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COLETTE – Thomas Adès
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There is always a slight frisson through the classical music fraternity whenever a respected contemporary concert hall composer writes a film score. It happened when John Corigliano scored (and won an Oscar for) The Red Violin in 1999. It happened when Sir John Tavener contributed music to Children of Men in 2006. And now the latest composer to ‘slum it’ in the world of film is Englishman Thomas Adès, the wunderkind behind such acclaimed classical works as The Exterminating Angel, Powder on Her Face, Asyla, and The Tempest. What invariably happens is that these esteemed composers thoroughly enjoy the process of writing for film, and comment on how difficult it is and how much it stretched their creative abilities, while the highbrow music press writes lavish articles about the composer’s experiences, offering backhanded compliments about the genre while continuing to look down their nose at the entire industry as a ‘lesser art form’. Of course, the other thing that invariably happens is that the classical composer writes a tremendous piece of music too, and this is exactly what has happened here with Adès’s score for Colette. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 1
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the first installment in what will become an on-going series of articles looking at some of the best under-the-radar scores from around the world – music from films and television projects which, for one reason or another, may not receive the international attention they deserve.
This first article looks at eleven scores from 2013, primarily drawn from the German and wider European film music scene. They include an epic German historical drama about dreams of emigration to America, a Czech Holocaust romance, a bittersweet comedy-drama about a young woman living with cancer, a German western about settlers in 19th-century America, a lyrical Turkish period drama about two poets in love, an intellectual journey into the dark history of Portugal’s Salazar dictatorship, a spectacular nature documentary exploring the North Sea, a family drama about the bond between a rebellious teenager and a horse, an orchestral fantasy adventure involving time travel, an ambitious World War II television drama following five young German friends, and an intimate documentary examining one family’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease. The composers featured include Michael Riessler, Atli Örvarsson, Johan Hoogewijs, Karim Sebastian Elias, Rahman Altin, Annette Focks, Oliver Heuss, Philipp F. Kölmel, Fabian Römer, and Jessica de Rooij.
COLETTE – Atli Örvarsson
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Colette is a Czech film, directed by Milan Cieslar and based on the celebrated, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “A Girl from Antwerp” by Arnost Lustig. The film reveals the author’s personal experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, his own recollections of several escape attempts from the hell that was Auschwitz, but most unexpectedly the romantic attraction and love he developed for a female fellow inmate. The film stars Jirí Mádl and Clémence Thioly, and opened in theaters in Europe in September 2013 to general acclaim.
It’s always interesting to me how different certain composers sound when they write music independently, away from the oversight of the Remote Control organization. Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson, who has worked with Hans Zimmer for years, wrote the score for Colette, and it’s a beauty. Read more…
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