Shadow of the Vampire
03/07/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is more than film music, this is great music - dark and beautiful. You will enjoy it whether or not you have seen the film!"
Seductive, dark, funny, the score of the year so far...
03/24/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Going into Shadow of the Vampire, I anticipated some nice visuals. But I was floored by the effectiveness of Dan Jones' score, and knew from the film's opening that I had to have a copy of the soundtrack CD. It reintroduced an element to film soundtracks a quality missing in nearly every new picture of recent times: subtle effectiveness. Never overwhelming, but darkly beautiful and reminiscent of both Murnau's and Orlock's characters, it was a perfect match. In this CD you not only get the superb main title theme, you also get extra tracks not heard with the film--the vocal "Herr Doktor" is a nicely over-the-top tribute to Kurt Weill at his most decadent, and flesh-crawling Stravinsky-ish atmosphere is piled on elsewhere, evoking the shrouded, lonely history of the Vampire's character. I love putting this on as both back- and foreground listening, and if the spell of the film pulled you in, chances are you will too. Crack open a 100-year-old bottle of Cognac, get out that cigarette holder, and you might just want to keep the Laudinum handy..."