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The
Cheltenham born David Julyan has been collaborating for a long time with
director Christopher Nolan (Inception,
Insomnia). On Memento’s
soundtrack Julyan realises that his main aim is to produce a sense of
adriftment regarding Guy Pearce’s character condition which limit his memory
and ability. Such impairment follows the whole score mood in a way that it
is clear that some imprisonment is going on, some limitation is present and
constantly there to remind that things will not turn out well. Furthermore,
taking the plot more concisely, Julyan creates an effect of displacement and
at the same time, paradoxically enough, tells Leonard’s story through the
motifs he so superbly created.
The strings
are not just mysterious, they tend to transport you into the film in order
to experience the same emotions that Leonard does, the displacement, the
yearning for closure and the hopelessness at times. David Julyan
acknowledges that Vangeli’s Blade Runner
and Hans Zimmer’s
The Thin Red Line were influences
whilst composing the themes. He made sure to create distinct moods for the
black and white scene that tend to be more opaque but on the other hand the
coloured scenes are more desperate, somewhat paranoid and claustrophobic.
Self-deception is another mood David Julyan’s remarkably was able to grasp
and translate to music, especially on "The Facts/Tatoos" and "More Facts".
Leonard gets lost in his own puzzles so Julyan had the trouble to realise
that this part of his conscious mind was important enough, so he created
cues hinting the audience about something not exactly right about Leonard’s
facts. If the so called facts were accurate the theme should be completely
different facing peaceful order, control and well-being; instead they are
paranoid, mysterious, repetitious and somewhat ghostly, giving the
impression of a lost unconscious truth that Leonard is flagrantly not aware
of.
It strikes
as odd why such a terrific work did not win an Academy Award prize, but many
have not. Two popular songs are included on the soundtrack: David Bowie’s "Something
In The Air" and Radiohead’s "Treefingers". Julyan also scored The
Prestige, The Descent
and Heartless.
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