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Oh, why did THAT cue have to be cut from the film? (The Painted Veil)
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Topic: Oh, why did THAT cue have to be cut from the film? (The Painted Veil)
franz_conrad
Standard Userer
Just finished watching John Curran's film of THE PAINTED VEIL, a moving adaptation of the Somerset-Maugham novel about Europeans in China. It's interesting... this production has so much in common with the recent Merchant-Ivory production THE WHITE COUNTESS, right down to a limited budget, and yet PAINTED VEIL is by far the more convincing film. Performances and scripting are a solid foundation for some truly fine production values.A big part of the film is Alexandre Desplat's fine score. I thought his work in THE QUEEN was particularly fine film scoring, but this is something else again. I wish the Oscar nomination he received for THE QUEEN had been for this instead... or even for both, they're both pretty strong. All four of the main themes follow the story in their development carefully, with select use of piano, electric cello and occasional violin solos well chosen. This is great music, and great film music. The film presentation is a lot more fragmented than the album - which nicely prioritises the musical experience above an exact re-enactment of the complete cue list.
However, and this pertains to the title of this thread, I was dismayed that the film-makers felt it necessary to abandon musical continuity for the denouement. The finale relies on the song 'A La Claire Fontaine' as sung by children, suspending most sound effects and atmosphere for almost four and a half minutes. What is disappointing is that the musical summation of Desplat's development of the Kitty theme, 'From Shanghai to London', was clearly written for the second half of this sequence.
Start Desplat's cue as the camera tracks past the Chinese doctor working at his desk, and it beautifully underscores the following scenes of Kitty's emotional breakdown and departure, ending on that grand final helicopter shot of the boat heading back down the river. The cue change points are nicely thought out, the relationship to the rest of the score is considered, and the whole thing would've lent this final sequence more gravity, I feel, than the use of the song did. What a shame that it will take a soundtrack fan with more than a passing interest to see the film's ending as it could have been.
posted 02-25-2007 06:42 AM PT (US) Dinko
Standard Userer
Hey, as long as the cue is on the CD, who cares about the movie?
This reminds me of Richard Rodney Bennett talking about Swann - A Murder Mystery. In the liner notes, he says it was the first time music he wrote for a movie was used as he had written it. Or to quote the man himself:
quote:
from liner notes of Swann: A murder mystery
Very often the composer of film music is used as a kind of interior decorator, to glamorize and romanticize, to cover up imperfections, even to create illusions. Music can make film scenes move faster and look more exciting, more mysterious, more erotic, and so on. It can also add a trendy gloss to a slightly tarnished product.But every now and then, as in [Swann - A Murder Mystery], music plays an indispensable role. [...]
I should state that in forty years of writing film music, this is the first time that any score of mine has been played a) in exactly the places for which it was intended and b) at the ideal levels at which it balances perfectly with the dialogue and effects tracks.[...]
posted 02-25-2007 10:50 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB