Rachel Portman - Chocolat (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) '2001

Tracks list

       Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström's directorial style is marked by a
taste for simplicity. He is an old-school storyteller, preferring to step out of
the way and let the story speak for itself. The approach has its advantages, but
the earnest limpidity of his vision can have a stultifying effect on his films.
Rachel Portman's innocuously pretty score for Hallström's innocuously pretty
1999 screen adaptation of The Cider House Rules played by the director's rules,
melding pleasantly and forgettably into the glossy period landscape. The score
brought her an Oscar nomination, but lacked both the eclectic complexity
(Beloved) and the vibrant playfulness (Emma) of her best work. A year later,
Hallström's adaptation of the Joanne Harris novel Chocolat was in many ways
as charming and as vapid as Cider House. But Portman's score was a different
story altogether. Throughout Chocolat, Portman's rich and airy melodies float
sweetly across the screen, mischievously hinting at hidden meanings and darker
themes. The music does not so much capture as create the whimsical and
mysterious atmosphere of the film, blending breezy French orchestral allusions
with otherworldly Andean flutes and rambling gypsy guitars in an effective sonic
representation of the cultural clash between Juliette Binoche's South American
mystic, Johnny Depp's Irish river rat, and the conservative French town that
brings them together. Depp's fans will undoubtedly be delighted by his
impressive fretwork on the Django Reinhardt and Duke Ellington gypsy guitar
pieces that begin and end the soundtrack album. But Portman's is the film's most
impressive performance. She proves to be the perfect composer to help
Hallström project the tale's subversive feminine energies.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Rachel Portman - Minor Swing (2:14)
1.02 - Rachel Portman - Main Title (3:07)
1.03 - Rachel Portman - The Story of Grandmere (Instrumental) (4:09)
1.04 - Rachel Portman - Vianne Sets Up Shop (1:58)
1.05 - Rachel Portman - Three Women (Instrumental) (1:02)
1.06 - Rachel Portman - Vianne Confronts the Comte (Instrumental) (1:22)
1.07 - Rachel Portman - Other Possibilities (Instrumental) (1:35)
1.08 - Rachel Portman - Guillaume's Confession (Instrumental) (1:29)
1.09 - Rachel Portman - Passage of Time (2:32)
1.10 - Rachel Portman - Boycott Immorality (4:39)
1.11 - Rachel Portman - Party Preparations (Instrumental) (1:28)
1.12 - Rachel Portman - Chocolate Sauce (Instrumental) (0:48)
1.13 - Rachel Portman - Fire (Instrumental) (2:38)
1.14 - Rachel Portman - Vianne Gazes at the River (Instrumental) (1:06)
1.15 - Rachel Portman - Mayan Bowl Breaks (Instrumental) (2:14)
1.16 - Rachel Portman - Taste of Chocolate (Instrumental) (3:09)
1.17 - Rachel Portman - Ashes to the Wind / Roux Returns (Instrumental) (2:19)
1.18 - Rachel Portman - Caravan (Instrumental) (3:44) 

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