This presents an interesting perspective on an issue that seems to grow more pronounced as the years roll by – the constant recycling of the same voices and the same ideas. The inevitable result is that a vast swathe of cinema ultimately becomes like white noise, with distinctive art becoming more and more rare, and difficult to find.
“Yeah, it’s just people-pleasing, and who… needs that? Like, ‘oh yeah, the studio head has signed off on these cues.’ Well, I’m sure he knows [nothing] about music, you know? And he’ll be out of a job – escorted off the premises in two years – because that’s how they all end up. I’m not interested in these people’s opinions on music that we’re writing and the films that we’re creating. I mean if that doesn’t make me right for every job then, so be it. I want to express myself and I want to do something that I haven’t felt somebody else doing.”
As we discuss the diminishing of distinctive cinema, our conversation moves to Darren Aronofsky – one of the most distinctive filmmakers we have – and the incredibly productive professional relationship the two have shared over the past 15 years. Having stated previously that the director usually brings him into the filmmaking process quite early on, allowing Mansell a bit more time for his compositions, I wonder if this was the case with Noah?
“I read the first script for Noah, like, the best part of 10 years ago, or something. It was a long time ago. We haven’t been working on it that long but it’s been around for, like, four years. So, some of the music in the film was some of the first things I wrote, you know, there’s a track called ‘Build Thee An Ark’ [‘Make Thee An Ark’ – Track 7 on the Noah soundtrack] that was actually the first piece of music I wrote for the film, way back when. He used it for animatic presentations to the studio. It was a very rough demo for him, but it just gave a bit of life to these computerized images – trying to help show certain things. So, I get involved in Darren’s films early. They should give you time for these things – it’s not like ‘oh I’ve got 6 weeks here I can write you a score and then I’m moving onto another one for 6 weeks’. All you’re going to get is just 6 weeks of bull… It takes a long time to find the right music for a film that isn’t just some music off the shelf. I hate all that stuff.”
What makes Mansell’s music so distinctive, is that it is always woven very closely into the scenes in a way that sounds very organic – which is rare in modern cinema. Even some of the biggest, most legendary film composers are unable to achieve that sense of complete integration with every film. It suggests to me that these scores are the work of a real film music fan.
“I’m 51, so I grew up at a time in England when we still had 3 TV channels, you know? I still like the BBC, but back then the BBC was probably the greatest thing in the world. I mean, it still makes great documentaries and stuff like that, but back then, it would do all that, but also, it would programme good films – good Monday night films. You know, back in the 70s, it would be films like The Parallax View, or Walkabout, or The Man Who Fell To Earth. All films that, by today’s standards, they’d be independent art films – they wouldn’t get any exposure whatsoever – but those were mainstream films back then. They’re intelligent, smart and thought-provoking, and I think if you grow up around those kinds of things, it’s going to affect you differently than growing up around Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you know?
No offence to them – they’re great, and whatever – but, an immature mind is a malleable thing. It works, but it’s a sponge that sucks things up. It’s good to be around good things that you’re sucking up, not just bull…, you know? So, I grew up learning from directors like Nicholas Roeg, who is a fantastic filmmaker, but who wouldn’t get a start in Hollywood [now]. But these are the people that had the creative ideas back then, and, you know, I’m [not] going to listen to – well just name anything – just reel off most films that have been released this year, musically – the studio stuff’s bull.
But then, you’ve got stuff like, what Ben Wheatley did in A Field In England. Great use of music in that. The score for the new one – Under The Skin? [Mica Levi] It’s great stuff. Johann Johansson’s score for Prisoners last year was fantastic, too. There’s great stuff out there. Cliff Martinez does great stuff all the time, but these sorts of people, they’re too esoteric for the mainstream, shall we say?
I was in a meeting once on a biggish project where this Hollywood producer went, ‘Can you make the music more neutral? We really want it more neutral?’ The same producer – this is going back a bit – went to John Powell, who did the first Bourne Identity film. This same producer went from slagging off that score – saying it was terrible, to [a few weeks later] saying it was the best score he’d ever heard – having forgotten he was slagging it off, like, two minutes ago. These people are, you know, ‘run with the hares and hunt with the hounds,’ or whatever you call it. They just blow with the….wind.”
I wonder if these producers are more business-oriented people, without a real creative vision of their own. Perhaps they are simply there to facilitate the finance and an appropriate return on what they see as an investment?
“Well, you know they may have, but they definitely serve the bottom line of making money. The audience – who they have absolutely no respect for – which is basically, middle America – they go ‘Let’s just dumb it down to play to these people in the flyover states,’ or whatever you call it. My idea of movies and music is that it’s there to educate, not there to bloody pander. You know, because if that was the case, we’d still be rubbing two….sticks together, rather than, you know, somebody inventing the zippo lighter. I just can’t stand that. I am sort of outspoken on it, and it makes me unpopular with people but, you know, what are you going to do? On the one hand, people want the passion that you bring to something, but at the same time they don’t want you to have an opinion.”