Chance encounters, carnal pleasures, and the fine line between love and desire are strands that run through the storyline of Woody Allen's new film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," a worldly romantic comedy that stars Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, set against the magnificent backdrop of the boundless city of Barcelona. There's no place in the world like it. The soundtrack fits the film like a glove. It's wonderfully eclectic, fresh, and cosmopolitan, with just enough brooding darkness below the surface to keep you on edge. Those moments coincide with Cruz's character, the untamed and quick-witted, suicidal/homicidal ex-wife of Bardem's Juan Antonio. The soundtrack even comes with a storyline of its own, one which has created buzz around a little-known indie band that formed in Barcelona, also quite by accident, and whose song fell into Allen's hands on a whim, only to become the score's main track. Giulia y los Tellarini's song "Barcelona," is a bouncy, harmonica-laden tune that's eerily seductive. Intoned by Giulia Tellarini's off-kilter, whispery vocals, the song reflects her on-and-off relationship with the city, written at a time when she was deciding between staying in Barcelona or returning to Paris. The soundtrack also includes another of the band's songs "La Ley del Retiro." Then there are the beautifully rendered instrumental guitar pieces. Guitarist Juan Serrano, whose reputation as a flamenco virtuoso spans six decades delivers the churning "Gorrión" early in the set, followed much later by the equally mesmerizing closer, "Entre Olas." Paco de Lucia's "Entre Dos Aguas" offers a sultry guitar/percussion arrangement driven by a plunging bassline that goads the transition from glowing embers into a fiery rumba. The Biel Ballester Trio oscillates from infectiously shuffling rhythms on "When I Was a Boy" to melodic artistry on "Your Shining Eyes."
No comments:
Post a Comment