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Man I’m thrilled about this. I really love the first score.
Also, the director is also directing the third movie (they’re being shot back-to-back) so this is probably going to be Elfman’s second trilogy.
I tracked down the special edition of the first movie which has a 6 – 7 minute featurette on the score.
Really neat. It’s bookmarked with comments from Sam Taylor-Johnson who is clearly a huge Elfman fan and very excited to be working with him. Elfman’s in good spirits and has a lot to say, the edited versions on youtube really don’t sell what he was really talking about. Lots of orchestra footage and some bts stuff of Elfman and the cast and crew when he visited the set. It’s also mostly set to unreleased music.
Really cool featurette worth checking out.
I’ll check out the featurette (sounds interesting!), but I’ll be damned if I watch the horrible film again.
I thought the movie was perfectly fine. Dakota Johnson did a good job and the steely aesthetic, cinematography, production design and score were really quite appealing to me. I can name a lot worse movies Elfman has scored.
Luckily, Danny Elfman has never scored a movie that was truly awful. People may exaggerate about Hot to Trot, Planet of the Apes, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc, but none were a trainwreck.
Ha! I LOVE TERMINATOR: SALVATION! Hugely underrated.
As for turds scored by Elfman, I would count FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, HOT TO TROT, FLUBBER and arguably BIG EYES and PLANET OF THE APES (although they DO have some redeeming features).
Well, for me, “Anywhere but here” was unbearable…
Thor Wrote:
> Ha! I LOVE TERMINATOR: SALVATION! Hugely
> underrated.
>
> As for turds scored by Elfman, I would count FIFTY
> SHADES OF GREY, HOT TO TROT, FLUBBER and arguably
> BIG EYES and PLANET OF THE APES (although they DO
> have some redeeming features).All those movies are far more memorable than A Civil Action and Instinct.
A CIVIL ACTION is OK, I think. And I actually like INSTINCT quite a bit, but then Anthony Hopkins is my second favourite actor of all time.
Around 30 seconds of score here.
“I know deep down I will always be his, and he will always be mine." #FiftyShadesDarker pic.twitter.com/kzw3lXpz6n
— Fifty Shades Freed (@FiftyShades) January 29, 2017
Fifty Shades is probably my most listened to Elfman of the last 16/17 years after the first Alice; I really love it.
EDIT: Another snippet of score. https://twitter.com/FiftyShades/status/826187830351106049
Gave it a listen. You know I’m not a fan of the first score but boy, did Elfman managed to deliver an even duller effort. It’s easily one of his worst score, I don’t see anything to save. The first film at least had a few interesting moments here and there but nothing of that sort here. It’s 42 minutes of “one-finger-telenovela-piano” with almost nothing that stands out. So boring that I really had to force myself to finish the all thing.
I’ll eventually buy the CD because I’m collecting his work but I’ll wait for a very agressive discount…
I imagine your views will be the consensus.
It’s worth bearing in mind that this wasn’t a score-friendly movie at all. The first had scenes clearly designed for the score to have a big role, there’s really not of that here. Elfman had to ‘sneak in’.
I think the score is lovely. Tracks like ‘No Strings Attached’ are what I really love from Elfman these days (also see ‘Megan’ from The Girl on the Train).
Thematically, this score is really impressive. The amount of leverage Elfman gets out of his (really simple) themes is outstanding.
There’s a new theme (which stems from the main theme of the first score) which acts as a general love theme. It tries to emerge near the beginning of the score (their relationship hadn’t earned the theme at that point) but only really comes through in the last third of the score. It’s a surprisingly sincere theme (the main theme really couldn’t have conveyed this, a smart choice by Elfman) and it’s really quite rare to hear Elfman in this mode. My favourite take of it comes in ‘Announcement.’Christian’s theme, which only really conveyed his dominance in the first score, is played countless times. It’s mostly played sensitively, like in ‘On His Knees’ and ‘Dossiers’, but has other romantic or sad variations throughout; particularly effective is a ‘thriller’ take on piano during the ‘Chopper Crash.’
Ana’s theme returns but takes a backseat to Christian’s theme. The ‘V for Vendetta’ version of her theme makes a few appearances. In the first score, this theme really epitomised their inability to connect emotionally. In this film, they really come together so Elfman instead appropriates to theme to Kim Basinger’s character. She tries to break the two up so it’s a logical enough decision. It’s quite eerie in ‘Bathroom Encounter’ and it’s performed on electric guitar in ‘Martini Face’ (a quite hilarious moment in the film) which is pretty nifty.
The main theme returns although it is largely replaced by the love theme by the last third of the score. My favourite performance is in ‘Nightmare’ where the theme fails to resolve itself, highlighting how Ana and Christian aren’t connected at this moment. There’s a lovely take in ‘Survive’ and its performance in ‘Panties’ is the closest Elfman gets to erotica in this score (Elfman gets none of the sex scenes in this one).
There’s an electronic motif (I couldn’t begin to describe it) for Leila, but it’s very fleeting. It’s Elfman still in ‘The Girl on the Train’ mode.
I will say that I missed the ‘drive’ from the first score. Christian is no longer ‘dominant’ in these movie so all the skittish highlights from the first are gone.
I’m very prepared to be in the minority for this one; well, along with a lot of older women. I just hope Elfman gets the credit for how thematic this score is, there’s hardly a moment were some theme isn’t playing in some guise.
Bring on the third score.
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