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Alexandre Desplat's The Shape of Water (2017)


Jonesy

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8 hours ago, Fancyarcher said:

Scored sounded very lovely in the film. Curious to listen it on its own. 

Oh so it's probably just low droning synth sounds. "Pulsating heart beat of the film", the reviews call it. ;)

 

Karol

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It' not bad ("The City of 1000 Planets" and "Spaceship Chase" had good cues) but (in my tastes) I prefer soft and ellagic pièces from him, like "Girl with a Pearl Earring" or "Birth".

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6 hours ago, crocodile said:

Oh so it's probably just low droning synth sounds. "Pulsating heart beat of the film", the reviews call it. ;)

 

Karol

 

You might say that. There were some darker moments that were clearly scored with "Zimmer-lite noise". Death of film music and all. 

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On 15.11.2017 at 2:51 AM, Fancyarcher said:

 

It  was very melodically, beautiful, and "French" too. It was even dark at points. My favorite bit of music played during the dance sequence, which much like the film was very "magical", and "whimsical" sounding.

This description makes me tentatively optimistic about the music.

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I really like the track "Watching Ruth," especially from about :48 to 1:25 when it turns very sweepingly romantic in an "old Hollywood doomed lovers" kind of way.

 

I also like that theme that closes out the track.  The one I think first introduced in "Elisa and Zelda."

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The score doesn't really get going until the second half, but once it does, it contains some of Desplat's best work this year. I would say every cue after the lengthy "The Escape," are 4 stars cues, especially the gorgeous "Overflow of Love," "Without You," and "Rainy Day." In those cues, Desplat really added in the layers of instruments, highlighting the jazzy charm and quiet romance of the score.

 

It is also worth noting that it is refreshing to hear another score this year that attempts to build both thematic core and atmosphere. The score is not bombastic for the sake of being bombastic, and it doesn't just douse you with atmospheric noise the whole time. it contains a good amount of both.

 

For me, a first listen is probably a ***1/2 but a full **** is perfectly reasonable (and probably more objective).

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It's not exactly originality galore and as usual (for this kind of Desplat) has lots of dead air where musically nothing is happening (if you subtract the handful of pleasing variations of the main material in the second half) but he really wrote a cool theme. So 3 out of 5 seems warranted. No patch on the Greenwood, though (as expected that was).

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