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Volker Bertelmann's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)


Bespin

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I just saw the movie, well it's a very moody score.

 

When there are slow repetitives big "brammmms" that sounds like a big horn (but made by a modified very bass note from an Harmonium I think), I don't think they occur each time in the movie in a good moment or scene, that's a bit (a bit?) distracting, but, hey, they wanted that... it seems.

 

Overall, the score has a very synthetic sound, the softer parts are very ambiant and they fit well in the movie I think.

 

It may "work" in the movie, but I don't think it makes a good album to (re)listen many times... The repetitive sounds and percussions (often very cyclic), the noises, etc. The approach here is closer to "musical design" than "musical composition" for me.

 

But, eh, some movies just need that it seems.

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I haven't seen the film, but after The Fabelmans, it's the score I liked most, in comparison to the others.

Sure, it's sound designy, and I'm usually not into such kind of scores, but I don't know, I liked it..

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By the way, I just found out on facebook:

Did you know that the composer is known as Hauschka an had earned another Oscar nomination for the cowriting of the score to Lion in 2016?

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I had no idea he was Hauschka. I remember liking his music years ago. I went to a small performance of Winged Victory for the Sullen in a church with Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka many years ago.

 

 

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1 hour ago, filmmusic said:

By the way, I just found out on facebook:

Did you know that the composer is known as Hauschka an had earned another Oscar nomination for the cowriting of the score to Lion in 2016?

 

Yes.  I believe he is married to the violinist Hilary Hahn, with whom he collaborated on the album Silfra a few years ago.

 

Of course Hilary has some previous in the world of film music, having performed the violin solos on James Newton Howard's The Village and more recently on Andrew Hewitt's The Sea.

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13 minutes ago, Stark said:

I’ve liked some of Volker’s earlier work but there is nothing to enjoy in All Quiet’s score.

 

Yeah, same here. Some decent things in the past, but more often than not he subscribes to rather anonymous textures. 2022 was a low in that category, with both ALL QUIET and the Norwegian war movie WAR SAILOR being of the same ilk (the latter not released, AFAIK, but he sent me some cues).

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I haven’t seen the film yet but listened to a few cues on YouTube. I’m a fan of the Dunkirk score so I’m not opposed to experimental scores, but so far AQOTWF isn’t my thing.

 

I’m planning on watching the film so maybe it works better in context.

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For me, as I know for many kther, the score almost ruined (parts of) the film.

 

It was so jarring at times. I'm not a fan. And I feel that this was one of the weakest score nominees/winner ever. But, what can you do about. Better luck next year.

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8 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Nah, Santaollala's scores were the least deserving. Social Network isn't for everyone but it's a creative score. It's just not orchestral.

Oh I don’t care if a score is orchestral or not and like I said, I think Gone Girl is a good score, I just thought that there were a lot better scores in 2010 that deserved to win. Inception HTTYD HP7 to name a few.

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Well it's a WWI movie told by the "losers" point of view. The purpose of the music is indeed to highlight the absurdity, the creepiness, the violence, the nonsense of some situations. The movie is very crude. It's the perfect opposite of a patriotic war movie.

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A score, a best score at that, needs to work and be enjoyable on its own. Nobodys spinning Hildur's Joker and Volker's score here multiple times a year I guarantee it. Maybe one or two tracks...but that's it.

 

Even The Social Network (JWFan hated this score or at least hated that it won) is listenable AND enjoyable on its own.

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1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

Nah, Santaollala's scores were the least deserving. Social Network isn't for everyone but it's a creative score. It's just not orchestral.

 

Babel is an especially embarrassing winner. At least Brokeback Mountain's score choked people up even if it's simplistic, I get that. I'm convinced everyone who voted for Babel thought he wrote Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Bibo No Aozora" at the end. I walked out of the movie loving the music too ;)

 

You had Javier Navarette for Pan's Labyrinth, Alexandre Desplat for The Queen, Philip Glass for Notes on a Scandal, and Thomas Newman for The Good German, any of these would have been better. 

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Brokeback has that guitar theme that is sort of nice, I grant you. Babel will forever be a monument to the academy's near parody that year, when it essentially managed to give the award to one of the year's worst scores. I can't even remember what element of that film drew voters in - we weren't yet at that point where socio-political issues were almost entirely defining winners as they are now.

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I liked the score but it follows a trend of minimalism.  Even JW's Fabelman was minimalist but had themes.    AQOTWF was literally just ambiance. Effective for this sort of film but very lousy listening experience.  Being attuned to audio, I did find the score effective in the film as was the sound design.  The sense of impending dread at the approaching tank for instance it does well.  Think about this, at its time, Saving Privat Ryan was a minimalist score for a war film.  This might be the modern version of that.  Many composer friends said they found the score effective as did I.  That must be what the Music branch of the Academy is looking for, how a score fits the film like a glove rather than musical quality.  That might not be a problem. 

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2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Nah, Santaollala's scores were the least deserving. Social Network isn't for everyone but it's a creative score. It's just not orchestral.

I have grown to love Brokeback mountain, although I didn't think much of it in the beginning.

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What I love about Saving Private Ryan is that all the battle scenes are not scored. Then Johnny comes in and rips your heart out with his cues. And it allows you to finally grieve for what you just experienced.

 

SPR is a masterpiece of a score 

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1 minute ago, Bellosh said:

What I love about Saving Private Ryan is that all the battle scenes are not scored. Then Johnny comes in rips your heart out with his cues. And it allows you to finally grieve for what you just experienced.

 

SPR is a masterpiece of a score 

But at its time it was very minimalist.  No score at all for Normandy. No theme other than Hymn to the Fallen which I think is only the credits.

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2 hours ago, filmmusic said:

There is a main theme that is stated a couple of times.

from 0.23''-1.46''

 

That is the Hymn to the Fallen theme.  Through out the film, you don't really hear the theme till the credits. You only hear snap shots.  

 

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2 hours ago, Mr. Who said:

Oh I don’t care if a score is orchestral or not and like I said, I think Gone Girl is a good score, I just thought that there were a lot better scores in 2010 that deserved to win. Inception HTTYD HP7 to name a few.

Gone Girl is one of my favorite electronic scores ever. It is great to listen to AND also works well with the picture.

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It is truly my least favorite of the five nominees, so if it to win, was rather irritating.

 

Listening to this score in and out of context of the film, the best I could get out of it was that Volker went a bit too far on the "farting synth sounds!"

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5 minutes ago, BB-8 said:

I am wondering whether even "farting synths" were introduced to film by JW in Close Encounters?

 

I thought they were Goldsmith's "invention" from the 80s? In either case, I didn't hear much of that in ALL QUIET. It's all more longwinded and droney. 

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So there should be three prizes : one for the best song, one for the best music and one for the best score.

 

Seriously, I think the problem comes from the fact that this score is made to create discomfort, that's not a joy ride!

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15 hours ago, Thor said:

 

Yeah, same here. Some decent things in the past, but more often than not he subscribes to rather anonymous textures. 2022 was a low in that category, with both ALL QUIET and the Norwegian war movie WAR SAILOR being of the same ilk (the latter not released, AFAIK, but he sent me some cues).

I believe War Sailor did get an OST release (eventually), mainly because I recently listened to it :biglaugh: I would say almost the exact same things about it as I say about All Quiet’s score.

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I have know Volker Bertelsmann only from a totally different style of soundtrack, for a computer-animated short film. I quite like the music, especially the "Jurassic Park" citation in the track "Riding the T-Rex", which can be heard in the listening samples here: https://shop.europapark.de/en/CD+Soundtrack+-quot-Nachts+im+Park-quot-.htm

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Bespin said:

So there should be three prizes : one for the best song, one for the best music and one for the best score.

 

Have two or three musical categories so you don't end up treating this horrorfest the same as a comedy score.

 

---

 

I only just noticed that the primary musical device in the first track sounds like a dot matrix printer.

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I haven't seen this film or heard this score outside of it, except that during the Oscars they played a piece from it many times.  It reminded me of Bo-Katan's theme from The Mandalorian

 

 

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Weirdly, I quite like this one. Especially as I've disliked everything that Hauschka (what a silly name) has done in the past. Can't quite explain it. It feels more solid than your typical Zimmer protege crap - compared to Balfe, Bertelmann's work feels more considered. Balfe does these drones as well for the sake of it, Bertelmann does have an intellectual purpose for them....I guess. There's an artistry here that you don't get with a Balfe drone score.

 

And yeah, Gustavo winning those two back to back kind of invalidated the point of the Academy.... for ever? In the 1990s, I would literally buy a CD of every score nominated for an oscar, ending up with delights like Il Postino (irony....and talk about a travesty. Hauschka winning this year is nothing compared to Bacalov and 1995 - frigging Braveheart!). Once they did their comedy/drama score distinction that habit stopped.

 

 

 

 

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People already confuse albums filled with random songs for soundtracks

There is no need to confuse them further by insisting some soundtracks arent 'music'

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1 minute ago, Bespin said:

And the award for the bests synth farts goes to... :P

Right. Time is up to split the award category again.

  • Best Musical Score
  • Best Synth Farts Score

Maybe then at last we would get some Oscars for actual music.

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