Pedro Almodovar
's noir-ish
comedy
-
romance
-Catholic school pedophilia drama
Bad Education
benefits greatly from the haunting and achingly beautiful score from longtime collaborator
Alberto Iglesias
. A somber blend of
classical
,
choral
, and
Hitchcock
-era
Bernard Herrmann
, the Spanish composer's reverent compositions both aggravate and diffuse
Almodovar
's controversial images, bringing an elegance to the film's darker moments and a somber beauty to its sweeter ones --
Iglesias
builds a surprisingly secular sounding piano-led collage around
Rossini
's
Kyrie
. Like his
flamenco
-infused score for the director's award-winning
Talk to Her
is as jarring, enlightening, romantic, and sinister as the film itself, resulting in one of the year's finest moments in
film music
. ~ James Christopher Monger