Iceland review - 2019, Qupperneq 39

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Iceland Review
score for Chernobyl in the place of traditional instru-
ments. The result is a soundscape woven into the
action, rather than one that artificially inflates the
drama of the story. “Often film music is boosting the
emotion on the screen, and of course music is very
good at this,” Hildur explains. “But because the events
at Chernobyl were so devastating in themselves, the
plot had to have its own space. I found it was really
important that I wasn’t exaggerating anything
with thriller music or dramatic strings, I wanted to
approach the music very honestly.”
Switching wavelengths
From the bowels of a nuclear power station, Hildur
travelled into the mind of a comic-book supervillain.
She admits it was a challenge to go between the two
projects. “They require very different headspaces.
Chernobyl actually happened. There are many
thousands of people who are alive today who were
impacted by the events. Most people remember when
it happened and have some kind of story to tell. When
you’re retelling a historical event, you approach it
from a different angle than a story like Joker that’s
fictional, which maybe gives you more space to create a
narrative.”
The composer is aware, however, that to many fans,
the Joker is more than a mere fictional character.
“Many comic-book characters, people have lived with
them for an incredibly long time. They have such strong
feelings toward them and even toward specific perfor-
mances, like Heath Ledger’s. But we’re approaching
the story from a very new angle – it’s an origin story.”
Indeed, the trailer is not what one would expect of a
film that originates in the superhero universe. The
movie’s creators have clearly set aside bravado and
fantasy to get to the human core of the Joker’s story.
Joaquin Phoenix plays the title character in Joker:
a failed stand-up comedian who reacts to society’s
disregard with increasing violence and depravity,
eventually becoming Batman’s archnemesis. Created
in 1940 for DC Comics, the Joker’s unsettling mix of
evil with a side of humour has captivated die-hard fans
for decades. It’s his dichotomy that makes the Joker so
arresting to watch. “It’s so difficult to pin him down,”
Hildur says.
Music as catalyst
“With film music,” Hildur tells me, “I find it really
important to be able to completely disappear into the
story.” Luckily, both Chernobyl and Joker offered the
composer plenty of time to dig deep, and in the process
even challenge the role of music in the making of a film.
On both projects, she was hired unusually early, and
started working on the music before shooting began.
It bears noting that normally, a composer isn’t
brought in until the final stages of a film’s production,
once shooting is finished. They receive a rough or even
final cut of the film where the pacing is more or less
locked in – not to mention the acting and all of the
visual elements. In that working process, the compos-
er’s job is essentially reactive: the music is composed
in response to the arcs and pacing that have already
been decided. Because Hildur started composing for
Chernobyl and Joker so early, her music actually had
the chance to influence other aspects of the produc-
tions, including the acting and cinematography.
“It’s a huge luxury and much more creative,” Hildur
says about the process. “Of course, it’s a much longer
process – I worked on the Joker for a year and a half –
but it gives you the opportunity to create a more holis-
tic work of art.” In the case of Joker, Joaquin Phoenix
used Hildur’s demos to develop his physicality for the
role. “Acting is very physical. There’s a certain rhythm
and pace to your movements, and to cinematography
as well. The music can have an effect on that, instead of
the music just following the tempo of the film. They can
affect each other more.”
Between the lines
There is another aspect of this working process that
perhaps has a profound effect on the music that results
from it. Because there is no cut of the film for Hildur to
“I wanted to explore what a
nuclear disaster sounds like –
to go into the plant,
put on the gear,
walk through the huge spaces,
smell how it smells.”