THE LAST VIKING_ The Nordic school of film composers (especially from Denmark and Iceland) is today among the most compelling. Fifty-eight-year-old Jeppe Kaas, elder brother of Nikolaj Lie Kaas – co-star of Jensen’s film (and frequent collaborator of Jensen, with a creative peak in Adam’s Apples from 2005) – is a leading figure of this scene. His effort here is directed toward a kind of psychological asynchrony with the film’s hilarious bloodiness and its “mad” – yet also melancholy – spirit. Hence a romantic, mournful, and “redemptive” score, with extensive use of strings and piano (the recurring sound in many composers), yet punctuated by flashes of pulsing irony and, more rarely but therefore more effectively, moments of suspense music.
Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is released from prison after fifteen years for robbery. The loot was buried by his brother Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen), but Manfred has developed a mental disorder that has made him forget its location. Together, they embark on a surreal journey to recov...
In a world traversed by light and darkness, a man defies nature to create the unnatural. The Creature is born, and with it, a tragedy. Guillermo del Toro reinterprets Mary Shelley’s masterpiece with the tragic grace of a Miltonian parable: the focus shifts from the act of cr...
FRANKENSTEIN_Alexandre Desplat is currently the most sought-after film composer on the international scene. His eclecticism and prolific output, combined with a style that is sober yet highly expressive, a classical training, and a remarkable gift for leitmotifs, have led him to collaborate with filmmakers ranging from Audiard to Polański, Fincher to Garrone, Malick to Clooney, Wes Anderson to Bigelow, Besson to Frears… and most recently Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pinocchio). Fully aware of tackling Frankenstein as a hypertext of horror – musically as well – the Parisian maestro spares no effort, unleashing an invasive, pompous, and overwhelming symphonic writing to match the film’s epic spectacle, while reserving some melodic oases of more reflective character (notably the beautiful Creature Theme for solo cello). Overall, however, the score feels redundant and rather generic, not quite in tune with the composer’s finest voice.
