Customer Reviews

Black Book [Music from the Music Picture]

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This is a wonderful album for anyone who loved director Paul Verhoven's subtitled Dutch World War II thriller of the same name. Not only does it have the entire version of up and coming actress Carice van Houten's "A Hundred Years From Today" that was played in snippets in the movie but also all of Anne Dudley's orchestrations that conveyed so many emotions and gave the filmed action so much power. Great for listening to as one drives about town or over a bottle of wine at home.

Director Paul Verhoeven's first Dutch-language film since 1983 - and arguably his most critically acclaimed since then too - Black Book, aka Zwartboek, is a World War 2 drama starring Carice Van Houten as Rachel, a Jewish woman in German-occupied Netherlands, who infiltrates the regional SS office on behalf of the Dutch Resistance. Working undercover in the office of the Commandant, Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch), and reporting back to her allies on the activities of the Nazis, Rachel soon finds herself questioning her loyalties when she unexpectedly falls in love with the man on whom she is spying - and who, she knows, is likely to eventually meet his death at the hands of her comrades. Oscar winner Anne Dudley's score for the film is fully orchestral, but quite dark and subdued in tone, as one might expect given the film's dramatic subject matter, and also contains its fair share of dramatic tension and action. The central motif, "Rachel's Theme", is a sorrowfully beautiful string lament which forms the cornerstone of later cues such as "In Too Deep", and during the tragedy-laden finale from "Victims of the Occupation" through to "The Endless River". Dudley has often shown a surprising aptitude for solid action and suspense music in her scores, and here cues such as "Escape Through the Marshes", the marvelously exciting "In Pursuit", the icy "Escape Plans", and the dramatic "Escape by Sea" continue the trend. Every now and again there's a fleeting moment, a phrase here, a brief performance technique, that sounds like something Basil Poledouris or Jerry Goldsmith might have written - Verhoeven's two career-long collaborators who have now of course passed away - which makes you wonder what one of them might have brought to the table here. But, irrespective of that, Dudley's score is more than accomplished, and is one of 2007's better efforts in the genre.

beautiful songs and music scores throughout the well directed, scripted and acted wwll movie. what i love most is the subtlety of anchoring the songs and music scores right on time and at the right moments when it should be appeared or heard. it also remind me how the hollywood did poor jobs to so many movies about their music scores, they never realized that music scores in a movie should not become so obviously annoying and dominant to disturb an appropriate viewing experience. almost every movie now out of hollywood is flooded with overdone music scores, it still remain at the stage of when movie industries need music to emphasize or to support the acting and the storyline. from the early 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s until now, they are still staying at the same stage, using music score to synchronize the movements of the actors just like walter disney's cartoons, using music to express every movement of what the cartoon figures performed. they never realized movies played by human actors don't want too much music to support their actings. good movies never need too much disturbing and annoying music to help the development of a storyline. music scores are only needed when some of the moments need to be accommodated or emphasized. actors in a movie are not like duffy duck, donald duck, might mouse, goofy, road runner, tom and jerry, the cat, the mouse and the canary. they are not cartoon figures, they don't need music to mimic their expressions or movements, or just flooded the music score so mindlessly.
the music and songs in 'black book' were all smartly and appropriately inserted. they never bother your hearing and viewing. and the german songs are also pretty good to hear.