Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,212
Written 2/4/05, Revised 10/24/11
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Buy it... if you can relax to consistently dramatic, somber string
writing that reflects Angelo Badalamenti's usual brooding methods in a
fashion respectful and dignified, lonely and depressing.
Avoid it... if you prefer not to spend your day envisioning a
funeral procession, no matter how beautiful the music may be.
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| Badalamenti |
A Very Long Engagement: (Angelo Badalamenti) Met
with critical praise across the world, A Very Long Engagement is
the 2004 film adaptation of the Sebastien Japrisot novel about love lost
during the height of the first World War. The film reunites director
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and lead actress Audrey Tatou from 2001's
Amelie and tells the sweeping tale of a young woman who distrusts
her government's insistence that her fiancee was court-martialed and
sent to the front lines of the war for what would likely mean a certain
death. She launches herself on her own lengthy investigation, allowing
the audience to live through the trauma of loss as she pieces the truth
together, and the film's main appeal exists in the scenery that
contributed to the film's sizable budget. Recognition of the merits of
A Very Long Engagement, an arthouse entry of a limited appeal but
enjoying a lasting reputation of strength, extended almost immediately
to composer Angelo Badalamenti's score for the project. Ever the
experimenter, Badalamenti is best known for his collaboration with
director David Lynch and all of the bizarre results that are usually
spawned from Lynch films. His sense of brooding is almost unmatched, a
master of maintaining extremely depressing textures highlighted
sometimes by darkly melodramatic themes. On the surface, Badalamenti
would be a curious, if not risky choice for a film with the traditional
emotional weight of A Very Long Engagement, for the composer's
works are also often punctuated by synthetic tones not congruent with a
period film. Despite his orchestrally inclined scores for a handful of
better known projects (Cousins and The Straight Story), it
is outlandish or dazed music such as Blue Velvet and Arlington
Road that defines his career. Badalamenti is no stranger to foreign
movies, however, which is where most of his work exists, and his
involvement with A Very Long Engagement marked the second
collaboration between the composer and Jeunet (the previous one being
The City of Lost Children, a downbeat score punctuated by one of
the saddest original songs ever to exist in a film). The accomplishment
of Badalamenti for this 2004 score is significant, however, because he
manages to utilize electronic tones alongside an orchestral ensemble to
accentuate the mournful journey at the heart of the story without
allowing the synthetic elements to disrupt the score's
appropriateness.
If there is one defining characteristic of the music
for
A Very Long Engagement that was perhaps totally predictable
ahead of time, it's Badalamenti's overwhelming sense of somber
alienation. The score's main weakness is its extremely tearful
personality, even more drab than the composer's usual depressing
approach. It's a downer from the opening cue to the final minute,
rivaling the film's equally troubling journey with an attitude both
respectful and dignified while maintaining a very restrained minor-key
solace. Built almost entirely for strings, the broad strokes of largely
tonal shifts are accompanied by brass whole notes in a fashion that
combines the grimmest moments of James Horner and John Barry. In the
opening cue, a very lightly mixed snare drum over the heavy strings and
whispering brass account for the most volume heard anywhere in the
score, with few crescendos to be encountered thereafter. Badalamenti
makes sure to break your heart with the few melodramatic rises that do
exist, however, building up to them in the major key (as in "Kissing
Through Glass") and eventually pulling you back to the ground with a
sudden return to the minor. Without much counterpoint, the strings
perform their simple themes in unison and never with enthusiasm,
creating a loneliness that does begin to drag on the soundtrack album's
appeal after 30 minutes. Variation is sparse, with electronic choral
sampling in "Heartbeat to a Gunshot" and a variety of ambient synthetic
pulsation effects thereafter serving as perhaps the most inconsistent
element. Woodwinds sometimes flutter in the distance, and the percussion
does make itself heard with an occasional rumble. The only truly
memorable aspect of Badalamenti's contribution to the film is the title
character's theme, appearing in full during "Mathilde's Theme" and
flourishing after the score's midway point, especially in "Our Soldiers'
Letters" and "End Titles." This theme represents the score in concert
arrangements. On the whole, even if you're an enthusiast of tonally
brooding, depressing orchestral works, be forewarned that
A Very Long
Engagement features no magical element of tragedy in its melancholy
personality. Nor does it have the same overbearing, resonating power of
a James Horner string ensemble. True to its European roots, it practices
restraint, and it is exactly that drab and ultimately non-descript
character that reduces the score's accessibility. For such a resilient
young woman at the heart of the tale, there is surprisingly little
determination outside of the alternating string motif in the primary
theme's interlude. Still, beauty comes in many forms, and Badalamenti's
score is certainly beautiful, albeit in the kind of fashion you'd expect
to hear at a funeral procession.
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