Marcelo Zarvos

Marcelo Zarvos has enjoyed enormous success as a composer in both independent and mainstream films. He started to make a name for himself in the indie circuit with contributions to critical darlings like "Kissing Jessica Stein," a romance about a woman who finds in another woman with all the qualities she's been looking for in a man. Zarvos has also been called upon to compose music for several high-profile studio projects, such as "The Good Shepherd," a Kennedy-era spy thriller directed by Robert De Niro and starring Matt Damon in a role based in part on real-life mole hunter James Angleton. Interestingly enough, the greatest praise for Zarvos's work has centered on two HBO television movies. The first was "Taking Chance," a moving portrait of a Lieutenant Colonel escorting the body of a fallen soldier back from the war zone to the States. Zarvos's choice of music underscored the solemnity of the topic without descending into mawkishness. The second TV movie was "You Don't Know Jack," an examination of controversial "Dr. Death," Jack Kevorkian. Again, with the extreme nature of the subject matter, there was the potential pitfall of heavy-handed music to send the film spiraling into melodrama, but as always Marcelo Zarvos struck a fine balance.