by Jenny Nelson
The woodwind and brass sections were recorded in a former church, AIR Studios, and the musicians were tested with directions such as ‘Can we make the sound of wind howling through a cornfield?’ – in keeping with the experimental process. It is a glorious score, featuring the rippling and haunting ‘Dust’ and atmospheric ‘Stay’, which starts quietly before the organ swells, incorporating magnificent layering from the strings before an unexpected finish. The composer plays the piano parts, staying faithful to the core of the project, and his Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score – one of the five nominations Interstellar received – was richly deserved.
Zimmer has said that throughout his career, he has a tendency to finish scoring with a sense that he could have done or given more, and the first time he didn’t feel that was on Interstellar. During post-production, he and Nolan watched the whole film every Friday and made adjustments to the score, and one Friday, shortly before they were due to finish, he was able to tell the director he had no further changes to make. He had had enough time.
At the end of filming, Nolan gave Zimmer a watch inscribed with a line from the film that the composer cites as their working motto: ‘This is no time for caution.’
The director gave the composer another watch for their next project, based on the true story of Operation Dynamo, which rescued hundreds of thousands of British soldiers from the beach of Dunkirk in 1940. This time, however, it was intended to feature in the score: ‘I had made some recordings of different watches that I have, and I chose one recording that I’d made of a pocket watch that I own that has a particularly insistent ticking.’
Dunkirk (2017) is a remarkable triptych told from land, sea and air, written by Nolan according to a structure similar to the Shepard Tone, with the three elements being braided together in different ways to build the intensity. It is less a typical war film and more an exercise in suspense, as the audience is dropped into the heart of the action, provided with no backstory to the characters or external scenes featuring the enemy or the soldiers’ lives and families back in Blighty – put simply, it’s about getting home. Sound plays a vital role, and required a wider collaboration with the sound design and editing team, a working environment Zimmer has proved he thrives in. Nolan recruited the composer early on in the process and showed him the succinct script – at around seventy-six pages, it was about half as long as his others. That was deliberate, Nolan explains: ‘We’re trying not to tell the story through words; we’re trying to create suspense with image, sound and music. In the editing, we were layering in the sound effects and these tracks according to this rhythm, as we were cutting picture, so in that way, for better or for worse, we’ve been able to achieve a fusion of music, effects and picture in Dunkirk that we’ve never really been able to achieve before.’ Watching Dunkirk is a truly visceral experience. It’s not possible to separate sound from vision; it feels like film-making and storytelling at its purest. It’s no surprise that three of Dunkirk’s eight Oscar nominations are for sound: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Score.
The composer spent months building tracks from the ticking of the director’s pocket watch, and started integrating sirens and alarms that would build tension and ‘instil a fear or panic’ in the audience. Despite enthusiasm from Nolan, the process became increasingly difficult for Zimmer because, as the director explained, ‘There’s a coming together of things over a long period of time that did not involve tune, did not involve emotion, and I think that’s a very difficult and frustrating position for a composer to be in. This was a very hard-fought score, there’s no question.’ Zimmer was instructed to hold back, to enhance the suspense objectively. Nolan was clear throughout that he did not want any emotion in the music ‘because Dunkirk is freighted with emotion’, which as he freely acknowledged was frustrating for a composer and musician who had trained himself to strive relentlessly to find the musical and emotional heart of a film. The resulting tracks like ‘Supermarine’ and ‘The Oil’ are claustrophobic and perfectly pitched.
The emotion builds within the score as the film progresses, heightened by the inclusion of ‘Nimrod’ from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. It was a bold decision to incorporate such a familiar piece, and Nolan was very keen that it be embedded within the score, instead of feeling tacked on: ‘One of the things I really don’t like in film scores is when there’s a commitment to an original score that’s then, towards the end, up-ended or violated by the inclusion of a pre-existing piece of music.’ Zimmer and another composer, Benjamin Wallfisch, threaded themes from Nimrod within the score, often heavily disguised or reworked, hinting at what’s to come, so that when the piece becomes more evident in ‘Variation 15 (Dunkirk)’, it feels authentically organic to the film. As Nolan puts it, ‘The emotion at the end of the film has to feel earned, narratively and musically.’
Nolan and Zimmer work so well together because they think big. The director sets the bar high, and both then strive to surpass it. Their mutual respect is evident, for each other, the cast and crew, and, most crucially, the audience. As Zimmer says, ‘Chris and I, everybody on Chris’s team, work so hard at making the cinema sound good because it’s such a compliment and an honour that somebody spent their hard-earned cash to come and have an experience.’
The pair clearly enjoy spending time in each other’s company as well as the chance to rise to the challenge each new film provides. ‘I don’t think either of us is interested in repeating what we’ve done before, or having things be easy,’ says Nolan. ‘You hope to have fun, but you do want to challenge yourself. We tend to approach every film as trying to – and it sounds ridiculous to say out loud – to reinvent music or the musical language.’ It’s not just about vast ambitions though: Zimmer appreciates how Nolan has created the best working environment for him. ‘At the end of the day – and Chris does it probably better than anybody else – the main job the director has with the composer is to cheer you on, to make sure you succeed, because if you succeed it helps the film to succeed.’ Nolan disputes this ‘very rose-tinted picture’: ‘We fight like cats and dogs but in the best, the most productive way. We love each other, with everything that comes with that. We fight like brothers at times and we love like brothers. It’s an extraordinary partnership and a wonderful creative collaboration, but we dive into things fully, and when you do that, passions run high.’
Collaboration History
All produced, written (or co-written) and directed by Christopher Nolan unless otherwise stated.
Batman Begins (2005), co-composed with James Newton Howard
The Dark Knight (2008), co-composed with James Newton Howard
Inception (2010)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Man of Steel (2013), produced by Christopher Nolan
Interstellar (2014)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), executive produced by Christopher Nolan; co-composed with Junkie XL
Dunkirk (2017)
Suggested Playlist
Batman Begins, Vespertilio
Batman Begins, Eptesicus
The Dark Knight, Aggressive Expansion
The Dark Knight, Why So Serious?
Inception, Time
Inception, Mombasa
Inception, Dream is Collapsing
The Dark Knight Rises, Gotham’s Reckoning
The Dark Knight Rises, Mind If I Cut In?
The Dark Knight Rises, The Fire Rises
Interstellar, Day One
Interstellar, Dust
Interstellar, S.T.A.Y
Interstellar, Stay
Interstellar, Rise
Dunkirk, Supermarine
Dunkirk, The Oil
Dunkirk, Variation 15 (Dunkirk)
Dunkirk, End Titles (Dunkirk)
NOTES
All quoted material taken from interviews with Classic FM unless otherwise noted.
1: Carter Burwell and the Coen Brothers
Page 9, ‘improvi
sed using . . . peanut butter jars, etc.’
www.carterburwell.com/projects/Raising_Arizona.html.
Page 9, ‘No one other than . . . orchestral music!’
www.carterburwell.com/projects/Millers_Crossing.shtml.
Page 10, ‘a shimmering . . . notes’
www.carterburwell.com/projects/Fargo.shtml.
2: Patrick Doyle and Kenneth Branagh
Page 25, ‘The only device . . . and then joined.’
Patrick Doyle interviewed by Philippe Blumenthal for Soundtrack! The Collector’s Quarterly, vol. 16 no. 62 (June 1997).
Page 25, ‘Apart from . . . modern instruments.’
ibid.
3: Danny Elfman and Tim Burton
Page 36, ‘It is as important . . . in the films.’
Tim Burton interviewed in 1991 for David Breskin, Inner Views: Filmmakers in Conversation (Faber and Faber, London, 1992); reprinted in Kristian Fraga (ed.), Tim Burton Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson MS, 2005), p. 61.
Page 36, ‘It’s trying to show . . . kind of stuff.”’
Tim Burton in conversation with Danny Elfman for Interview magazine in 2010: www.interviewmagazine.com/film/tim-burton/#page2.
Page 37, ‘Writing the score . . . half-psychiatrist.’
Danny Elfman, interviewed for the Guardian in 2013:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/02/danny-elfman-tim-burton-singing.
Page 38, ‘[Price] was so great . . . with you forever.’
Interview magazine.
Page 38, ‘I knew who Pee-wee . . . that simple.’
Danny Elfman interviewed for Rolling Stone in 2015: www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/danny-elfman-on-film-scores-simpsons-and-working-with-tim-burton-20150629.
Page 39, ‘I always thought . . . responded to your work.’
Interview magazine.
Page 39, ‘Hearing the music . . . like that.’
Mark Salisbury (ed.), Burton on Burton, rev. edn (Faber and Faber, London, 2000), p. 48.
Page 41, ‘There was a weird incident . . . the screening.’
ibid., p. 66.
Page 42, ‘I don’t think . . . into the film.’
ibid., p. 81.
Page 43, ‘Danny and I . . . similar that way.’
Fraga, Tim Burton Interviews, p. 61.
Page 46, ‘We’d worked together . . . pass on them.’
Salisbury, Burton on Burton, p. 121.
Page 47, ‘I was the singer . . . They’re your songs.”’
Danny Elfman interviewed for Vulture in 2015:
www.vulture.com/2015/07/danny-elfman-on-8-of-his-iconic-scores.html.
Page 47, ‘I think he was mad . . . a bunch of kids, fighting’
Salisbury, Burton on Burton, p. 153.
Page 47, ‘We’re taking a little vacation from each other.’
ibid., p. 142.
Page 48, ‘I think . . . working with Howard.’
ibid., p. 153.
Page 53, ‘The music is . . . the context.’
Fraga, p. 61.
4: Michael Giacchino and J.J. Abrams
Page 58, ‘a window . . . the piece’
From ‘Mission Impossible III A Strike of a Match’, a 2006 interview by Randy Koppl for Music from the Movies magazine, no. 50, p. 54.
Page 60, ‘It’s a weird thing . . . hit the ground running.’
ibid., p. 55.
Page 61, ‘It got to a place . . . shouldn’t be.’
ibid.
Page 65, ‘For some reason . . . push each other.’
ibid.
Page 65, ‘I start to play . . . I can find things.’
ibid., p. 56.
Page 65, ‘was informing . . . around’
ibid.
Page 71, ‘If you . . . feel the story.’
ibid., p. 54.
Page 72, ‘There is . . . effortlessness to it.’
ibid., p. 55.
5: Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock
Quotations from interviews with François Truffaut are taken from François Truffaut, Hitchcock (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1967).
Page 79, ‘purest form of cinema’
ibid.
Page 82, ‘the work of a talented amateur’
ibid.
7: Maurice Jarre and David Lean
Page 120, ‘terrible’
Gene D. Phillips, Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean (University Press of Kentucky, Lexington KY, 2006), p. 304.
Page 121, ‘something left over from The King and I’
ibid., p. 305.
Page 121, ‘Sam, what is all . . . the nonsense!’
ibid.
Page 121, ‘Sam, this chap . . . to do it!’
ibid.
Page 125, ‘I think a composer . . . it should do.’
Gerald Pratley, The Cinema of David Lean (A. S. Barnes and Company, South Brunswick and New York, 1974), p. 187.
Page 128, ‘He will write . . . where the music’s going.’
David Lean, interviewed by Joseph Gelmis, 1970, in Steven Organ (ed.), David Lean: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson MS, 2009), p. 41.
Page 128, ‘There are anything . . . hard to describe.’
ibid.
Page 129, ‘I get a tremendous . . . immensely exciting.’
Interview with Melvyn Bragg in 1985 for a South Bank Show special: David Lean: A Life in Film.
Page 130, ‘I always participate . . . fix those lapses.’
‘David Lean: The Legend of the Century’, interview with Michel Spector, Studio magazine, 1989; in Organ (ed.), David Lean: Interviews.
Page 131, ‘very demanding’
Phillips, Beyond the Epic, p. 427.
Page 132, ‘David Lean once . . . the terminally ill!’
Interview with James Fitzpatrick from the sleeve notes for Film Music Masterworks – Maurice Jarre (Silva Screen Records, 2007).
Page 132, ‘a master of . . . service of cinema’
A Passage to India, DVD extra (Acorn Media, 2012).
Page 133, ‘I owe him everything . . . a great friend.’
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/mar/30/maurice-jarre-dies
9: Howard Shore and Peter Jackson
Page 154, ‘just in terms . . . been gruelling.’
Paul A. Wood (ed.), Peter Jackson: From Gore to Mordor (Plexus Publishing, Ultra Screen series, London, 2005), p. 123.
Page 154, ‘There was no room . . . for so long.’
ibid., p. 124.
Page 157, ‘Howard’s music . . . conversation with Howard.’
Peter Jackson interviewed by Rudy Koppl, Music from the Movies, 42 (2004), p. 19.
Page 157, ‘who would be . . . of the team’
ibid.
Page 158, ‘Howard was . . . seems to work.’
ibid., p. 20.
Page 159, ‘The Lord of the Rings . . . to Middle-earth.’
ibid., p. 19.
Page 162, ‘One of the things . . . the scoring stage.’
ibid., p. 21.
Page 164, ‘part of the job is supporting the composer’
ibid., p. 29.
Page 164, ‘He said, “I’d like . . . made sense to Howard.’
ibid.
Page 165, ‘the most important music of all three films’
ibid., p. 82.
Page 166, ‘couldn’t have actually . . . gratitude for him doing that.’
ibid.
Page 169, ‘total control of every aspect’
Ian Pryor, Peter Jackson: From Prince of Splatter to Lord of the Rings (Random House, Auckland, New Zealand, 2003), p. 310.
Page 169, ‘the last word’
ibid., p. 306.
Page 171, ‘not just a book, but a whole mythic philosophy’
Paul A. Wood, Peter Jackson, p. 10.
Page 171, ‘completely changed the way I work’
Rudy Koppl, Music from the Movies, p. 65.
Page 172, ‘I’ve al
so learned a lot about patience, he’s one of the most patient people I’ve ever met.’
ibid., p. 82.
Page 172, ‘It’s a wonderful . . . Fran and I have.’
ibid.
10: Alan Silvestri and Robert Zemeckis
Page 177, ‘I was fascinated . . . technical end first.’
Interview with Robert Zemeckis in Robert J. Emery, The Directors – Take Two: In Their Own Words (TV Books, 2000), p. 66.
Page 178, ‘a good guy . . . a solid human being’
Interview with Robert Zemeckis by Rudy Koppl in 2000, Soundtrack, vol. 19 no. 75: www.runmovies.eu/alan-silvestri-on-scoring-what-lies-beneath/
Page 182, ‘Every movie . . . good trend or not.’
Robert J. Emery, The Directors Cut, p. 78.
Page 182, ‘I was able . . . willing to work.’
ibid., p. 82.
Page 184, ‘That is like gold . . . objectivity any more.’
Jeremy Kagan (ed. and moderator), Directors Close Up: Interviews with Directors Nominated for Best Film by the Directors Guild of America, 2nd edn (Scarecrow Press, Lanham MD, 2006), p. 254.
Page 185, ‘I just hope . . . familiar territory’
Robert J. Emery, The Directors Cut, p. 85.
Page 186, ‘You develop . . . the look on my face.’
www.runmovies.eu/alan-silvestri-on-scoring-what-lies-beneath/
Page 188, ‘What he taught me . . . and change it.’
ibid.
Page 189, ‘creative soulmate’
ibid.
Page 189, ‘He doesn’t just . . . a movie here.’
ibid.
11: John Williams and Steven Spielberg
Page 193, ‘John has transformed . . . made together’
Sleeve notes from The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration (Sony Classical, 1990).
Page 194, ‘the only person that I’ve had a perfect association with’
Susan Royal, ‘Steven Spielberg in His Adventures on Earth’, American Premiere, July 1982, pp. 84–107; reprinted in Lester D. Friedman and Brent Notbohm (eds), Steven Spielberg: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson MS, 2000), p. 92.