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He Shoots, He Scores
Since first meeting in Toronto as teenagers, director David Cronenberg and composer Howard Shore – a three-time Oscar winner for his work on The Lord of the Rings – have formed one of film’s most creative partnerships. They’ve collaborated on 12 movies, including The Fly, A History of Violence andEastern Promises, a Russian mob thriller in theatres this month. enRoute caught up with them to discuss friendship, Saturday Night Fever and how filmmaking is like boxing. ENROUTE You both grew up in Toronto. When did you meet? HOWARD SHORE When I was 14, David was 16 or 17, and he had the most beautiful motorcycle and leathers. He was the coolest guy in the neighbourhood. Then I saw some of his short films in the early ’60s. I was about 28 when I did [Cronenberg’s 1979 film] The Brood. It took me 14 years to get up the courage to ask David to do one of his films. ER Why do you think you work together so well? DAVID CRONENBERG There’s a kind of bittersweet understanding of human darkness to what Howard does. It’s an interesting combination: never sombre, never solemn, but with an understanding of the tragic nature of human existence, leavened with humour. You can feel that in all of Howard’s work and certainly in mine. ER What’s the biggest misconception about music in film? DC There was an ugly, unfortunate era at the end of the ’60s and ’70s, when pop music was a really creative force, when people were always looking for a hit song out of a score. You had movies like Easy Rider whose score was basically pop music. We had some of that pressure on The Fly, weirdly enough. There was a producer or two who felt that a pop song, which was just background music in the bar scene, should play over the end credits so that we could legitimately say that it was music from this film. But we tried and it was so horrible, it completely destroyed the very tragic, emotional ending of the movie. HS Good films use music as part of the story. Scorsese uses sound pieces in interesting ways that become part of the film. DC When you think of Saturday Night Fever, you can’t separate it from its music. And that works for a movie like that, which was all about pop culture and dance. ER How do you know when it’s not working? DC We’ve all seen movies where the music strains to make you feel something that isn’t warranted by what’s on the screen. But when everything is firing on all cylinders, the music can add a whole emotional subtext. It’s almost like a fourth dimension. We have a couple of spots in Eastern Promises where the music completely alters the scene. Once you hear the music, you think, ‘Oh my God, that’s what’s going on.’ |
