Argo Composer Alexandre Desplat on Preventing Ben Affleck’s Film from Sounding “Cheesy” and Creating Zero Dark Thirty’s “Middle Ages” Score


by Claire Folger/? 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Over the past 10 years, Oscar-nominated film composer Alexandre Desplat has scored more than 50 films, for such filmmakers as Terrence Malick, Roman Polanski, Wes Anderson, and George Clooney, and for genres as disparate as highbrow drama (The Queen, The King’s Speech) and franchise blockbuster (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Twilight Saga: New Moon). In the last year alone, eight films scored by Desplat—including Zero Dark Thirty, Rust and Bone, Moonrise Kingdom, and Argo, the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination this year for best original score— have premiered in the U.S.

In anticipation of the Academy Awards this Sunday, when Desplat will attempt to win his first statuette (following four previous nominations), the Frenchman phoned earlier this month. Among the subjects discussed: collaborating with Ben Affleck to make sure Argo didn’t get “cheesy,” recording at Capitol Records, and the sometimes obnoxious tradition of American film scores.

Julie Miller: You’ve worked with George Clooney, one of the producers of Argo, several times before. How did Ben Affleck’s input into the score differ from Clooney’s? And what did he tell you during your first meeting together?

Alexandre Desplat: Whether it was with Ben or George or [producer] Grant [Heslov], the conversation was always about what the score would be conveying at any given moment. When I first saw the film and the script, [I thought the story was] such a precise, mechanical machine. It is a Swiss- clock scenario that has to be very organized. The score couldn’t just be something atmospheric in the background; I needed to find the structure and architecture so that the music would bring something more. That is what we spoke about the most. And also the idea of showing that we had these three chapters: the C.I.A. plot, the Hollywood plan, and the very important second half of the film where, like a parachute jump, Tony Mendez enters the airspace of Iran—like a soldier jumping from an airplane into unknown territory, without knowing what to do.

It seems as though it would have been easy to manipulate the audience with a clichéd suspense score. But this script does not need that, and your score seems to be gentle in its suspenseful elements. How did you decide to modulate the suspense?

Well, I tried to figure out with Ben what the various plateaus were in the final escape. Because if the music and emotions are too strong . . . you can’t maintain the suspense. It’s like in a musical. There are plateaus and then you go up another notch and another notch and another notch until the finale. That was the main structural issue we had to discuss with Ben. When that was done, I suggested that when we hit the Iranian territory, we change the color of the music. It was a bit suspenseful but gently suspenseful, then light and gentle in the comedic moments because there is no way to be comedic with music. For me, music is not comedic ever.

The movie could have become very cheesy and very unreal if there was a melody going throughout the entire film. Like The Bridge on the River Kwai. The beginning of the film was almost like cinema verité. We are living in a very real world. A melody would have changed the mood, so the melody only really blossoms at the end when it is possible to romanticize the story.

How did you go about changing the color of the music, as you put it?

That’s where I suggested to bring in some incredible masters of Persian or Turkish music that I’ve known through the years, and put them in a studio and record with them the music I had written for their instruments. To create an otherworldly sound of tension to put the audience suddenly off balance. So like the hostages and Tony Mendez, hearing this music surrounding you makes you feel really uneasy and [as if you’re in] unknown territory.

You mentioned that there are three elements to the story. How did you differentiate the score with rhythmic motifs and instruments to reflect those different storylines?

The first half of the film is all made with Occidental instruments. When we get to the Iranian airspace, you hear this voice—this great Persian singer Sussan Deyhim does a sort of jazz scatting, but in a Persian way. And on top of that, she sings a melody like a lament. That is going to keep on going during the moments of fear and emotion during the second half of the film. Around her are these incredible musicians from Turkey and France. We locked ourselves in Capitol Records, and I specifically had them play what I had written, showing them the patterns and teaching them every detail of the melodies.

What creates a very strange sound at times is that the melodies are played by the instruments and the singers at the same time. They sing together, three voices in unison, and it creates a very strange, otherworldly sound. I keep mentioning this alien texture. I remember in the 70s, especially, people were not listening to this kind of music, from Pakistan or India, especially in America. That was the idea—Ben has tried to immerse us with all of the visuals of the 1970s. In the same way, the music is also trying to capture this gap between the American ear and the Middle Eastern ear.

Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, which you also scored, are both somewhat political films that take place in the Middle East, but their scores sound very different. How did your inspirations for each project differ?

The movies are going for something else. Zero Dark Thirty was going for something archaic and dark. It’s a war movie that reminds us almost of a Greek tragedy. Argo is a suspense movie, emotional and in modern times. For some reason, to me, Zero Dark Thirty brings us back to Middle Ages where two kingdoms are trying to kill each other.

In an interview last month, Steven Soderbergh said that music is one of the most abused aspects of filmmaking. Over the last 10 years, he said, it’s become “wall-to-wall—it’s the movie equivalent of the vuvuzelas from the last World Cup.” What are your thoughts on his statement?

It has been a tradition in America since the 40s to underline every single emotion and moment in a film with music, most of the time with a big orchestra. It was great for the golden era of cinema because it was part of the aesthetic of the time. Since the 70s, I think, many movies and composers have shown that you can have a sparser score. I think there is no rule in cinema, and there is no rule in music for cinema. Some movies require large scores; others really require a push with the music.

My aesthetic, because I’ve worked on so many movies where the dialogue and storyline are driving the film, is “less is more.” With Syriana, which I worked on with George Clooney, there was this returning music, which can be very efficient. It requires a lot of precision because it’s always difficult to bring music into the soundtrack and then take it out. So every moment of music has to be very carefully designed and chosen.

All that [is to say] I prefer a movie with less music, but it also depends on how the music is mixed. If it is playing loud, yes, it is annoying. Sometimes it has to be, though, and sometimes it has to be melodic, and other times it should not. The composer has to adapt to what the movie is offering. That is the main thing. You can’t just write the same music on and on. I guess that is why I have a strong relationship with directors, because I understand that.

Related: “The Oscar-Nominated Editor of Argo and Zero Dark Thirty on Maintaining Suspense in True-Story Movies”