De L'Amour
Bruno Coulais
" It’s a toned down and refreshing score "Written by Joep de Bruijn - Review of the regular release
Bruno Coulais has written scores for films such as Himalaya - L'Enfance D'Un Chef, Microcosmos: Le Peuple de l'Herbe and La Planète Blanche. The French composer sometimes experiments with fusing of electronics and orchestra for modern dramas and crime thrillers. On Agents Secrets he aimed for an over-exaggerated cool electronic/orchestral fusion, which worked for the overstylized film. With the outstanding music for De L'Amour he wrote a score that had the right kind of balance.
De L'Amour was directed by Jean-François Richet and starred Virginie Ledoyen, Yazid Aït en Mar Sodupe. The film is about Maria and the social conditions of her immigrant neighbourhood. When she attempts to steal something she gets herself caught and is sentenced to prison. Inside she's degraded by a prison ward, changing her life for good.
The score opens with the sublime 10.35 cue called "La Cabine" for which Coulais combines orchestral minimalism and lots of crescendos with little, repeating electronic trip hop samples. The symphonic elegance has everything a perfect suite should have and fluidly fuses with the electronics. It's a surprisingly good way of getting the social themes incorporated into the score, without ruining the very portly quality of the piece.
In asking him about this cue in an interview conducted by someone else he replied:
For "La Cabine", the trip hop element comes right at the end of the movie, right when a long and obsessive sequence ends. By the repetition of its rhythmic cell, it helps the narrative move forward but also plays and goes alone with the Time as well. The orchestra which is added in there also plays a rather emotion role and gives a redemptive aspect to the character.
Somehow, the music is a savior for the character who is otherwise a monster. The combination of these two elements, trip hop and traditional orchestration, plays on two different sides but their fusion comes along very naturally, I hope.
After the heavenly 10 minutes of music Coulais loses the electronics and focuses on mostly small and subtle melodic music. He re-uses passages of the opening cue throughout the remaining length of the score. There are just eight more cues, providing you with a mere 13 minutes of score left to enjoy. And all of them are rich in emotion and (mostly) of a subtle nature, easily matching the overwhelming quality of ("La Cabine"). The slow and melodic music is so well performed by the woodwinds and string section of the orchestra that it virtually becomes impossible to be unaffected by it. De L'amour is by all means a sad score.
I would have to rank De L'Amour as one of, if not the best and most moving Coulais scores. It's a toned down and refreshing score that will remain in my, and hopefully your, heart forever. Despite the short length I can assure everyone that every single note is worth it.
Tracklisting
1. La Cabine (10.32)
2. Le Divan (1.45)
3. La Douche (1.45)
4. La Provocation (1.37)
5. Le Chenil (2.11)
6. La Vitre (0.44)
7. La Cellule (0.48)
8. Le Bled (1.23)
9. Générique Début (2.37)
Total Length: 23.22
De L'Amour was directed by Jean-François Richet and starred Virginie Ledoyen, Yazid Aït en Mar Sodupe. The film is about Maria and the social conditions of her immigrant neighbourhood. When she attempts to steal something she gets herself caught and is sentenced to prison. Inside she's degraded by a prison ward, changing her life for good.
The score opens with the sublime 10.35 cue called "La Cabine" for which Coulais combines orchestral minimalism and lots of crescendos with little, repeating electronic trip hop samples. The symphonic elegance has everything a perfect suite should have and fluidly fuses with the electronics. It's a surprisingly good way of getting the social themes incorporated into the score, without ruining the very portly quality of the piece.
In asking him about this cue in an interview conducted by someone else he replied:
For "La Cabine", the trip hop element comes right at the end of the movie, right when a long and obsessive sequence ends. By the repetition of its rhythmic cell, it helps the narrative move forward but also plays and goes alone with the Time as well. The orchestra which is added in there also plays a rather emotion role and gives a redemptive aspect to the character.
Somehow, the music is a savior for the character who is otherwise a monster. The combination of these two elements, trip hop and traditional orchestration, plays on two different sides but their fusion comes along very naturally, I hope.
After the heavenly 10 minutes of music Coulais loses the electronics and focuses on mostly small and subtle melodic music. He re-uses passages of the opening cue throughout the remaining length of the score. There are just eight more cues, providing you with a mere 13 minutes of score left to enjoy. And all of them are rich in emotion and (mostly) of a subtle nature, easily matching the overwhelming quality of ("La Cabine"). The slow and melodic music is so well performed by the woodwinds and string section of the orchestra that it virtually becomes impossible to be unaffected by it. De L'amour is by all means a sad score.
I would have to rank De L'Amour as one of, if not the best and most moving Coulais scores. It's a toned down and refreshing score that will remain in my, and hopefully your, heart forever. Despite the short length I can assure everyone that every single note is worth it.
Tracklisting
1. La Cabine (10.32)
2. Le Divan (1.45)
3. La Douche (1.45)
4. La Provocation (1.37)
5. Le Chenil (2.11)
6. La Vitre (0.44)
7. La Cellule (0.48)
8. Le Bled (1.23)
9. Générique Début (2.37)
Total Length: 23.22