Most movie music is so disposable that it barely registers on a viewer.
In one of the big industrial Hollywood action films, the music is generally dwarfed by the ear-splitting sound effects — explosions, guns being fired, screams, collapsing buildings etc.
In the case of the more expensive blockbusters, the producers generally hire some pop or country composer to supply a big ballad that is played under the credits as we exit the theater (that was the case in “Pearl Harbor” in 2001, with Diane Warren earning an Oscar nomination for “There You’ll Be”).
I remember lots of images from “The Dark Knight” and “Wanted” last summer, but not a note of the scores that were written for the two movies. I certainly would not want to own either CD.
This is where the Paris-born Alexandre Desplat stands apart for musical scores that heighten what we are watching on the screen, but also stand alone as works of great beauty worth listening to away from the films.
Last night, I saw “The Curious Case of Banjamin Button” and was bowled over by Desplat’s subtle score that adds to the beauty and strangeness of this tale of a man who ages backwards, from his 80s to infancy. The movie covers almost 100 years and the way that Desplat has been able to boost the emotional content of individual scenes without ever overshadowing what we are watching is amazing.
After scoring dozens of movies in his native France, Desplat made his first big splash here with the music he composed for “Birth” in 2004. Director Jonathan Glazer had such confidence in his composer that he allowed the mood to be set by the music in several otherwise silent sequences.
The climax of the film (above) features its star Nicole Kidman coming to terms with the tragic implications of her future as a hopelessly unhappy new bride. Desplat seems to be entirely in tune with the subtle changes of expression on Kidman’s face and the result is one of the best marriages of music and image I’ve ever seen in a movie.
Desplat works similar magic in more than one key moment in “Benjamin Button.”
Give this Frenchman an Oscar!
