The Making of Quixote

[bruttenholm]

Bruttenholm, I wanted to ask you about the score. For me, the gold standard of a score in a Gilliam film would have to be the two scores by late, great Michael Kamen (Brazil & Baron Munchausen). How does this one compare?

Well, Michael Kamen's scores were remarkable by the way they used simple cues and found ways to use and reuse them in imaginative ways therefore creating a cohesive through-line in the films yet managing to illustrate all their complexities and turns and changes.
Roque Banos's music is less striking as its musical themes are less remarkable. It's a very capable music, that brings many colors (you can approximate the range of it in the featurettes), from comedy to adventure and sweeping romanticism, all with a satisfying spanish touch. Yet it doesn't work on the same level as Kamen's score : by not restricting itself to a set af cues, it seems more rambling. And that can be a problem when the film is one where Gilliam is trying the most in terms of narrative structure. I maybe would have liked a music that could have brought more cohesion to the film while being as changing and expressive.