MOVIE MUSIC UK

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

The Scent of Green Papaya (L’Odeur de la Papaye Verte in French, Mùi Đu Đủ Xanh in its native Vietnam) is a Vietnamese drama film, the feature debut of director Tran Anh Hung. Filmed with a cast of mostly non-professional actors, the film presents a poignant portrayal of Mui, a young girl from the countryside, as she transitions into adulthood while working as a servant for a middle-class family in Saigon. Set in 1951 against the backdrop of a Vietnam trying to find its place in the world following the end of French colonial rule, the movie meticulously captures the essence of the country’s culture, landscapes, and traditions, and follows Mui as she navigates her daily life within the confines of the household. When the family’s father absconds with their life savings, the tireless mother is forced to support the family through the slim profits of her tiny fabric store. As the family struggles to make ends meet, Mui becomes attracted to a friend of the family, Khuyen, who has ambitions to be a concert pianist. A decade later, and with the family in dire financial straits, Mui is sent to work in Khuyen’s home. Mui initially serves him as she has served the family – with perfection and silence – but gradually Khuyen begins to take notice of Mui’s love for him.

The film has been described as less of a narrative movie and more of a cinematic tone poem, a visual and emotional experience that invites viewers to reflect on themes of love, loss, and the human spirit. The film’s exquisite cinematography was especially lauded, and it went on to win the prestigious Camera d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the first ever submission from Vietnam for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it did not make the final list of the five nominees.

Music plays an important role in The Scent of Green Papaya. Considering that Mui speaks infrequently throughout the film, the music that accompanies her story has to express her emotions in direct ways, and to that end director Tran sought out the services of the acclaimed Franco-Vietnamese classical composer Tiết Tôn-Thất, and convinced him to write what would be his first ever film score. Tôn-Thất was born in the city of Hue in Vietnam in 1933, but moved to France in his 20s and studied composition at the Conservatoire de Paris. In the 1970s he established himself as one of the most interesting young composers of the period, writing music that blended traditional classicism with the sound of his homeland. That approach is very much apparent in the music for The Scent of Green Papaya, which uses western classical textures and familiar orchestral sounds, but blends them with instruments and harmonic language clearly derived from Vietnamese folk music traditions.

Tôn-Thất’s score is based around two recurring ideas, entitled “Estampe,” and “Interlude,” and the various variations thereof. The ensemble he uses is a delicate combination of harp, violin, synths, flute, cello, and percussion, and a lot of the music is quite abstract, offering unusual and seemingly improvised collisions of sounds and textures that are fascinating, but never really ‘come together’ in traditional ways. This can be seen as a musical reflection of Mui’s reaction to being in a new environment – the rural countryside, vs the bustling city of Saigon – and the unorthodox family dynamics that Mui has to navigate in her new servant role.

What this also means is that, for large parts of its running time, the score can feel quite inaccessible. Tôn-Thất isn’t writing music that’s designed to appeal to western ears; he’s writing music that is basically an approximation of what western music would sound like to a peasant girl who has never experienced it before. When you combine this with the fact that Mui’s emotions and reactions to her new life are all over the place, and the fact that as a 10-year-old she doesn’t really have the capacity to process them properly, it makes sense that Tôn-Thất would write the score in this way – but the problem with that, if you can call it a problem, is that this constant feeling of oddness and mild musical disorientation continues to persist.

It is not until “Estampe 8” that the first hints of Mui’s curious attraction to Khuyen begin to make themselves felt, although even here these are quickly overtaken by intense string passages filled with nervousness and agitation. Some other interesting cues include “Interlude A1” and “Interlude A2,” both of which use electronic textures in a more prominent way, and “Interlude B,” which is jangly and percussive. Elsewhere, “Estampe 7” and “Estampe 11” feature keening, eerie cello textures that illustrate further some of the more unnerving aspects of Mui’s life in the family household.

However, once the time shift occurs and Mui finds herself, aged 20, working in the household of Khuyen and his beautiful mistress, the music changes slightly, and begins to adopt a more approachable, more sophisticated sound, more rooted in familiar western music. The flute writing in “Estampe 13” feels playful and whimsical, and then by the time of “Estampe 14” and “La Recherche” the music has even begun to adopt some subtle flavors of period jazz, especially in the pianos.

The album is rounded out by three classical piano performances by Geneviève Ibanez, including two Chopin preludes, as well as Debussy’s famous Clair de Lune, which are representative of Khuyen’s sophisticated life as a concert pianist. There are also two pieces of source music, “Pièce Ancienne” by Co Dieu, and “Communion” by Cam Thong.

Tiết Tôn-Thất went on to work with director Tran on several other acclaimed films, including Cyclo in 1996, and The Vertical Ray of the Sun in 2001, but has not worked in cinema since 2006, and is now 91 years old, living in Paris, and mostly retired. For me, The Scent of Green Papaya remains his best and most important contribution to film music, and if you only ever hear one score by him, this is the one to hear. The blend of eastern textures with western orchestrations, the fascinating dissonances, and the gentle, almost subliminal, romantic ideas, make for an engaging, if unusual, soundtrack experience. Its persistent oddness might not make it an immediate favorite with those less inclined to embrace abstraction, but I find it quietly entrancing.

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Track Listing:

• Estampe 1 (1:58)
• Interlude A1 (0:36)
• Interlude B (0:54)
• Estampe 2 (0:34)
• Estampe 3 (0:32)
• Estampes 4- 5 (0:48)
• Estampes 6-7 (1:39)
• Interlude A2 (0:32)
• Estampe 8 (2:38)
• Estampe 2 Bis (0:28)
• Estampes 9-10 (2:30)
• Estampe 11 (0:46)
• Estampe 2 Reprise (0:35)
• Estampe 12 (0:42)
• Estampe 13 (0:54)
• Estampe 14 (4:00)
• Improvisation (Extrait) (0:15)
• La Recherche (1:38)
• Pièce Ancienne (written by Co Dieu) (2:14)
• Communion (written by Cam Thong) (2:08)
• Clair de Lune from Suite de Bergamasque (written by Claude Debussy, performed by Geneviève Ibanez) (6:16)
• Prélude N°23 (written by Frédéric Chopin, performed by Geneviève Ibanez) (1:07)
• Prélude N°24 (written by Frédéric Chopin, performed by Geneviève Ibanez) (2:28)
• Interlude A1 (Reprise) (0:34)
• Estampe 1 (Reprise) (1:57)
• Interlude B (Reprise) (0:58)

Milan East 887-794 (1994)

Running Time: 39 minutes 41 seconds

Music composed and conducted by Tiết Tôn-Thất. Orchestrations by An Tôn-Thất. Recorded and mixed by XXXX. Edited by XXXX. Album produced by Tiết Tôn-Thất.