THE BUTTERFLY'S DREAM - Rahman Altin
Director Yilmaz Erdogan takes us into 1940s Turkey and deep into the lives of two young poets suffering with tuberculosis in a film that is scored by newcomer Rahman Altin. The romance on-screen is evident and is supported by one of the most lush and romantic scores to have been written in the past few years... an absolute gem.
Synopsis
Last days of 1941 summer, the era of Obligation, during the famine atmosphere of the Second World War. In the middle of all this poverty and turmoil, there are two poets in their early twenties: Muzaffer Tayyip Uslu and Rustu Onur. They have been carrying tuberculosis germs in their lungs and love of poetry in their hearts for years. Two poets who have the constant habit of making bets on things that they do not own, make a bet on a beautiful girl. They will both write a poem for her and whichever Suzan likes, the other will fade from the scene..
The score to this film was the winner of the Public Choice Award at the 2013 World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent and it is very easy to see how it captured the hearts of so many people... it is like listening to Morricone's Cinema Paradiso for the very first time: breathtakingly sublime and heart-wrenching.
The score intertwines itself around a beautiful piano melody that introduces us to the film setting and characters; developing and building up in musical layers as the love, challenges and sacrifices unfold. Sweeping strings and delicate chimes lead us into a calm reflective place and allows the score to serve up an elegiac soundscape that has the uncanny ability to make you feel mournful yet at the same time content... this is achieved by drawing the whole orchestra into the mix and letting them play with passion and appreciation for the notes Rahman has written.
There are more moody and gritty tracks which are ably supported through deep resonant cellos but overall the pace and prose of the score is purely lyrical and uplifting. Rahman has put himself on the map as a composer who deserves to be given opportunities with bigger budgets and the trust to create something beautifully supportive.
Every listen to this score and I discover a new, small and delicate nuance that reminds me of the musical palette of Jan AP Kaczmareck, Ennio Morricone, Michael Nyman, Miklos Rozsa and Rachel Portman amongst the many other great romantic composers.
This score is... art!
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