Charlatan

MovieScore Media’s next release from the world of European cinema is the gorgeously unnerving music from Agnieszka Holland’s Charlatan, the official submission of Czech Republic for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category of the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021.

MovieScore Media’s next release from the world of European cinema is the gorgeously unnerving music from Agnieszka Holland’s Charlatan, the official submission of Czech Republic for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category of the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021.

The album release co-incides with the film’s release in Germany and Netherlands and precedes its release in USA (distribution by Strand Releasing) and the UK. Directed by Oscar-nominated Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, the films tells the life story of well-known Czech healer Jan Mikolášek (Ivan Trojan) who diagnosed and healed people using his intuition and his familiarity with herbs.

As he healed not only poor but also many well-known people, including Czechoslovak President, Antonín Zápotocký, his methods got a thoroghout investigation by the Communist regime. The film recently won five Czech Lions and its director was nominated for the European Film Award.

“The score to Charlatan keeps more secret than it reveals,” explains composer Antoni Komasa-Lazarkiewicz about how his and Mary Komasa’s music matched the mysterious themes of the film. “The challenge was to keep it painfully restrained and yet full of paradoxical, contradictory emotions, hidden undercurrents, questions and exclamations.
The stiffness and rawness of the motives is counterbalanced by the inner life of each note, with every strike of the bow, every phrase becoming a piece of its own. We wanted the listener to be able to look at this music through a magnifying glass and suddenly realize, how much vitality, energy and fragility there can be inside of it.”

Polish composer Antoni Komasa-Lazarkiewicz studied composition at the Academy of Music in Krakow, writing his first score for an Agnieszka Holland film in 2002’s Julie Walking Home. Since then, he collaborated on most of the filmmaker’s projects, including Copying Beethoven, Spoor (which won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize) and Mr Jones, which received a Golden Bear nomination at Berlinale 2019.
Antoni’s own awards include the 2008 European Film Music Trophy Young Talent Award for Winterreise, the German Television Music Award for My Mother, My Bride and I. and an individual achievement award for his Filip Bajon’s The Butler and Adrian Panek’s Werewolf as part of the 43rd Polish Film Festival.

Mary Komasa is Antoni’s wife and collaborated with him on the score for Charlatan. She is a Polish singer and composer who has also worked as a model, brought up in an artistic family with her father being an actor (Wiesław Komasa) and her brother a director (Jan Komasa).

Mary studied piano, organ, harpsichord and opera singing, and enjoys a succesful career as an artist in the dream pop genre. Her self-titled debut solo album came out in 2015.

MMS21012 CHARLATAN (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz & Mary Komasa
Release date (digital): April 23, 2021

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More info at: Composer Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz On IMDB

MovieScore Media presents the soundtrack album for the movie Charlatan. The album contains the music composed by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz.

MovieScore Media presents the soundtrack album for the movie Charlatan. The album contains the music composed by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz.

The soundtrack is available digitally on April 23, 2021 on Amazon and other sites.

Charlatan is directed by Agnieszka Holland with Ivan Trojan, Josef Trojan and Juraj Loj. The movie was selected as the Czech entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards making the February shortlist.

Few true stories tread the thin line between good and evil as precariously as that of Jan Mikolášek, a 20th century Czech herbal healer whose great success masked the grimmest of secrets. Mikolášek won fame and fortune treating celebrities of the interwar, deutsch and soviet Communist eras with his uncanny knack for “urinary diagnosis”.
But his passion for healing welled up form the same source as a lust for cruelty, sadism, and an incapacity for love that only one person could ever quell – his assistant, František. As a show trial threatens to pry open these secrets and undo him, Jan’s dichotomies are put to a final test, with the fate of his life’s only love in the balance.
A personal tale as replete with twists as the century itself, and a reflection on the price one pays for single-mindedly following one’s calling. …..

About Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz:
Born in 1980 in Warsaw, Poland. Antoni started composing at an early age. He studied composition in Cracow, and started writing music for film, theater and television in his early 20’s, establishing himself as one of the best known composers of his generation in the region. His works include multiple collaborations with Agnieszka Holland, starting with her 2002 film “Julie Walking Home”.
They have worked together on films such as the Oscar-nominated “In Darkness”, Berlinale Silver Bear Winner “Spoor” and Berlinale Competition entry “Mr Jones”.
For many years Antoni has worked together with the young German director Hans Steinbichler, with titles including “Winterreise” and “Autistic Disco”.
He has scored films in Poland, Turkey, Czechia, Germany, Austria, Sweden, UK, USA, Lithuania and many more, earning himself a name as a composer with a recognizable, and yet eclectic style, combining classical orchestration with elements of avantgarde, modern electronics, and different local influences.
Antoni’s style has been appreciated by critics and juries worldwide. His awards include the Istanbul IFF, Gdynia PFF, The Czech Lion and the German Television Music Award. In 2008, he received the European Film Music Trophy Young Talent Award.
Besides writing music for films, Antoni is also active as a composer for television, with multiple projects including the 2014 Lions Gate production of “Rosemary’s Baby” for NBC, as well as the first Polish-language original Netflix production, “1983”.
His most recent achievement is the original score to the two-part miniseries “The Turncoat” (“Der Überläufer”) by Florian Gallenberger, premiering on the first channel of German Television in April of 2020.
Antoni lives and works in Berlin, co-working with his wife Mary Komasa on her music projects, as well as on his film scores. Over recent years, their collaboration has grown tighter, resulting in several film scores composed with Mary’s growing creative input.

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More info at: Official Web Site Strand Releasing

More info at: Composer Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz Official Site