Madeleine Sims-Fewer stars in and co-directs Violation, a brutal examination of the trauma inflicted on women by male violence. Miriam (Sims-Fewer) travels with her husband to visit here sister (and her husband, Dylan) in an isolated Canadian forest location. Miriam unburdens the frustrations of her marriage to Dylan but events soon deteriorate. The film’s narrative intercuts a couple of timelines, revealing what happened between Miriam and Dylan with the repercussions of that evening. The film follows Miriam’s descent into the violent consequences. Reviews of Violation have focused in large part on the claustrophobic feel of the film and on the brutal violence featured but has been praised for being a fresh take on the rape-revenge genre.
For their feature film debut directors Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli returned to composer Andrea Boccadoro (whose previously projects involved working with Dario Marianelli as an orchestrator on Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio, and as the composer on two of the directors’ previous short films). Boccadoro’s score seems to rely on music that relates more to the style of the film and the emotional deterioration of the main character rather than the narrative content of the story. Mixing music of the baroque style and more avant-garde classical influences the composer’s uses a small ensemble of strings and embellishes this central sound with additional woodwinds, muted brass, and the human voice. This short album opens with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s (1710-1736) “Stabat Mater Dolorosa”, a sorrowful piece written for string quartet, organ, and a duet of voices (soprano and alto). Arranged by Boccadoro, this opening track (featuring an excellent contribution from soprano Chloë Morgan) sets the mood of the album but in a lyrical style that is rarely revisited again. I have not seen the movie but the whole feel of this opening track feels like a soundtrack accompaniment to something a lot less savoury on-screen than the lovely music suggests.
We then get down to the score proper and Boccadoro’s thematic idea is centred around the use of descending glissandi figures. So much so that practically every track features some sort of sickening slide down the musical scale. But what keeps their repeated use interesting is the way that the composer embellishes the motif: whether it be the soft repeating gong of “Arrival”, the skittering string figures of “Travelling Forward” or the switch from string to woodwinds, voice, or brass glissandi (“Retribution”). However, the score does have another aspect to it which provides welcome variety. Early in the album, “Power and Beauty” offers a short but dramatic interlude of a less dissonant use of the string quartet and “Dying Embers” spotlights a melancholic a cappella duet. “Betrayal” brings the score to a conclusion with tremolo string clusters, ascending string glissandi and wailing voices that provides a less than happy resolution. Although Boccadoro’s score focuses heavily on the use of only a few musical ideas he manages to keep is sounding interesting by using a variety of different musical groups and mixing the baroque (the string quartet) with the modern avant-garde (glissandi, aggressive string clusters, etc.). The excellent sound – recorded and mixed by Nick Taylor at the Air-Edel studios – envelopes the listener with crystal-clear reproduction of instruments and vocals to create a thick, claustrophobic sound. Violation is certainly a listening experience that falls into the same group as Hildur Guðnadóttir’s music for Chernobyl and Joker or Mica Levi’s Under the Skin. However, Boccadoro’s decision to centre his score around the string quartet makes this foray into the more psychological side of film music much more approachable that other similarly styled titles. Certainly a score worth checking out.
- Pergolesi: Stabat Mater Dolorosa (4:29)
- Arrival (0:43)
- Power and Beauty (0:34)
- Grieg: String Quartet in G Minor, Op.27, Mov. III (0:42)
- Travelling Forward (0:48)
- Travelling Backwards (1:47)
- Retribution (1:30)
- Dying Embers (1:03)
- A Silent Understanding (2:27)
- The Descent, Pt. 1 (1:47)
- The Descent, Pt. 2 (1:57)
- Betrayal (1:13)
Running Time: 19:00
Air-Edel Records (2021)
Reel Music 