If you’re into French cinema, especially the 80’s/90’s, then Monsieur Hire has got to be on your list of films to watch – with Three Colours, Betty Blue, Hairdresser’s Husband etc.
It shows how great cinema can be when focused on one simple idea, be it a character study, the outcast or obsession.
The haunting melody from a Brahms piano quartet perfectly reflects the film’s themes. I wonder how this short simple tune, buried in the middle of a quartet, like a flip from one radio station to another, ever came to be on the radar for a film soundtrack. I would love to know who’s idea it was. The script writer may have listened to it ‘on loop’? The director might have been a Brahms fan and was forever looking for a moment to shine the light on it?
Luckily this small nugget of Brahms magic translates to the piano perfectly. In the first version you can get a taste of the interweaving counter melodies that a quartet allows. With the simpler version the melody is more than enough to savour.
I hope it eventually haunts your dreams you as much as it should.
Sheet music can be found here
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LEROY ILLANOIS 