This one comes straight from a Friend of the Crowd, Eeva Lefrançois, who sent me Hania Rani’s Sentimental Value with a very simple warning:
“Hania Rani is a goddess. I think I have accidentally watched every one of her concerts. None of her work misses and her music is like love. It is better when shared.”
Fair enough.
I had not seen Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value when I put this on. I still have not. But by the end of it, I was looking up where I could watch it.
The record starts with piano, but it never stays there for long. Things keep appearing around it: strings, wind instruments, little sounds. You can hear why it was written for a film, but it does not need the film to hold up.
“Childlike” has that restless piano line that keeps stumbling forward. “Rachel” feels more open, almost like it is taking a breath. “Gustav” is the one I kept going back to: longer, darker, with more space around it.
Hania Rani wrote the score from the script before the film had been edited, which probably explains why it does not feel trapped inside scenes you have not seen yet. It works as a record first. A very good one.
Eeva said none of her work misses.
I have only spent a few days with this one, so I cannot make that claim yet.
But I am definitely going back for more.
Listen where you listen:
