We have mentioned Film Fest Gent before in mfiles. It is an annual film festival held in Belgium every October, with a strong emphasis on Film Music and indeed several days of film music concerts, live composer interviews and panel discussions. The Festival is rounded off with the presentation of the World Soundtrack Awards. Every year there is a Spotlight composer whose music is featured in the main concert and a special album release is also recorded of his or her music. The album is recorded in Belgium, played by the Brussels Philharmonic and conducted by Dirk Brossé, and released by Silva Screen Records. In 2024 the Guest Composer was Elliot Goldenthal who has a long association with the Festival, its conductor and its orchestra. Goldenthal has a distinctive sound in the world of film music. He is classically trained with an avant guarde style, but is quite capable of adopting other influences including jazz and latin as you will hear on this album. He has also used electronic, choral and rock music, though the album's focus is purely orchestral. Among Goldenthal's accomplishments, his music score for the 2002 film "Frida" starring Salma Hayek as the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
For me the stand-out track of the album is track one with a Suite (or "Grand Gothic Suite") covering music from "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin". These were directed by Joel Schumacher taking over from Tim Burton, and Goldenthal was taking over from Danny Elfman. Goldenthal uses the mood of the earlier Danny Elfman scores as his starting point, retaining the gothic atmospheres, rhythmic gestures and fairground histrionics. But Goldenthal gives this new Batman a great new theme (heard in many forms in this suite) and adds his own musical ideas with strident jazzy trumpet and piano, and a string tango playing with other latin dance ideas. The score has some subtle dramatic moments but these are far outweighted by all the wonderfully garish orchestrations. In complete contrast this is followed by "The Homecoming" cue from "Cobb" which features Mahlerian strings (as per the famous "Death in Venice"), but dissolving into a gentle folk-like pathos.
"Interview with the Vampire" based on Anne Rice's novel is in more familiar territory displaying some incredible scoring. It starts with the timeless romance of "Born to Darkness" before descending into the utterly inhuman hell of "Louis' Revenge". Again we have a further complete contrast with the aptly named "Of Helplessness" from "Heat". In similarly emotional territory "Still Life" from "Frida" uses a bare-bones dark Chopin nocturne for a particularly harrowing scene in the Julie Taymor directed film. Staying with Julie Taymor (with whom Rosenthal has worked several times) we have the Shakespearean adaptation of "Titus". This consists of 2 tracks, "Arrow of the Gods" a dark Brucknerian movement with contrapuntal brass and busy strings, with percussion which then overlay the brass again. Then "Finale" which lays out a complex of deeply felt emotions which strive for but don't quite achieve comfort and peace.
We then have two contrasting scores for films in the sci-fi genre. "The Gift" from "Sphere" speaks of mysterious yet beautiful forces beyond human knowledge, but "Alien 3" is closer in tone to a horror movie. It was also Goldenthal's big career break with a blockbuster movie. The Suite consists of "First Attack" which is otherworldly but with an underlying threat. "Entrapment" is an action track opening in fugal fashion before reaching the distinctive flutter trumpets and descending strings heard in the movie. "Lento" features an "Agnus Dei" sung by soprano Jolien de Gendt as Ripley prepares to give the ultimate sacrifice which with Goldenthal's dramatic music is one of Cinema's best downbeat endings. "Dona Nobis Pacem" gives us anything but peace as we see that unforgettable image of Ripley falling into the molten metal.
"JD Dies" from "Public Enemies" is notable for its repeated notes starting off in the woodwind, before a rising figure leads us to a sad but heroic climax. The album concludes with "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" which is an adult animation far removed from the Studio Ghibli output often associated with Japanese animation. Goldenthal's music has a grandeur and emotional depth which bely any images conjured up by the word "animation". The track is a suite called "Final Fantasy" and after a dramatic opening a solo piano enters with a simple almost conventional melody, before an orchestral tutti returns us to this dark fantasy world. Brossé conducted the original score for the film, so it is fitting that he conducts this version of the score for the album. The track is a fitting conclusion to a superb album, which demonstrates the power and versatility of this classically trained composer.
The soundtrack album is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com or check this link on the Silva Screen Records website.
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