Big Bad Wolves (DeathWaltz)
1 x LP on 180 gram PINK & WHITE SWIRL VINYL WITH RED SPLATTER!
Frank Ilfman’s score to the Israeli thriller BIG BAD WOLVES. Acclaimed worldwide and called “the best film of 2013” by Quentin Tarantino, the film is a heady and disturbing treatise on violence and the use of torture as a schoolteacher is kidnapped after being suspected of murdering a little girl. Horrific twists and turns follow in a grim tale that you won’t find easy to forget. What stands out immediately is Ilfman’s very classical approach to the music. The main theme is beautiful, with searching strings and woodwind counterpoint, and a sense of hope. But there’s a sinister undercurrent, giving a sense of inevitability. The percussion has a harsh and jagged edge and provides violence, but there’s a sense of humour in Ilfman’s music, at one point imitating Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ suite. It’s a menacing piece of work, emotionally intense yet surprisingly beautiful, with the composer not going for what you’d perhaps expect, and the main theme just keeps coming back, relentless, searching. It’s an amazing work that has earned its plaudits.
NOTE - unplayed but opened to check vinyl colour