Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar with “Joker,” is already deep into “The Bell Jar.” Sarah Polley’s Sylvia Plath adaptation, which recently wrapped, will give pop icon Billie Eilish her first starring role, while offering the composer a new kind of creative partnership. She was equally keen to connect with Eilish before the singer stepped in front of the camera. She keeps asking, ‘Who am I?’ and then uses her writing to understand that.
Billie, Sarah and I have been exploring how we hear that, how to translate it into music, and what music Sylvia herself might have been listening to.” Guðnadóttir calls the film a career highlight. I think it’s one of the most amazing books ever written.” “You can feel it in every word Sylvia Plath writes,” she continues. I’ve been reading a lot of her work, including her books, essays and poems, and it’s vast.
People tend to remember the drama of her story, that she had mental health struggles and a sad end. But her writing is so full of life, creativity and energy, and that’s what people tend to forget. I really hope this film can bring that back to center and celebrate her magnificent way of living.” Variety caught up with the composer at this year’s World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, where she was guest of honor.
Hours before her trip to Belgium, Guðnadóttir was still mixing “Enemies,” the Ari Aster-produced A24 thriller. Directed by Henry Dunham and starring Jeremy Allen White and Austin Butler, the Chicago-shot cop drama let her play with urban ambient sounds. Listening is always at the heart, along with my curiosity.” Guðnadóttir would also love to return to the “28 Years Later” franchise, whenever the next installment arrives.
At the World Soundtrack Awards, she described the “nerve-wracking” experience of watching the first in the new series, scored by Young Fathers, after finishing her work on Nia DaCosta’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” “I never got to hear a single note or see a single frame of [Danny Boyle’s ‘28 Years Later’] while I was working [on ‘The Bone Temple’],” she says. So when part one came out, I went to the cinema with everyone else. I was sitting there thinking, ‘Please work together, please work together,’ because I had already delivered my part and couldn’t change a thing.
It was funny, but nerve-wracking!” The description could apply to the series as a whole. So the question was how could the music amplify that.” DaCosta wanted strings, while Guðnadóttir sought to counter their ethereal quality with something more grounded. Taking the film’s title literally, she turned to an unlikely source for percussion.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
