Film Score: Dario Marianelli ~ Jane Eyre (2010)

Eyres and Graces: Marianelli's Masterpiece

I've always had a thing for a good film score. You can have the most well directed film you like, but if its score is lacklustre, the whole thing suffers. Vice versa, a beautiful soundtrack can do much for a film that is itself relatively mediocre. 

    Call me mad, but I can happily sit in my room and listen to some of my favourite film score composers for hours on end. One of my absolute favourites has to be the Italian genius that is Dario Marianelli. He's written original scores for a whole host of films; some of his most recent and no doubt most famous works being Pride and Prejudice (Oscar-nominated for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, and Original Score) and Atonement (which won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Score), both of which truly are amazing.

   An OST (original soundtrack) of Marianelli's which, to my horror, seems to have slipped through the net however, is Jane Eyre (2010), the most recent adaption of Charlotte Brontë's classic. I find it outrageous how overlooked it seems to have been, when, in reality, it is, in my opinion, one of his finest compositions of all. It features the musical talents of Classical Brit Award-winning violinist Jack Liebeck, whose doleful and rustic fiddle pieces evoke so much of the orphaned, governess protagonist's pent up passions; her sorrow and ecstasy alike. I find, too, the repeated use of a riff that one presumes to be an eerie distortion of a melody to some once happy love song from Mr Rochester's past (he is briefly seen playing it on an out of tune piano as he dwells on dark thoughts) incredibly tantalizing and ingenious. It can be heard in the opening of track one (below), 'Wandering Jane':  

                                       

   The following is a medley of several other tracks from the OST. Particular favourites of mine featured in it are 'Awaken' (opening)  and the sinister and heart-rending 'An Insuperable Impediment' (3:49).

                                          

   It is an utterly  haunting and exquisite film score. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B004KD5TQS

   What are your impressions of the Jane Eyre score and/or Dario Marianelli's other scores ?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!