THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Rating: 
Original Review: How can such a god awful film have such beautiful music? Despite being written for probably the most terminally boring movie in history - this is the only film I have ever walked out of - Polish composer Wojciech Kilar has written a sad, yearning, heartfelt, tragic but surprisingly elegant score for piano, strings and woodwind which at least made the film bearable in parts. Kilar only writes for Hollywood movies rarely, his most famous being the music he composed for Coppola's 1992 classic Bram Stoker's Dracula, but when he does it really makes you wish that he did it more often. The main title, 'My Life Before Me' reminds me very much of Michael Nyman's The Piano, with its repetitive flute melody over a rhythmic piano backing, and the main title, 'The Portrait of a Lady' again has that thick, rich and potent east-European sound that was prominent in Dracula, making his multi-layered Barry-esque strings conjure up images of darkened rooms filled with feelings of unrequited love. Kilar also obviously has a liking for the music of Franz Schubert, because yet again he has adapted the classic Death and the Maiden to great effect - he undertook this previously in Roman Polanski's film of the same name. These three themes essentially form the backbone for the entire score, but Kilar supports these with some gorgeous one-off themes, like the slow and tragic cello performance in ''Twilight Cellos', and the more upbeat and conventionally beautiful 'A Certain Light', which reminds me in parts of Chris Young's Murder in the First. Overall, this is a classically divine piece of film scoring by one of the most overlooked composers working today. It's just a shame that the movie didn't match up to the quality of the music.
Track Listing:
- Prologue: My Life Before Me (4:08)
- The Portrait of a Lady (5:49)
- Flowers of Firenze (4:00)
- Twilight Cellos (3:05)
- A Certain Light (6:48)
- Cypresses (2:06)
- Impromptu in G Flat, D899 No. 3 (written by Franz Schubert, performed by Jean Yves Thibaudet) (6:47)
- Impromptu in A Flat, D899 No. 4 (written by Franz Schubert, performed by Jean Yves Thibaudet) (7:05)
- String Quartet in D Minor, D810 'Death and the Maiden' II (written by Franz Schubert, performed by The Brindisi Quartet) (8:22)
- Epilogue: The Portrait of a Lady (5:12)
- Phantasms of Love (4:00)
- The Kiss (2:05)
- Love Remains (3:06)
- End Credits (5:05)
Running Time: 67 minutes 38 seconds
London/Decca 455-011-2 (1996)
Music composed by Wojciech Kilar. Performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic. Conducted by Stepan Konicek and Nic Raine. Orchestrations by Wojciech Kilar. Featured solo musicians Jackie Shave, Patrick Kiernan, Katie Wilkinson and Moray Welsh. Recorded and mixed by John Timperley. Schubert adaptations produced by Brian Lock. Album produced by Wojciech Kilar and Mike Woolcock.
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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.