Audiodrome#5: Malá Morská Víla (The Little Mermaid)


Head over to Paracinema.net to check out the latest instalment of Audiodrome: Music in Film. This month my ears have mainly been awash with Zdeněk Liška’s eerily beautiful score for Karel Kachnya’s 1976 curio Malá Morská Víla (The Little Mermaid). Melodic orchestrations, choral pieces, strange percussive arrangements, song, and pulsing oceanic sound effects all swirl together to form a highly evocative and bewitching soundtrack indeed. And banish any notion that Malá Morská Víla is a schmaltzy, Disney-esque saccharine-fest; it’s a deeply melancholy and moody meditation on identity, doomed love and self sacrifice. That it was made during a period of extreme censorship in Czechoslovakia also speaks volumes.

Also! Paracinema Magazine has been nominated for a Rondo Award this year! If you're so inclined, you can head here and vote for it under "Best Magazine." And, while you’re there, think about voting for issue 11, The Women's Issue, in the write-in section for the "BEST MAGAZINE FILMBOOK, THEME OR SPECIAL CONTENT.” Support independent publishing! Thank you kindly.

Comments

Bridgette said…
This is amazing.
21 February 2012 at 00:19
James Gracey said…
It really is a very special soundtrack. Alas the film is quite hard to come by. I watched it recently on YouTube, but it had no subtitles. Thankfully the dialogue is quite sparse - it's a film that uses images and sound to tell the story. Thanks for commenting!
21 February 2012 at 10:02
Unknown said…
A really beautiful film. It can be found on youtube with English subtitles. Needs to be better known.
13 February 2018 at 22:34
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