Customer Reviews

The Painted Veil [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The music makes the movie linger and the movie is even better than the book. Too bad the CD does not include the children's A La Claire Fontaine sung near the end of the movie. It has been in my head for days. How could they leave that off? I would have bought the CD just for that little haunting song.

Yes, it was certainly a disappointment that 'A la claire fontaine' was not included on this soundtrack. Still, the CD showcases Alexandre Desplat's beautiful and creative score. It is so subtle, surreal, and lush. I listen to it anytime I am writing or going to sleep. Lang Lang is a brilliant pianist and his rendition of Erik Satie's first Gnossienne is marvelous. Funny thing is, I also thought that the movie was better than the book. It's a shame that it wasn't made very public. It seems like a select group of little theatres played it and then it was gone. I thought that it would certainly have scored several nominations (although it did win the Golden Globe for best score). I highly recommend this exquisite, elaborate collection of music.

I think this is a beautiful score. The music is full, complex and evocative. It may not be loud and boastful, but that was not the character of the movie. There are some asian instruments used, which provide a nice accent. I'd recommend this to someone looking for instrumental music which doesn't sound like the same classics over and over.

With all due to respect to Ms. Vincentelli, true film score fans will absolutely adore this gorgeous Desplat offering, which I consider his best yet. Romantic, lush, suspenseful--this score has it all. While it contains some of the subdued quality, and in certain parts, reminds one of Desplat's The Birth, this is yet another original piece from one of the most exciting newer composers out there.

Alexandre Desplat is a gifted composer as he has demonstrated in the many fine film scores that lengthen his resume yearly. In electing to set a mood for the film THE PAINTED VEIL he relies heavily on solo instrument moments. One of these recurring moments is the Erik Satie Gnossienne No. 1 played by Lang Lang. While Satie is not one of Lang Lang's specialties he does play the work with the simplicity it requires.

Elsewhere in the score Desplat conducts the Prague Symphony Orchestra in his evocative yet still simple orchestral music that enhances not only the party flavor of the Shanghai scenes but captures as well the majestic beauty of the landscapes of China. Probably because Lang Lang was contracted to work with this film, Desplat composed some lovely solo piano works that provide the atmosphere in the many intimate moments of the story.

As a CD of music without the film this one works surprisingly well. It is not a dramatic score but an understated one and as always Desplat's sense of orchestral color is amazingly clean and subdued. One misses the excerpts from the Chinese opera.... Grady Harp, May 07

Once again, movie soundtracks demonstrate that they are fast becoming the leaders in modern musical developments.
Against a dramatic background, movie soundtracks build on all sorts of different moods and colours. The composer Desplat here paints a picture in sound that resembles a water colour painting of Chinese people and landscapes in this story of Somerset Maughan.
The pieces are full of subdued lyricism with an exotic ethereality. The water imagery predominates - The River Waltz, The Water Wheel, and even the journey and mission of Kitty and Walter. The music is simply entrancing, especially The Water Wheel, a piece that draws the listener to the endless encircled movement of the music like magic.
Adding to the water imagery is the sound of Kitty's piano, played in the soundtrack by Lang Lang, who obviously does not make any 'bang' in this recording but played with absolutely haunting lyricism and alluring delicacy throughout the many piano pieces in this soundtrack.
The sound engineering is superb (too bad that the engineer passed away shortly after this project).
The soundtrack is purely instrumental. The well-loved song "a la claire fontane" isn't included, so is the Chinese operatic aria.
Despite these misses, the soundtrack represents one of the foremost accomplishments of film music.

Sumptuous and moody, the soundtrack to the movie, The Painted Veil, is one that I have enjoyed listening to over and over again. Having read the original novel by Somerset Maugham, a stark yet moving tale of a young woman's re-evaluation of her life and values, the movie was a slightly more romaniticized version of the novel. Nonetheless, the vivid, languid photography and the powerful story of the two main characters, played convincingly by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, hooked me. Part of this was due to Alexandre Desplat's moving, atmospheric music--both urgent and searching. Thus, I happily purchased the soundtrack after seeing the film. I wanted to save, for myself, some of the powerful residue of the film and story, and the CD has succeeded in doing so.

What's included is enjoyable to listen to, but I was really captivated by the song sung during the credits, "Je n'ai t'aimes longtemps, mais jamais je tu n'oublierais" which was NOT on the CD. It took me a long time researching to find out the title is "A la claire fontaine" and I had to purchase a whole other CD to get it. SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SOUNDTRACK.

i was lucky enough to hear desplat's score for 'the luzhin defence' about five years ago when a friend lent me her copy. i was immediately taken by the beauty of his work and i count myself among his ever-growing list of followers.

i'm hardly qualified to discuss the score's technical merits, but i am qualified to tell you how the score hit me emotionally. what i like about desplat's scores, and particularly 'the painted veil,' is its understatedness. desplat understands, perhaps better than anyone else, that the listener doesn't need to hit over the head with a score for it to be effective and emotional [take note, hollywood composers]. it's probably relatively easy, i imagine, to write bombastic or syrupy scores that queue the listener what to feel and when to feel it. desplat's scores, on the other hand, embellish the films instead of trying to dictate them. and in a character-driven movie like 'the painted veil,' the score *should* be understated and restrained as to not take away from, but rather subtley enhance, what are arguably two of the finest acting performances i've ever seen [watts and norton, respectively]. so i tip my hat to him. well done! i don't know who approached desplat about scoring the film, but it was coup and i hope that person won a prize or two.

'the painted veil' was one of my favorite films from last year. if you've not seen it, see it. if you've not heard the score, buy it. alexandre desplat, for my money, is the simply the best composer out there right now, film scores or otherwise.

as a side note, the title track's melody is almost note for note identical to the synth line on new order's 'touched by the hand of god.' funny, that.

this is a fantastic album the river waltz and gnossiennes no. 1 are probably in my opinion the best songs, however its missing the fantastic song a la claire fontaine that the little children sing towards the end