ISCHIA GLOBAL FILM & MUSIC FEST INTERVIEW # 3: BILLE AUGUST

Posted by Timothy E. RAW

August 18, 2009

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ischia1 ISCHIA GLOBAL FILM & MUSIC FEST INTERVIEW # 3: BILLE AUGUST Bille August has become one of Scandinavia’s premiere international filmmakers, first finding critical acclaim from world audiences with Pelle the Conqueror in 1987. He is best known for his English language films, House of the Spirits, (in which he directed a notable cast that included Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Redgrave, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Antonio Banderas), Smilla’s Sense of Snow and more recently, Goodbye Bafana.

His filmography can be viewed here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000806/

081809 1907 ISCHIAGLOBA1 ISCHIA GLOBAL FILM & MUSIC FEST INTERVIEW # 3: BILLE AUGUST
Filmmakers, Dario Argento (left) and Bille August (right) lead a panel discussion at the festival.

TIMOTHY E. RAW: Are you anything of a soundtrack geek yourself? Film soundtracks and film scores, do they comprise some of the music you choose to listen to when you’re not shooting a film?

BILLE AUGUST: Not really, not soundtracks as such, but I do listen to a lot of music and really my favourite music is more classical music. Most of the time, when I make films we use symphonic music of course and I always use composers for the scores but most of the time when I listen to music it’s classical.

RAW: Do you have a particular favourite score from one of your own films and the composers you’ve worked with?

BA: It’s very unusual, it’s periods, y’know – at one time I liked a certain kind of music and a certain composer as a favourite, but then it changes depending on where I am in my life and what I’m doing. I don’t have a score I prefer, it really depends on the situation and the mood I’m in.

RAW: So I’m guessing as a writer/director you don’t really use film scores as something to aid you in the writing process?

BA: Not really. When I’m working on a script, when I’m writing, I tend to be very open, very spare and very emotionally naked. Most of the time I’ll isolate myself in a room, lock all the doors and just try to focus on the story and the characters. Later I start to listen to music, but at the writing stage I’m very isolated.

RAW: Can you talk a little bit about the experience of scoring your films?

BA: Creating a score is a long process with the composer and normally, the moment you hire him, he makes a first version of the music on his computer in a very simple way. Then you listen to this first version, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s fantastic and others it’s very, very wrong… this different direction. If it’s something you like and it’s going in the right direction, then it goes to the next step. You will never really be surprised by the score by the third or fourth attempt because you’ve already been through all these different stages of development. You have to go through that long process because in the final stage you have to go to a music studio, often with a huge orchestra that is obviously very expensive, so you don’t really have room for any mistakes there. At that point you have to be very certain about what you want.

RAW: Of the films you’ve made, which has been the longest and most difficult process in defining the score and get the tone exactly right?

BA: I made a couple of films where first we had one composer and he did the whole score, but in the end we were not completely happy. When we were trying to develop it and make it better for the film, we tried the recorded music on the final film and we just decided that it was wrong and that it didn’t help to communicate all the emotions in the film. Then we decided that we need to try and find another composer, so we had to start all over again with someone else. That of course, is very, very expensive to make that decision. To have an established composer and all those recordings… that was about half a million dollars.

RAW: Could you tell us the title of the film and perhaps the two different composers?

BA: No, I don’t want to do that, it’s of course confidential. It’s a complicated process, but it happens all the time in the film industry. You cannot know for certain when you hire a composer that he really understands it and that he is able to enrich the film with the music as he’s supposed to do. I would say most of the time, you choose somebody you think is right for the film and after he’s made that first draft of the music, you should already know if it’s right or wrong. You should know then if it’s too far away from what you want and if that’s the case you should stop there before it goes any further.

RAW: How exactly are you involved in choosing the composer? How exactly does that work? Who’s making those decisions?

BA: The director – basically me – because as a director you have created a whole film, especially when you’re the writer. You have a certain vision of the film and you want then, somebody with whom you can share that vision, a composer who can enrich it and take it to a higher level. You want somebody who has that ability. As a director you’re aware of most of the composers and you know their kind of work. I make the choice of composer because I know their work and the kind of style they represent.

RAW: You know this work purely from hearing it within the context of the film, never listening to it separately on its own? Harry Gregson-Williams is someone you’ve chosen to work with twice on Smila’s Sense Of Snow and Return To Sender, what films first made you aware of him?

BA: The first time I worked with him was actually on a film called House Of The Spirits.

RAW: Yet Hans Zimmer is the credited composer on that film, no?

BA: Hans Zimmer has credit but… I’m sorry, what’s the name of the composer?

RAW: Harry Gregson-Williams.

BA: Sorry! Such a long name… Harry was working as an assistant for Hans, so that’s when I met him the first time. And on Smila’s Sense Of Snow, Harry did half of the music, together with Hans Zimmer. I really loved Harry’s music and also such a wonderful guy to work with. He’s very original in his way of thinking. Most of all, he understands the soul of the film. He’s able to express that musically.

RAW: Before this collaboration, what was the film or films that made you think, “Yes! This is the guy that I want to pursue for this project?

BA: In the case of Hans Zimmer, I already listened to a lot of his work. An extraordinary composer who’s very different. I knew that hiring Hans Zimmer to do the film House Of The Spirits would be right because he has such a diversity in his music. I was completely convinced he could do the job and he did. Fantastic. Working with Hans twice eventually led me to Harry, working under him at his big studio in Hollywood. Now they’re not in the same studio but still working next door to each other and they’re still very close, very good friends. Still very much the same way it always was.

RAW: With your last film, Goodbye Bafana, how did you come to work with Dario Marinelli?

BA: It’s an odd thing because he lives and works in the United Kingdom. Goodbye Bafana was a co-production, meaning you always need different elements from different countries. There was a big amount of money coming from Italy, so we needed someone from there to work on the film. They recommended Dario, I listened to his music and he’s such a fantastic composer, I of course agreed that we should use him. Dario came to South Africa, playing with lots of different kinds of South African music to get that authentic South African feeling into the film. Again, another fantastic score.

RAW: Anything you could tell us about the film you’re working on now?

BA: The next one is an English-Canadian production, but it’s lots of very Canadian stories, so I want to work with a Canadian composer.

RAW: Unlike a lot of directors, you don’t tend to stick with any one composer. Why is that?

BA: It really depends. I’ve done a lot of Scandinavian films and I’ve done co-productions in Europe where you have to qualify for the points system and that often directs those choices.

RAW: More often than not it’s a fiscal matter?

BA: It is, but it also gives me an opportunity to work with different people who express themselves in many different ways in their access to music. Each composer has their own “feel”, so I think it has been better for me artistically to work with a wide range of composers.