Frida

Elliot Goldenthal

 
" Buy it if you want few spectacular music, a lot of boring songs and nothing of the Elliot Goldenthal you think you know "

Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release

People know Elliot Goldenthal as the man where innovation starts, where boundaries are set to a standard and where surprises are around the corner each and every time. So, when his wife Julie Taymor made another critical acclaimed movie after her groundbreaking version of Titus, husband Elliot Goldenthal was set to make another triumph of Frida, the true story of a female painter in Mexico. Frankly, I know nothing of the story and I haven't seen the movie yet, but you had to come in contact with the score since it won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for best score in 2002.

Goldenthal already received nominations for Michael Collins and the surprising pick Interview with a Vampire, but Frida is different. It is a dramatic movie with a different kind of score. And this release of DG confirms this.

Frida is not exactly the Goldenthal you know, since Mexican based music is new to him and a restraint endeavor like this is normally fairly new to him. And so Frida swept away audiences, but it hasn't swept me away, especially if I consider that other scores have done that instead.

You know, I'm the bombastic type of guy who likes his scores loud, but The Two Towers had simply the best music on the year 2002. And even a light score can do miracles, but Frida doesn't come close to the bouncy and wild themes of Under Fire. And since Goldsmith's effort was forgotten totally by the Oscars, it shows again that the movie has to be successful before the score became a candidate in the list.

Frida has moments, but is largely forgotten because of the Mexican listing of songs, most of which are boring after you heard only 2 of them. The score and songs are mix through each other and make the transition flawless. But this also means that if you forget to listen to the songs, you will forget most of the score with it.

Of the songs, I can only remember the first and last since the opener "Benediction and Dream" is new and interesting at that point, and the last since it brings total diversity from the rest of tracks. It is especially more common to our ears since I'm no fan of Mexican or Spanish music.

The score by Goldenthal is obviously built around the guitar, harmonica, few strings, accordion and occasional sounds of trumpet, saxophone, flutes or something else. "The Floating Bed" is nice since it refers a bit to Under Fire with a nice bouncy theme, never to appear again in the score. "Solo Tu" brings a mix of guitar and violin to create a moment of emotion, harp and guitar appear briefly in "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale", "La Calavera" brings in fact the only real Goldenthal standard sound with out of tones cello and saxophone and "Burning Bed" is the sole track of brilliance with dancing beautiful strings ala Sphere and Heat, together with a wonderful mix of guitar and strings.

If we talk about the score, Goldenthal's tracks bring too little. For me it is underscore which works well in context with the songs, but there are few moments that are Oscar worthy in tone (track 23 is definitely one of them). For me this is once again a score that works better in the film, and because it supported a lovely film it was considered a candidate in the first place. Because on disc, I have nothing much to say about the score, and definitely nothing much about the songs. Frida is light Goldenthal, and I expected more from a score that gave him his first Oscar and Golden Globe win.

Score: ***
Songs: *1/2

Tracklisting

1. Benediction and Dream: Lila Downs * (2.31)
2. The Floating Bed * (1.28)
3. El Conejo: Los Cojolites (2.26)
4. Paloma Negra: Chavela Vargas (3.15)
5. Self-Portrait With Hair Down * (1.08)
6. Alcoba Azul: Lila Downs * (1.35)
7. Carabina 30/30: El Poder Del Norte (2.42)
8. Solo Tu * (1.21)
9. El Gusto: Trio Huasteco Caimanes de Tamuin (2.16)
10. The Journey * (2.55)
11. El Antifaz: Liberacion, Miguel Galindo, Alejandro Marehuala, Gerardo Garcia (2.28)
12. The Suicide of Dorothy Hale * (0.47)
13. La Calavera * (1.38)
14. Lu Bruja: Salma Hayek & Los Vega (1.55)
15. Portrait of Lupe * (2.13)
16. La Llorona: Chavela Vargas (2.22)
17. Estrella Oscura: Lila Downs * (1.46)
18. Still Life * (1.31)
19. Viva La Vida: Trio Marimberos * (2.16)
20. The Departure * (2.12)
21. Coyoacan and Variations * (2.32)
22. La Llorona: Lila Downs & Mariachi Juvenil de Tecalitlan (2.19)
23. Burning Bed * (1.08)
24. Burn It Blue: Caetano Veloso & Lila Downs * (5.27)

* Music by Elliot Goldenthal

Total Length: 52.47
(click to rate this score)  
 
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(total of 14 votes - average 2.86/5)

Released by

Deutsche Grammophon 289 474 150-2 (regular release 2002)

Conducted by

Stephen Mercurio

Orchestrations by

Robert Elhai & Elliot Goldenthal