1. The Painted Veil
2. Gnossienne No 1 (Erik Satie 1866-1925)
3. Colony Club
4. River Waltz
5. Kitty's Theme
6. Death Convoy
7. The Water Wheel
8. The Lovers
9. Promenade
10. Kitty's Journey
11. The Deal
12. Walter's Mission
13. The Convent
14. River Waltz
15. Morning Tears
16. Cholera
17. The End of Love
18. The Funeral
19. From Shanghai to London
Amazon.com
While this soundtrack is very solid overall, it's also rather subdued and perhaps not as immediately likable as composer Alexandre Desplat's previous offerings (most notably The Queen and Syriana), so it could disappoint fans of the immensely gifted Frenchman. But a certain old-fashioned charm does operate after a while, which, after all, is exactly what you'd expect of the music for a movie based on a Somerset Maugham novel. Desplat set out to evoke 1920s romanticism with a series of brief vignettes, usually greatly enhanced by the sensitive playing of pianist Lang Lang. And considering that most of the movie takes place in China, Desplat has refrained from easy orientalism: "Walter's Mission" is one of the few tracks to allude to Asian sounds. The only non-original tracks on the CD is Erik Satie's well-known "Gnossienne No. 1," a slow piece that evidently served as inspiration for Desplat's own "River Waltz." But who's complaining? There are worse people to emulate than Satie. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Album Description
Music Composed and Conducted by ALEXANDRE DESPLAT Featuring World-Renowned Piano Virtuoso LANG LANG "Prodigiously gifted" (Gramophone) pianist Lang Lang is featured in Golden Globe nominee (Girl With A Pearl Earring) Alexandre Desplat's evocative score for the new film version of W. Somerset Maugham's celebrated novel, The Painted Veil. A turbulent romantic drama set in the 1920s, THE PAINTED VEIL, directed by John Curran and Caroline Link, follows a young English couple, a conservative doctor (Edward Norton) and a restless society girl (Naomi Watts), who marry hastily, relocate to Shanghai where they betray each other, and find an unexpected chance at redemption and happiness while on a deadly journey into the heart of ancient China. The Deutsche Grammophon soundtrack will be released on January 9 and features music composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, the Prague Symphony Orchestra as well as solos by world-renowned pianist, Lang Lang. Lang Lang's solo album, DRAGON SONGS (CD+DVD) will also be released on January 9; the DRAGON SONGS full length DVD will be released on February 13.
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The Painted Veil
- Audio CD: 0 pages (2007-01-09)
- Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
- Label: Deutsche Grammophon
- Format: Soundtrack
- Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 16 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #18905
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Soft .. 2008-11-19
Comment: This music is good for meditation!!
Whenever I listened to this music, I feel like at the movie.
I really enjoyed the edward norton's acting.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful music 2008-07-06
Comment: This CD has very beautiful music. I remember thinking while watching the movie, that I must remember to buy the soundtrack. My sons (who are in their twenties) asked what it was when they were over to dinner one evening. It is just splendid.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Nice Music 2008-03-21
Comment: This is a nice, soft score. It makes for good background music. I can't say how it helps or hurts the movie, since I've not seen it. The music itself, though, is quite beautiful.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful music from a beautiful film! 2008-03-03
Comment: Alexandre Desplat's music is gorgeous, dazzling, sensuous, and exciting, and Lang Lang's pianistic abilities are on full display. The music perfectly matches the film. See the movie, then enjoy the music over and over again.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: another immediately enjoyable desplat score 2008-01-08
Comment: i was lucky enough to hear desplat's score for 'the luzhin defence' about five years ago when a friend lent me her copy. i was immediately taken by the beauty of his work and i count myself among his ever-growing list of followers.
i'm hardly qualified to discuss the score's technical merits, but i am qualified to tell you how the score hit me emotionally. what i like about desplat's scores, and particularly 'the painted veil,' is its understatedness. desplat understands, perhaps better than anyone else, that the listener doesn't need to hit over the head with a score for it to be effective and emotional [take note, hollywood composers]. it's probably relatively easy, i imagine, to write bombastic or syrupy scores that queue the listener what to feel and when to feel it. desplat's scores, on the other hand, embellish the films instead of trying to dictate them. and in a character-driven movie like 'the painted veil,' the score *should* be understated and restrained as to not take away from, but rather subtley enhance, what are arguably two of the finest acting performances i've ever seen [watts and norton, respectively]. so i tip my hat to him. well done! i don't know who approached desplat about scoring the film, but it was coup and i hope that person won a prize or two.
'the painted veil' was one of my favorite films from last year. if you've not seen it, see it. if you've not heard the score, buy it. alexandre desplat, for my money, is the simply the best composer out there right now, film scores or otherwise.
as a side note, the title track's melody is almost note for note identical to the synth line on new order's 'touched by the hand of god.' funny, that.
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The Painted Veil
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