Explain how the score of The Talented Mr. Ripley is used to highlight character and theme in the film

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. The score consists of four types of music. Ripley (Matt Damon) is associated initially with classical music, since he is a classically trained pianist.
2. The movie is also punctuated with Italian pop tunes of the period.
3. Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) is associated with jazz, for he is an amateur saxophonist whose idols are Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, and Miles Davis. Ripley pretends to be a jazz enthusiast as he constantly improvises lie upon lie in order to ingratiate himself with Dickie—to whom he is also sexually attracted.
4. The original score of the film was composed by Gabriel Yared: It pulsates with an undercurrent of yearning and anxiety, and, according to director Anthony Minghella, was meant to create the troubled music of Ripley’s heart.
5. Like the scores of Bernard Herrmann (especially those composed for Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers), Ripley’s music, consisting primarily of strings and woodwinds, is constantly building, increasing its tempo, as though it’s headed toward an explosive climax. But the climax never occurs. The music simply fades, only to be picked up again later in the narrative, neurotic and twisted, as Ripley barely escapes being exposed as a fraud.