Manda tu crítica

 

The Franco-Chilean composer Jorge Arriagada wrote the music for about 140 movies, including all the production by his prolific countryman Raoul Ruiz (1941-2011). He has also collaborated with filmmakers Jean-Pierre Mocky, Benoît Jacquot, Barbet Schroeder and Philippe Le Guay, whose fine soundtracks from three movies make their premiere on this CD.

Based on real historical facts, Les Deux Fragonard (The Two Fragonard) tells off the conflict between two members of the same family in the 18th Century, who are accomplished artists in their respective fields. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a successful painter and ladies’ man, and his cousin Cyprien, an anatomist attracted to death and fascinated by the mechanics of the human body, which he likes to dissect using stolen corpses. Add to this a beautiful washerwoman who has become a model for the first Fragonard and a somber aristocrat whose main interest is to put her under the scalpel of the second Fragonard, and you have all the ingredients of a gothic tale tinged with poetry and black humor. Jorge Arriagada obviously had a tremendous time exploiting the richness of the contrasts between two worlds of light and shadow, of springy jubilation and existential torment, to deliver a wide variety of entrancing themes performed by a symphony orchestra.

Philippe Le Guay called again on Arrigada in 2010 for the delicious social comedy, Les femmes du 6e étage (The Women on the Sixth Floor), starring Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain playing a bourgeois couple in 1960s Paris whose life is turned upside down by the group of Spanish maids living in their building. Arriagada delivers a colorful, warm and witty score that contributes much to the success of the film.

The original music of the most recent film by Le Guay, Alceste à bicyclette (Cycling with Molière) completes our program. This comedy brings back a Luchini perfectly at ease in the role of a bitter actor who is persuaded by a friend to return to the stage to play in The Misanthrope by Molière. Arriagada’s short contribution brings dynamism and emotion to this dialog-rich film. Our limited edition of 500 includes a fully bilingual 12-page color booklet.