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Michael Nyman's Space Symphony
February 20, 2008
Sony will be issue a Special Edition DVD of the near-future sci-fi epic Gattaca on March 11. The disc comes loaded with a couple of new mini-docs featuring new interviews with leading men Ethan Hawke and Jude Law, but nothing fresh from director Andrew Niccol or leading lady Uma Thurman. So I’ve here’s a compromise for everyone to enjoy: a chunky excerpt from an interview I conducted a decade ago with Gattaca composer Michael Nyman.
VIDEO BUSINESS: Gattaca is the first Hollywood film you've scored—how did the production atmosphere differ from that of European or art cinema, which you’ve worked in for years?
MN: Well, you're surrounded by hundreds of people. The whole studio thing--Jersey Films, Columbia Pictures--there are a lot of names and a lot of faces and they slip in and out. The say hello and shake your hand and then they go off and have a meeting. You think you're part of a big deal, but there are a lot of other big deals going on. Meeting [producer] Danny DeVito was interesting. He came to the session, shook my hand and then wandered off and had an argument with someone, and that was the end of that.
VB: Who do we have to thank for getting you on board for your first Hollywood picture?
MN: In a way, it took an individual, namely [Gattaca director] Andrew Niccol, to track me down and make me the offer for Gattaca offer quite late in the game--the film was already finished and quite advanced in the editing stage. I went to Hollywood to see it, liked what I saw, liked Andrew very much, and I liked the kind music that he seemed to want. Then I came back home and began to write. Writing and re-writing was quite a slow and painstaking process--slower than I'm used to. But it was worth it because we ended up with a score that really works.
VB: Tell me a bit about the score.
MN: Gattaca's score could come from another planet in a sense that it is totally un-Hollywood, though it is very emotional. I tend to be asked to do soundtracks which kind of release the virus of humanity into a film where humanity is being drained away. The relationship between Gattaca's two lovers is very distant and very icy and very, let's say, futuristic. The music pins down the emotions that aren't on the screen, but not in a kind of over-the-top way. It's not streetwise score--it's a very conservative, string orchestra-based score. One very beautiful cue had people in tears when I was recording it, including [producer] Stacy Scher, who I don't think can cry at the drop of a hat.
VB: What scores and composers have moved you over the years?
MN: As far as soundtrack composers are concerned, it's the composers whose music stands out as individual voices. John Barry or Ennio Morricone or Bernard Hermann, the old school composers…
VB: And what are your favorite film soundtracks?
MN: It would have to be [Bernard Hermann’s] Psycho or Citizen Kane or Prokofiev's scores for Eisenstein's films. My favorite Jean-Luc Godard score is Pierrot le Fou and I don't even remember who the composer was. Obviously, the Bond films by John Barry have a particular sound. So do Morricone's spaghetti westerns.
Posted by Laurence Lerman on February 20, 2008 | Comments (0)
