Celebrate Movie Music with Jean-Yves!
They’ve done it again! First, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - which won an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score in 2006. And now ATONEMENT - which has proven to be a real WINNER! Film music composer DARIO MARIANELLI and pianist JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET’s second artistic collaboration has won both the 2008 GOLDEN GLOBE and ACADEMY AWARDS for BEST ORIGINAL SCORE.
These coveted awards are a sure sign that the young London-based, Italian-born MARIANELLI is well on his way to becoming the dean of film music composers - the heir to John Williams as some have suggested. As to the celebrated THIBAUDET - ATONEMENT is yet another affirmation of his unabashed fondness for movies, as heard in a video interview with FanFaire in which he shares his very refreshingly down-to-earth views on movie music.
As in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, in ATONEMENT, which is THIBAUDET’s fourth foray into film, it is the first piano note that sets off the movie’s plaintive theme, which is interestingly preceded by the rhythmic clacking of typewriter keys (but puzzling to listeners of the CD who, having no clue about the plot, are likely to attribute the strange sounds to a defective disc).
Soon in this musical prologue, piano and typewriter keys are in a race with the violins of the English Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble’s increasingly robust sounds culminating in an almost frenzied crescendo. It is Marianelli’s inspired way of subtly weaving his music into the fabric of the story - one that takes shape in 1935 (when the typewriter was the most mechanically advanced device for the transference of thought to paper) - of a romance brought to a tragic end by a young writer’s imagination run wild.
Indeed, more than a prop, the typewriter is a de facto, not-so-silent character materially present in the movie from beginning to end. It is clear from the inclusion of the clatter of keys in the score that the music, more than accessory or decoration, was a very organic element in the development of this movie.
And MARIANELLI a co-equal partner with the director, JOE WRIGHT, in the crafting of the film - which was how it also worked out in the case of PRIDE and PREJUDICE, their first collaboration and WRIGHT’s first film.
But back to the music, as we usually know it… there are parts in the score in which THIBAUDET’s piano cedes or shares the limelight, if you will, with another solo instrument - CAROLINE DALE’s cello. Whether played solo or in a seeming dialogue with the piano, the result is hauntingly beautiful music that traverses the emotional hills and valleys of this dark, gothic period tale of love and intrigue caught in a war between nations and social classes.
LISTEN TO MUSIC CLIPS:
Click on title below to listen and be at least halfway convinced that the music indeed tells much of the story. Surely the melodies will linger in your memory.
Track 1: BRIONY Track 2: ROBBIE'S NOTE Track 6: FAREWELL
Track 7: LOVE LETTERS Track 9: RESCUE ME Track 10: ELEGY FOR DUNKIRK
BUY the CD or the MP3 DOWNLOAD
BUY JEAN-YVES’ MOVIE ALBUMS:
The Movie Album / MP3 Pride and Prejudice / MP3
Bride of the Wind / MP3 Portrait of a Lady
Visit FanFaire‘s Movie Music pages
