February 13, 2013

  • Review: Blancanieves (Vilallonga)

    Blancanieves is a retelling of the classic Grimm fairy tale, “Snow White,” mixed with a little Carmen as the tale takes place in 1920s Seville with Snow White the daughter of a bullfighter.  The conceit of the film takes a page from The Artist as well as it wants to be an homage to silent films.  It is Pablo Berger’s second feature film, the other being Torremolinos 73 (2003).  Though Blancanieves has received some 18 Goya nominations and was Spain’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film this year, it fell into some controversy related to its treatment of animals but will have a limited release here in the US.  The score by Alfonso Vilallonga manages to find a number of ways to craft engaging musical accompaniment that is a bit romantic.  The work should certainly move him up the list of many fine Spanish film composers with what he has done in this score.

    Villalongo’s score seems to hold closer to a more romantic style of orchestral writing less in keeping with silent film era music.  There are plenty of bullfighting musical moments that seem to come from the period while the score fills out other areas of the drama.  The brass tend to be a little forward in the sound picture, but the themes all are quite engaging.  There is even a little theremin-like music (“Parto y muerte”—though it is likely a musical saw as it sounds more like one in “Sopitas”).  Vilallonga certainly has some interesting approaches in this score.  One fascinating one occurs in “Rueda de Prensa” with pizzicato high strings in syncopations against a more lyrical line.  The mix of Spanish-flavored music alongside the more impassioned orchestral music is no doubt what makes the score work.  It feels less like a score trying to be like an older Hollywood film and sits more within its own sound world.  There is some great guitar playing featuring Juan Gomez that gives a sense of flamenco music.  The shifts to flamenco music lend some color to the release, but it would have been nice to have just the score together.  One of the highlights is “Monteolvido” which allows for some magical opening and then big brass statements in swirling strings.  The other two sequences within this track provide some mickey-mousing music as well it would seem.  The orchestral colors help make the score more engaging as it shifts gears throughout with nice solo work and an even Shore-like musical moment in “Sotano” (part of the longer “Monteolvido” track).  One of the single highlights is the waltz “Portrait” which features delightful scoring for winds and xylophone.  “Fotas Macabras” certainly has elements of Iglesias via Herrmann in its musical style, though with a slight tinge of comedy which then moves into a solo violin idea at the end.  The score does have to move through a lot of paces including a few dance-like forms at least as its inspiration and this does make it a rather unique listen.  There are plenty of splashes of brilliant underscoring that should appeal to a wide variety of film score fans.

    One of the small issues with the release is that the additional “source” material occasionally appears in tracks with the score material.  It does demonstrate that Vilallonga is quite adept at moving from one style to the next orchestrating this often overwrought bullfighting music attributed to Roman Gottwald which appears in the early part of the presentation.  Part of the problem also lies with the way tracks flow as there are often several shorter musical sequences that are placed in one track with silence in between them.  It feels a bit like padding, though there is plenty of music on this disc.  Still, the themes that are here, when they take off are quite wonderful.  Taken on its own, Blancanieves is a fine score worth the attention it is receiving and has many parallels with last year’s The Artist.