Lust, Caution (Score)

THE SOUNDTRACK FOR OSCAR®-WINNING DIRECTOR ANG LEE'S NEW FILM LUST, CAUTION FEATURES ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY GOLDEN GLOBE®-WINNER ALEXANDRE DESPLAT **IN STORES SEPTEMBER 25th, 2007 ON DECCA**

(September 4th, 2007--New York, NY)-- Lust, Caution is the new film by Academy Award®-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Showcasing an original musical score by Golden Globe Award®-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Queen, The Painted Veil), the soundtrack will be in stores September 25th on Decca. Focus Features will release the film exclusively in New York City on Friday, September 28th and in select cities on Friday, October 5th.

Desplat collaborated last year on his film score for The Painted Veil with a Deutsche Grammophon artist, Chinese pianist Lang Lang. This collaboration not only brought the score of the China-based film to life, but also garnered Desplat a Golden Globe Award® for Best Original Score. He was also nominated for an Academy Award® in the category of Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures for an Original Score for his work on The Queen. With Lust, Caution, Mr. Desplat continues to create delicate and deliberate compositions, making the soundtrack as intriguing as the story itself. Lust, Caution is a startling erotic espionage thriller, set in WWII-era Shanghai, about the fate of an ordinary woman's heart. The film is based on the short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang. Asian cinema icon Tony Leung (Hero; In the Mood For Love) stars as Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure in 1940s Shanghai. Tang Wei, a rising star in mainland China, makes her feature film debut as Wong Chia Chi, a young woman who gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with Mr. Yee -- and finds her very identity being pushed to the limit...

For Lust, Caution, director Ang Lee called on the wonderful Alexandre Desplat. The French composer is quite in demand, and for good reason: His music eschews the bloated trends of current Hollywood, going instead for very melodic lines tastefully set against relatively pared-down orchestrations; there's a big orchestra here, but it's used sparingly and you never feel as if you're being dictated what to feel--Desplat is old-school in all the right ways. For this movie set in 1940s Shanghai, he has come up with two of his loveliest themes yet: the lilting "Dinner Waltz" and especially the heartwrenchingly romantic "Falling Rain." No wonder the one non-Desplat piece is Brahms' "Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118 No. 2"--this is obviously the kind of melancholy mood Desplat had in mind for his own music. A few guests add interesting but never intrusive twists: Vincent Segal (of the duo Bumcello) appears on electric cello and the Traffic Quintet (for which Desplat's arranged themes from classic French soundtracks) performs a reprise of "Dinner Waltz;" Ang Lee himself plays the piano on "Nanjing Road." This is a lovely soundtrack that should make a lot of year's end lists. --Elisabeth Vincentelli