Everyone
thinks heavy metal is the music of the Devil, but there are way more demonic classical
compositions, like Night on Bare Mountain, Danse Macabre, Totentanz, and
the good parts of Carmina Burana. Richard Marlowe’s last masterwork could
very well take it to a whole new level. It could literally raise Hell, but his
violinist daughter will have to first figure out the bizarre score he left
behind in Andrew Desmond’s The Sonata, which opens this Friday in New York.
Rose
Fisher never knew her reclusive father, but hardly anyone really did. At one
point, he was considered the great hope of classical music, before he
mysteriously disappeared. It turned out, he was quietly working on his
masterwork sonata in a creepy old French chateau, up until the point he decided
to self-immolate. Fisher is a socially awkward prodigy who has trouble forging
human connections, but the revelation of her father’s fate still unnerves her.
Fisher’s
agent-manager-enabler Charles Vernais does his best to shield her from the
world, but she is poised to drop him out of impatience with his slow-build approach
to her career. However, they call a truce when Fisher discovers the score of her
father’s final composition. The premiere of a new and final Marlowe work could be
a sensation, but it will require some investigation, especially the strange
occult symbols marking each movement. Those would be the power-signs used by an
ancient secret society, who reportedly believed music held real, earth-shaking
power.
The
Sonata is
a horror movie, but it is one of the few narrative films in the last few years
that presents classical music with deadly earnestness. It is at least fifty
times—perhaps one hundred times better than Richard Shepard’s The Perfection.
It also features one of the late, great Rutger Hauer’s last screen appearances,
rather hauntingly as the deceased Marlowe.
However,
the real star is Simon Abkarian portraying Vernais, an unusually complex protagonist
for a horror film. Yet, his classically tragic human failings are perfectly to
a narrative about classical music. Abkarian is terrific in a slow-burning kind
of way. Freya Tingley’s Fisher looks rather wan and lifeless in comparison, but
James Faulkner (from Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey) adds some
archly sardonic attitude and energy as Marlowe’s former associate, Sir Victor
Ferdinand.
The
Sonata is
an impressive production that fully capitalizes on the creepy locations around Latvia’s
Cesvaine Palace and Alexis Mainguad’s unsettling classical themes. As an added
bonus (and respite), Vernais also listens to a jazz recording titled “Bibi’s
Song,” featuring composer Bibi Louison on piano and Samuel Maingaud on tenor
saxophone, which has a nice smoky, late-night vibe. Plus, the horror stuff
really is scary, thanks to the way it evokes a sense of ancient evil. Highly
recommended for genre fans, The Sonata opens this Friday (1/10) in New
York, at the Cinema Village.
