Music From the Movies, UK
March 2 2005
Vodka Lemon
Reviewed by: Peter Holm
Michel Korb’s music to the critically acclaimed drama/comedy Vodka
Lemon, by director Hiner Saleem, gets a proper release by the new
French label Amélie Aime le Cinéma. This is my first experience with
the music of Michel Korb. He is a French composer who was born in
1960 and graduated from the Berklee School of Music in 1984 with a
diploma in film scoring. The liner notes present a handful of films
that Korb has composed the music to, all of which are French, and
spans from 1994 to 2004.
Vodka Lemon reflects today’s life in post-Soviet Armenia and deals
with issues such as poverty, loss and the hope for a better life. In
the centre of the film are a widow and widower and their
relationship. It’s so far away from the glamorous films made in
Hollywood, but it’s not without a sense of humour. Korb’s score
expresses the very same in the music and mixes a variety of emotions.
He has gathered a small group of musicians, using traditional
instruments such as piano, violin, cello, bass and accordion
accompanied by the mysterious and strange colours of the duduk and
cimbalom (here called santhour). These are two of my favourite
instruments (just listen to the wonders of John Barry’s The Ipcress
File or Jerry Goldsmith’s The Last Run). Another instrument is the
exotic oud (a lute like instrument).
Korb’s score starts with the jaunty `Hamo et Nina’, which is a very
dance-like and rhythmic cue, and indeed a very optimistic one,
featuring piano and accordion up-front. This is one of the score’s
thematic tapestries along with the following `Le Jour se Lève’, which
is a more reflective piece. The opening solo part for accordion
reminds me of the bleak soundscape that Carl Davis established in The
Trial.
Even though it has its moments of melancholy and loneliness, it’s far
from a depressive score, like for instance Zbigniew Preisner’s
Dekalog, because even in bleakness there’s beauty, and Korb has
really found a perfect balance between passion, bleakness and
optimism. It’s a very intimate score and I think it owes a lot to the
fact that we get small and delightful solos from the instruments here
and there, something that reminds me of Georges Delerue’s way of
scoring.
The length of the cues varies from eighteen seconds to almost four
minutes, but this doesn’t affect the musical flow because it’s so
nicely laced together, even featuring three traditional cues along
with a concluding song (written by Salvatore Adamo). To mention a few
highlights: the piano solo in `Dans la Maison’, the soaring duduk in
`La Rose’, the flourishing `Envoléé’, the gloomy `La Lettre’ and the
cheerful `Improvisation’. Even though this is my first Michel Korb
score it’s easy to hear that he has a distinct voice of his own and I
wouldn’t hesitate for a minute if I found another one of his scores
on CD, because this guy is definitely worth following.