Based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel, A Handful of Dust was released in 1988 to little acclaim but is notable as the film that effectively launched the career of Kristin Scott Thomas, who stars alongside James Wilby in the classic social satire as an aristocrat seeks adventure in Brazil after being jilted by his wife (with various twists along the way).
Director Charles Sturridge enlisted the services of George Fenton for the music. His fine score explores multiple facets – the Amazonian setting of the later parts of the story, the English aristocracy, and an examination of repressed feelings which would become something of a specialist subject for the composer across a surprising number of films.
Interestingly, Fenton presages the Brazilian sections long before the viewers know they are coming, with pan flutes and perhaps an ocarina (I am not an expert on South American wind instruments, you may be surprised to hear, so there’s a chance it isn’t an ocarina) both heard in the opening title piece in which the composer debuts his very flexible main theme which serves multiple purposes across the score. Even within this opening track he manages to make the same melody sound somewhat stiff and dour when it first emerges before it becomes all light and floaty when heard on the instrument that may or may not be an ocarina. Later, I particularly like the gentle romantic sound of the theme in “Weekend Episodes”, where the composer places it firmly in the western musical vernacular.
While much of the score is derived from that theme, Fenton does also take the opportunity to throw in a couple of tracks very much in the style of the popular music of the 1930s – not just as source music either (though there is that), but he manages to provide a piece of dramatic underscore (“A Course in Economics?”) with many nods towards the music of swing.
In “A New Outlook” the composer takes the main theme to a new place, suddenly warm and optimistic, and as was often the case he brings everything together in a brilliant end title suite as the theme is heard in its multitude of different guises. A Handful of Dust is a really nice score which makes for a breezy 42-minute album, perhaps one that has fallen under many people’s radars but one which is sure to appeal to fans of George Fenton or indeed of scores in general that incorporate an Andean sound into the orchestra.
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