Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #423
Written 7/18/98, Revised 9/9/08
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Buy it... if you seek the more intelligent and sophisticated Hans Zimmer
scores that better combine the orchestral and synthesized sides of his talents.
Avoid it... if you need a piece of music to cheer your mood, because this
brooding score is about as morbidly depressing as any that Zimmer has composed in
his career.
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| Zimmer |
The House of the Spirits: (Hans Zimmer) The violent and
terrible tale of the trials and suffering of an aristocratic Chilean family over
the course of six decades, The House of the Spirits is not a pleasant film.
Bille August adapted Isable Allende's novel into a brutal South American variation
of a British character drama, with a rich selection of characters performed with
excruciating pain by a stellar cast of big name stars. The film didn't make the
waves of August's previous entries, though it performed well in critiques from
arthouse circles. Considering the gruesome nature of the story, it is surprising
how lyrical and darkly romantic Hans Zimmer's score can be, emphasizing the passion
of the story while downplaying the dynamic aspects of political revolution. Despite
the death and dismemberment on screen, the score remains as one of Zimmer's softer
and more melodic efforts, combining his synthesizers with an orchestra and a touch
of South American flavor. The House of the Spirits, due to the threatening
undertones from beginning to end, becomes potentially depressing and almost
haunting in its music, and yet, a constantly developed set of themes keeps it from
becoming burdensome for the listener. The score begins with the patriotic, but
subdued anthem that serves as the only major-key theme of the score before the tone
takes a slow, dramatic turn in direction. By the end of "The House of the Spirits,"
the style of the score descends to tragedy, every chord saturated by the minor-key.
The score's brooding synthesizers and occasional orchestral solos build up hope
every seven or eight minutes in the remaining score, only to be squashed by a
sudden let-down and return to brooding depths. It's an easy score to enjoy for a
lengthy listening experience on album, as it has the same continuous tone of
Smilla's Sense of Snow, but The House of the Spirits offers a fuller
range of harmonic development and downright creepy personality. In many ways, it is
Zimmer's equivalent in 1993 to Danny Elfman's Sommersby in terms of
stylistic restraint, with both scores offering a melodic, but significantly
troubled takes on the composers' usual sound of the era.
The album for
The House of the Spirits is arranged in
Zimmer's favorite format; there are but a few tracks and all are lengthy suites of
artificially merged material. The first two tracks, combining for over 15 minutes
of consistent music, create thankless tension and morbidly menacing drama with a
genuine sense of dread and seriousness that fans of Zimmer don't often hear from
the composer. At points, the score can overwhelm you with melancholy, while other
parts made making you nervous enough to believe that there is someone standing
behind you with a pick-ax. The recording mix is extremely heavy on the bass, yet
the strings often provide an eerie, high-pitched accompaniment of alertness and
fright. The environment of
The House of the Spirits doesn't feature much of
Zimmer's trademark male chorus, but it does utilize trumpet solos and pulsating
bass together in such a way that stylistic similarities to
Crimson Tide (and
the flurry of Media Ventures scores to follow suit) develop. The third track,
"Coup," utilizes the sound of gunshots with its rhythms, and the following "Pedro
and Blanca" adds acoustic guitars and other ethnic instruments of local flavor.
After a scratchy source song performed by Sebastian de Trayier near the start of
the final track, Nick Glennie-Smith performs some enticingly depressing piano solos
and Zimmer finishes the score with one, last failed attempt to finish the score's
primary theme as the volume dies, a parallel that exists in the film. Thus, in its
ability to extend the emotions of the film,
The House of the Spirits is a
very effective score. The heavy and darkly dramatic tone of this score is strangely
attractive yet foreboding at the same time. Thematically, it balances a sense of
pure beauty with a keen sense of death. Overall, the score can be recommended to
those who appreciate the more intelligent and sophisticated Zimmer scores that
better combine the orchestral and synthesized sides of his talents. As with other
Virgin Records releases of the time, the CD has largely disappeared from stores,
though it is readily available on the secondary marketplace at elevated prices. The
progression of Zimmer's career into a brighter spotlight has only brought more
demand for this hidden gem. It's a very effective and easily digestible score, but
don't expect it to cheer you up.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.85
(in 128 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.96
(in 299,193 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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