
music phenomenally active and intelligently layered without allowing it
to become a chaotic mess. Like Debbie Wiseman's
Arsène
Lupin, Marianelli's work fascinated with dense, melodic structures
that are refreshing to hear after years of repetitive and often
underdeveloped American action music. Every bit as symphonically
interesting,
V for Vendetta presents a difficult, but rewarding
array of brutal writing that impresses once again with its sheer weight.
Somewhat missing from
V for Vendetta, however, are Marianelli's
acute romantic sensibilities, with even the thematic representation for
the Evey character (a common victim played by Natalie Portman)
languishing in restrained performances of a tonal, but troubled rising
progression of underplayed tragedy. The only exception is the lengthy
"Valerie" cue, in which a melancholy solo piano follows one of
Marianelli's softer rhythmic progressions for strings and choir (and
oddly similar in style to
Batman Begins).
The battle between government and rebel is done justice
by Marianelli's militaristic cues, utilizing all of the percussive
elements of
The Brothers Grimm into outstanding rhythmic blasts
of sound usually punctuated by seemingly overdubbed brass (or simply an
expanded brass section size or mix). Even the opening of the score, with
snare and timpani rips, features a crispness in sound quality that sets
an ominous minor-key bass for the faintly heroic major-key brass that
whirls in the shadows of Britain's glorious past. Choral mixes in
V
for Vendetta present the adult voices in appropriate crescendos,
though the film doesn't afford Marianelli the ability to haul off with
magnificent choral majesty as he has done before. Electronics play a
larger role in this score as well, with some of the synthesized rhythms
from his previous work accentuated as the rolling action of the film
frantically ticks with an appropriate musical reference to explosives.
Sparse electric guitars build the futuristic setting in the background.
Aside from quiet religious chanting at the outset of "Lust at the
Abbey," Marianelli's work here is always disconcerting in tone,
balancing on the edge of becoming a horror score, though always
maintaining enough elegance in execution to retain its dramatic roots.
The final cue features a surprising climax: Tchaikovsky's "1812
Overture," complete with the sounds of fireworks added by Marianelli,
once again symbolizes victory in Europe. This, as well as the three
source songs (either from the classic era or in mellow contemporary
performances), breaks the firm grip of Marianelli's score. It may not
stun you with its memorability, but
V for Vendetta will entertain
you with Marianelli's continuously intelligent ideas.
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