Ballad of a Small Player

Edward Berger (Conclave, All Quiet on the Western Front) is back with a new film: Ballad of a Small Player, based on Lawrence Osborne’s book by the same name.

This film’s teaser immediately draws us into the setting (casinos and hotels of Macau) using the rhythms of the objects we see in close-up on screen. The hissing of a fountain at 0:06, the whirring of a cash-counting machine at 0:07, the buzzing of neon lights at 0:10, the impact of cards thrown onto the table at 0:12, all of these audiovisual elements are timed to establish a tempo. Against these rhythms we hear the vocal chorus hook from disco singer Andrea True’s 1976 hit “More, More, More.”

The melancholy vocals and mechanical sounds give a sense of solitary soullessness to these opening shots of Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell), who is trying to gamble his way out of the mess he’s in.

At 0:17 we see Lord Doyle jumping off the edge of a building, which cuts seamlessly to a shot of him waking up hung over in a hotel suite. At 0:21 two massive percussion strikes cue into an aerial shot of Macau’s casinos, followed by scenes of Lord Doyle drinking, gambling and struggling with his mental health. Now there are layers of buzzy synthesizers and strings playing a series of chords that gradually descend in A minor (using a centuries-old harmonic method known, appropriately, as the “lament bass”).

Our Trailaurality blogs often note how trailers synch their shots to the beat of the music. No shortage of that technique here: from 0:23 to 0:41, there are 22 different camera shots, and each of them cuts in rhythm with the music. It’s a bit like how the trailer opened with building rhythms from diegetic sounds, but now the visual cuts are reinforcing the pulse of the music. Many of these cuts are accompanied by a subtle ticking clock tone (another popular trailer music technique we’ve been noticing over the past decade).

The icing on the cake, though, for visual/musical synergy, comes at 0:33 when Lord Doyle is banging on his solitary feasting table, timed to align perfectly with the music!

At 0:41, we cut to black. The music is out. At 0:42, Lord Doyle has won his hand at the casino, and he screams in ecstasy, with the room erupting in cheers around him. Wisely, the music pauses here to let this celebration take full sonic spotlight.

But of course, as you expected, this is not a happy ending.

At 0:44, full orchestra plays the chorus melody from “More, More, More,” synched to intertitles showing Edward Berger’s name and his acclaimed directing credits. Next, we see Lord Doyle on the run and starting fights. The surreal lifestyle of his gambling addiction is reinforced by a clever spinning camera shot at 0:49 as Lord Doyle is back at the casino table. And at 0:51, the sample of Andrea True’s vocal line “how do you like it?” gets a remix treatment to sound like a cd skipping, as we see Lord Doyle, fully clothed, sinking to the bottom of a pool.

At 0:53 we cut to musical silence to leave space for one last turn phrase heralding Lord Doyle’s inevitable final fall from grace, and we close out the trailer with a close shot of Lord Doyle back in his hotel room, screaming uncontrollably, as we hear “More, More, More” one last time.

There’s a lot in here for a one-minute teaser, including meticulous editing and strategic use of a cover song whose lyrics highlight Lord Doyle’s gluttonous character. Plus, the minimalist music intensifies how alone he is, a position that Farrell seems to relish, based on his work in such moving-image media as _The Banshees of Inisherin _(2022) and _The Penguin _(2024).

Ballad of a Small Player is in select theatres October 15th, and streams on Netflix October 29.

— Jack Hui Litster