Germany’s Tom Tykwer arrived with a fanfare of attention in 1998 with his indie breakout movie, Run Lola Run. Since then, he had directed the occasional art house film, including the excellent and overlooked Heaven, as well as more Hollywood projects such as The International. Tykwer returns as co-writer and director with Lana and Andy Wachowski on Cloud Atlas. Tykwer also partnered with longtime collaborators Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil (the Pale 3 they call themselves) in composing the film’s music, available on a soundtrack CD. The moody piano and orchestrations suggest epic stories moving swiftly across the centuries. Tykwer’s partners have interesting backgrounds: the Australian Klimek was in the new wave group the Other Ones while Heil played in the Nina Hagen Band. The music largely succeeds in invoking various periods and places while retaining a thematic unity.
