The name of film composer
Elliot Goldenthal
is never mentioned in the same breath with those of
John Williams
or
Ennio Morricone
, but among film music enthusiasts, his name is well known, and this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller charts in the late autumn of that year despite its thoroughly specialist and independent status, contains a valuable interview with the composer. This alone will be worth the price of admission for film music buffs, but the album is also of considerable interest for general audiences.
Goldenthal
is not the most famous film composer of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but he was one of the most innovative, and this release from Film Fest Gent and
's European champion
Dirk Brossé
is a good introduction to his work, which can range from straight sentimentality when called for (sample "The Homecoming" from the baseball biopic
Cobb
) to pop and jazz influences to deeply moody atonal constructions, which
could apply even to mainstream films. Just listen to the pair of cuts from
Interview with the Vampire
(where they seem especially appropriate), or the
Suite
from the otherwise uninspired
Alien 3
. There are a couple of appropriately rock-'em-sock-'em cuts from
Titus
, director
Julie Taymor
's adaptation of
Shakespeare
's Titus Andronicus.
is also capable of the limpid small static melody, as in the "Still Life," cut from
Taymor
's
Frida
(2002).
Brossé
has recorded
in the past, and he and the
Brussels Philharmonic
have no trouble adapting themselves to the cinematic idiom. Film Fest Gent has devoted a valuable series to lesser-known film composers, and this is an especially valuable entry. ~ James Manheim