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December 26, 2008

Update - Mothertongue Composer Nico Muhly Scores New Stephen Daldry Film

A while back I interviewed Nico Muhly about horror movies and his score for the creeptacular 2007 film Joshua; additionally, Muhly's album Mothertongue was one of my favorite albums of 2008. I just glanced at his blog and realized that he composed the score for Stephen Daldry's new movie The Reader, which stars Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. I've been really curious about this movie... has anyone seen it yet who would care to report?

All of Muhly's albums -- Mothertongue, Speaks Volumes, Joshua, and The Reader -- are available on iTunes. I like to imagine that in some parallel universe, we're good friends who occasionally take each other out for brunch at some forgotten joint in an unfashionable Manhattan neighborhood where there's no one else dining who's younger than 65.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The Reader" is another one of those films (usually adaptations recent novels) that strives painfully to project a kind of high-minded literary sensitivity. If you listen carefully, you can hear the echoed whispers: hey academy voters, this is real quality shit here!
The filmscore is wan, watery, and surprisingly absent of anything to distinguish it from the work of any number of Hollywood's usual soundtrack suspects.

Anonymous said...

Haven't seen it, but it does seem to be the latest in a long line of "good Nazi" movies.

Tom said...

I'm not intrinsically opposed to striving for high-minded literary sensitivity -- adaptation is very tricky work. Having only previewed this score on iTunes, I think it's obvious that this is essentially technical work, or technical artistry if you prefer. I'm glad Nico gets to assert himself artistically via his albums, but if you think his work here seems to be "of a certain type" and is in a film that's also of that type, then I suppose it's the sign of an able collaborateur that he was able to provide what was asked for.