The Starving Crocodiles...
Mario A. San Juan | Downey, CA USA | 11/16/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Starving Crocodiles
Almodovar's latest movie is undoubtedly his best, and a very inventive film-noir that absorbs and electrifies you from the very beginning. Alberto Iglesias' score serves "as a cradle where the movie rests" as the auteur himself said.
La Mala Educacion (Bad Education) is one of -if not- the best soundtrack composed this year, and its style is absolutely magnificent. Following the film-noir trend, Iglesias' score is a mixture of tunes a la Herrman ("Juan y el Sr. Berenguer", "Por mi grandisima culpa", "Escena Familiar"), poignant waltzes ("Foulard en seda", "La Carta", "Valsetto"), and vocalized cues that reflect the theme of the movie, and illustrate it fittingly ("Kyrie", "La piscina", "El cine como espejo"). "Cine Olympo", an exquisite theme for the movie-within-the-movie manifests itself disguisedly many times, in variations, as Iglesias' has done in previous scores where a parallel story is narrated - The Flower of my Secret, Live Flesh, Talk to Her, and All About my Mother- however the best track in the score is the "Overture". Other superb tracks are "Carta del mas alla", "Plato", and "Adagietto"... melodies that crave lust, but "Puerta Final" -the MAIN theme- is absolutely grand; probably the best potpourri of songs written in the last decade, that will grab you by the horns from the moment it opens to the last saxophone refrain, in an orgasm of eight minutes that you will want to experience over and over again.
The soundtrack also consists of key songs that in one way or another relate to the main characters and the story: "Maniqui Parisien", "Cuore Matto", "Moon River" (a very avant-garde arrangement), and "Jardinero".
Alberto Iglesias has composed a score so dark, rich, hunting, powerful, and mysterious... that proves to be irresistible.
Experience the Bad Education!!!
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