Customer Reviews

The Pillow Book (1996 Film)

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

 

 

This is a really eclectic soundtrack, just like the movie where this comes from. If you liked the movie, you MUST have this CD. Tibetan chants, choral arias, japanese folk and rock songs and french pop is what you'll find here. This is almost Pandora's box... "Blonde", "La marquise", "Wedding song" and "Valse" are absolutely outstanding, but the whole album is wonderful if you approach to it in an open-minded state.

Like Greenway at his best, which Pillow Book certianly is, This cd is not for the faint of heart. The disc jumps promiscously from euro-pop, chinese songs, and Tibetian chants to more classical works. This is a chalenging work, which is as it should be for Greenway has never been one to let his audience fall asleep at the stick. All the material here is source music however, and if one is expecting the unifying grace of his usual collaborations with Nyman, one won't find it here. This is much less elegant and cultured but also more insightful in some ways.

If you've already seen this movie then you'll know mostly what to expect from the soundtrack. Like the film it's a brave mix of ancient and modern, familiar and exotic.
The french song 'Blonde' seems to be the track which is most featured in the film and for most will be the highlight of this cd. Very ambient with a beautiful soaring vocal! However this is not any kind of set standard on this soundtrack. We have everything from arias to buddhist chants, asian and euro pop, instrumental, folk music and more!
Whether or not this cd is worth the high prices that it often seems to sell for (no longer made and hard to find) is up to you. If you're a music afficionado with eclectic tastes or a true Greenaway fan it may be worth it.
The only complaint that I have is that there seems to be some music featured in the film that doesn't appear on this cd. I would've liked to have seen everthing here.
Recommended.

I hated this movie. It was too self masturbatory (Greenway), but the music was dynamite.