Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo, Marco Graf as Pepe, Carlos Peralta Jacobson as Paco, and Daniela Demesa as Sofi in Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Image by Alfonso Cuarón.
Oscar-winning writer/director Alfonso Cuaron (GRAVITY, CHILDREN OF MEN) crafts his most personal film, a realist drama set in 1970s Mexico against a backdrop of civil unrest about the struggles of a family and a beloved housekeeper named Cleo. The Mexican-born Cuaron both wrote and directed this touching drama, a kind of love letter to the women who raised him.
Shot in lush black-and-white, the focus at the center of this film is a young indigenous woman named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) who works as a maid/nanny for an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City in the 1970s. Roma is the name of the neighborhood of gated homes where the family lives. Cleo works hard, does her household chores but her real value is in the love she gives the family’s children, who adore her. The household of servants, young children, their mother and a dog exist in a state of warmly-loving mild chaos. The life has its own rhythm and structure that suits the children particularly but it is too chaotic for the children’s father, doctor who travels frequently and returns home to more mess than he can tolerate. As things in the marriage grow tense, the young housekeeper faces her own personal crisis.
This is a beautiful, moving drama is a masterpiece in Spanish andCleo’s indigeous native tongue, shot in breath-taking black-and-white photography in a hyper-real style. Those artistic choices place ROMA more in the realm of art-house than the director’s more mainstream films like GRAVITY. While subtitles and black-and-white may discourage some, this excellent film rewards its audience well, intimately drawing them deep into the characters’ lives and time period, while also lending a sense of gravity and grandeur to moments from ordinary lives. That is not to say the events are ordinary – they aren’t. Wildfire, a city engulfed in riots, dangerous storm-driven surf are among the moments that confront the characters. Instead of the usual music score, the film’s soundtrack is filled with heightened ambient sounds and motivated music – that is, music from radios, passing street musicians, or a band at a party.
The acting is remarkable in this drama. Particularly effective is Yalitza Aparicio, the non-actor playing Cleo. Her still, sensitive face is the perfect canvas to reflect and balance both the sadness and joy she and the family experiences. It is a striking performance that is garnering talk of awards. Especially touching are Aparico’s scenes with the children, and her quiet dignity in accepting the difficulties she must face.
It is hard to do justice in words to the sense of majesty and significance Cuaron manages to create for these ordinary lives, yet the sense is there in the finely crafted images. The fact is, the film really just needs to be seen to fully appreciate Cuaron’s artistry in making the everyday seem profound.
ROMA opens Friday, December 14, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater.
From Jonás Cuarón and Alfonso Cuarón, the acclaimed filmmakers of GRAVITY, comes a unique, modern vision of terror.
DESIERTO is a visceral, heart-pounding suspense-thriller packed with tension and suspense from start to finish, starring Gael García Bernal (THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES and Y TU MAMÀ TAMBIÉN) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (WATCHMEN).
Watch the first trailer below.
What begins as a hopeful journey to seek a better life becomes a harrowing and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante chases a group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous U.S.-Mexican border. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they continuously discover there’s nowhere to hide from the unrelenting, merciless killer.
STX Entertainment will release DESIERTO in theaters Spring 2016.
Composer Steven Price has received his first Best Original Film Music accolade from the EE British Academy of Film Awards (BAFTA) for his work on director Alfonso Cuarón’s GRAVITY.
In accepting the honor Sunday night, Price said, “Thank you so much BAFTA. I share this with Alfonso. You inspired every second of this and it has been a huge honor to tell this story with you. I want to thank all the musicians who played on this score and gave the music its heartbeat, as well as everyone at Warner Bros., The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency and all the people on this film who have been so supportive. Thank you to my mom and dad for having such a great record collection and starting this whole thing off. But most of all, thank you Gemma, my wife.”
In addition to BAFTA, Price’s music for Gravity has also been recognized with best score wins from the Broadcast Film Critics Association in addition to several best score nominations including the Oscar and the Golden Globe.
Read my interviews with the composer on THE WORLD’S END – HERE and GRAVITY – HERE.
Soon after receiving his BAFTA win yesterday, director Edgar Wright tweeted that Price will be composing the score to the upcoming feature adaptation of the Marvel comic book ANT-MAN starring Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.
Huge congrats to @SteveBPrice for his Bafta Award for the ‘Gravity’ score. I guess I should drop the news that he is scoring ‘Ant-Man’.
The film marks Price’s third collaboration with Wright after working with the filmmaker on THE WORLD’S END and ATTACK THE BLOCK (the latter which Wright executive produced).
Price is presently composing the score for FURY and also wrote music for Cuarón’s new NBC series Believe which premieres on March 10 and stars Kyle MacLachlan and Delroy Lindo. Believe tells the story of a gifted young girl and a man sprung from prison, who has been tasked with protecting her from evil.
IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures have announced that GRAVITY has passed the $100 million global box office benchmark in 639 IMAX 3D theatres worldwide since its initial release Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013.
As of Feb. 5, 2014, the film had reached $48.6 million in 330 IMAX 3D theatres domestically and $51.5 million from 309 theatres internationally. GRAVITY represents the third IMAX Hollywood film to cross the $100-million threshold, following AVATAR in 2010 and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in 2012.
GRAVITY continues to pull moviegoers in to IMAX theatres, with a Jan. 31, 2014, re-release into 330 IMAX 3D locations in North America and other international territories.
The film will be released on Blu-ray February 25, but see it on the big screen and in IMAX 3D!
Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron’s internationally lauded drama, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, has been a hit with audiences and critics alike, closing in on the $700 million mark at the global box office, while receiving 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Sandra Bullock) and Best Score (Steven Price).
Demand for the film – which was also nominated for four Golden Globes, with Cuaron winning Best Director – has been particularly high in IMAX 3D.
Opening Oct. 4, Gravity was the highest-grossing IMAX release of 2013, both domestically and globally.
Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and George Clooney (Syriana) star in GRAVITY, a heart-pounding drama that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar nominee Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men).
GRAVITY was written by Alfonso Cuaron & Jonás Cuaron, and produced by Alfonso Cuaron and David Heyman (the Harry Potter films). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones served as executive producers. This film has been rated PG-13 for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
Another Oscar pre-cursor award was handed out Saturday night.
Director Alfonso Cuarón won the DGA’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for GRAVITY. This top honor puts him in a good spot to win the Academy Award for Best Director on Oscar Sunday, March 2. The awards for 2013 were announced during the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Other DGA nominees were Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips); Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave); David O. Russell (American Hustle); and Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street).
With just five weeks until the Oscars are announced from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, 12 YEARS A SLAVE, which tied with GRAVITY last Saturday to earn the top award at the Producers Guild, seems to be in a three-way race with AMERICAN HUSTLE which took home the Screen Actors Guild award last weekend.
As Oscar pundit Scott Feinberg wrote in his Hollywood Reporter article “Will Weinstein’s ‘Philomena’ Benefit From Best Picture Split?”, be on the lookout for PHILOMENA and a surprise upset for Best Picture.
The DGA and PGA win for GRAVITY firmly places the film as the frontrunner, but as you can see in the most recent edition of the Gurus o’ Gold, many are predicting a split between the Best Picture and Best Director.
Upcoming awards to note: The Writer’s Guild Awards are on February 1, ACE Eddie’s (editors guild) are February 7 and the BAFTA’s (Gravity – 11 nominations, including Best Film, Outstanding British Film. 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle – ten nominations) are held on February 16. Final voting for the 86th Academy Awards ends at 5 p.m. PT on Tuesday, February 25th.
Actress Jane Lynch hosted the ceremony before an audience of more than 1,600 guests. Presenters included (in alphabetical order): Ben Affleck, Debbie Allen, DGA Secretary-Treasurer Michael Apted, DGA President Paris Barclay, Sandra Bullock, Nick Cannon, Don Cheadle, Steve Coogan, Bradley Cooper, DGA Fifth Vice President Jon Favreau, DGA Past President Taylor Hackford, Tom Hanks, Keith Jackson, Anna Kendrick, Allison Liddi-Brown, Sarah Paulson, Rob Reiner, and Kerry Washington.
The DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been a near perfect barometer for the Best Director Academy Award.
Only seven times since in the DGA awards’ 65 year history, has the DGA Award winner not won the Academy Award:
1968: Anthony Harvey won the DGA Award for The Lion in Winter while Carol Reed took home the Oscar® for Oliver!. 1972: Francis Ford Coppola received the DGA’s nod for The Godfather while the Academy selected Bob Fosse for Cabaret. 1985: Steven Spielberg received his first DGA Award for The Color Purple while the Oscar® went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa. 1995: Ron Howard was chosen by the DGA for his direction of Apollo 13 while Academy voters cited Mel Gibson for Braveheart. In 2001 Ang Lee took home the DGA Award for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, while the Oscar® went to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. In 2003 Roman Polanski received the Academy Award for The Pianist, but the DGA Award went to Rob Marshall for Chicago. 2012: Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for Argo, while the Academy chose Ang Lee for Life of Pi.
In addition to Cuaron’s win last night, Steven Soderbergh won for Best Television/Mini-series for the Liberace biopic BEHIND THE CANDELABRA. This was Soderbergh’s first DGA Award and third nomination. He was also the recipient of this year’s Robert B. Aldrich Service Award for extraordinary service to the DGA and its membership.
Female filmmaker Jehane Noujaim took home the DGA Documentary award for THE SQUARE. This was her second DGA Award and third nomination. She won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for Startup.com in 2001 (together with Chris Hegedus) and was also nominated in this category in 2004 for Control Room.
IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that Alfonso Cuarón’s GRAVITY will be returning to domestic IMAX theatres starting January 31.
Cuarón’s spectacular sci-fi thriller, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, has been a hit with audiences and critics alike, grossing nearly $700 million at the global box office, while receiving 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.
Demand for the film – which was also nominated for four Golden Globes, with Cuarón winning Best Director – has been particularly high in IMAX 3D. Opening Oct. 4, Gravity was the highest-grossing IMAX release of 2013, both domestically and globally. It’s also the 3rd most popular IMAX DMR® film of all time worldwide.
“Congratulations to Alfonso, David Heyman and Warner Bros. on today’s Academy Award nominations. We’re delighted with the overwhelming success of Gravity and the continued demand we’re seeing from moviegoers, both domestically and around the world, to bring it back in IMAX,” said Greg Foster, CEO of IMAX Entertainment and Senior Executive Vice President, IMAX Corp.
“Word of mouth has been tremendous, with fans and critics demanding that Gravity must be experienced in the most immersive way possible. The film’s ample awards consideration has further cemented its place in cinema history, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer it again.”
The IMAX release of Gravity has been digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX 3D Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.
In celebration of GRAVITY’s re-entry into IMAX theatres in the UK last weekend, film fans queued for hours at Showcase Cinema’s IMAX Cinema in Bluewater. As you can see in the photos below, NASA astronauts were among them, suited and booted and eager to get hold of the hottest ticket on planet earth.
Following months of overwhelming critical and audience acclaim and numerous year-end awards, Warner Bros. Pictures is bringing Alfonso Cuarón’s cinematic achievement GRAVITY back to big screens nationwide.
The film, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, will be re-released on more than 900 screens on January 17, 2014, it was announced today by Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
Originally released on October 4, 2013, GRAVITY instantly became a favorite of both critics and audiences. It has since become one of the most honored films of the year, most recently bringing a Golden Globe Award for Best Director to Alfonso Cuarón. The film has also received 11 BAFTA Award nominations and 10 Critics’ Choice Award nominations, both including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress (Bullock)*.
It has also won Best Picture awards from several prestigious critics organizations, including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and has been included on 395 critics’ and critics groups’ top ten lists, as well as being named one of the AFI’s ten best films of the year. It was also announced as the year’s best reviewed film by the website Rotten Tomatoes.
In addition, the talents behind the film have been recognized by their peers, with a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for Cuarón; a Producers Guild of America Award nomination for David Heyman and Cuarón; a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Bullock; a American Society of Cinematographers Award nomination for Emmanuel Lubezki; an Art Directors Guild Award nomination for Andy Nicholson; and an American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award nomination for Cuarón and Mark Sanger*.
GRAVITY has also been a smash hit at the box office, earning more than $670 million worldwide and counting, with most moviegoers opting to view it in 3D.
In making the announcement, Fellman stated, “We are thrilled by the many accolades for ‘Gravity,’ which have generated renewed word-of-mouth and interest in seeing the film, whether for the first time or to experience it again. We wanted to give audiences everywhere another opportunity to see it the way it was meant to be seen—on the big screen.”
Academy Award® winners Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”) and George Clooney (“Syriana”) star in GRAVITY, a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar® nominee Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”).
Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
GRAVITY was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones served as executive producers. The behind-the-scenes team included multiple Oscar®-nominated director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (“Children of Men,” “The New World”); production designer Andy Nicholson (art director “Alice in Wonderland”); editors Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (VFX editor “Children of Men”); and costume designer Jany Temime (the “Harry Potter” films). The visual effects were handled by Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Tim Webber (“The Dark Knight”). The music was composed by Steven Price (“Attack the Block”).
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents an Esperanto Filmoj/Heyday Films Production, an Alfonso Cuarón Film, GRAVITY. Released in 3D and 2D and IMAX®, the film is being distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company. This film has been rated PG-13 for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
(L-r) SANDRA BULLOCK, GEORGE CLOONEY and director ALFONSO CUARÓN on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ dramatic thriller “GRAVITY,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (C) 2013 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. Photo Credit: MURDO MACLEOD
On this Christmas Eve, orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth, U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins are working outside the International Space Station to repair the cooling system. This is only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk in NASA history.
One can’t help but think of the film GRAVITY. For the two space station astronauts it’s become like a real-life GRAVITY, just without actors Sandra Bullock and George Clooney and the whole having to survive in space after an accident.
In the film Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) in command. But on a seemingly routine mission, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue.
“I have always had a fascination with space and space exploration,” states Alfonso Cuarón, the director, producer and co-writer of the dramatic thriller “Gravity.” He continues, “On the one hand, there is something mythical and romantic about the idea of separating yourself from Mother Earth. But in many ways, it doesn’t make sense to be out there when life is down here.”
Right now there are people working in a place where there is very little separation between life and death. The inherent dangers of spaceflight have grown in the decades since we first began venturing beyond our own atmosphere…and those increasing dangers are manmade. The refuse from past missions and defunct satellites has formed a debris field that can cause disaster in an instant. NASA has even given the scenario a name: the Kessler Syndrome.
Watch this new behind-the-scenes look at the film.
The filmmakers knew that they would need to push the boundaries of moviemaking to tell a story that transpires wholly in zero gravity. “I have to say that I was a bit naïve; I thought making the film would be a lot simpler,” Cuarón admits. “Yes, I knew it would require a certain amount of tricks, but it was not until we started trying conventional techniques that I realized in order to do the film the way I wanted to do it, we were going to have to create something entirely new.”
To accomplish that, Cuarón called upon cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, and visual effects supervisor Tim Webber of Framestore. “From the get-go, Chivo, Tim and I decided we wanted everything to look like we took our camera into space. That would have been my dream, but, of course, that’s not feasible,” Cuarón smiles.
Simply put—though there was nothing simple about it—the filmmakers did not want anything akin to a sci-fi fantasy world, but rather to depict the stark realities of being marooned in the harshest environment known to mankind.
That objective turned out to be a game changer.
The filmmakers invented entire systems to generate the illusion of being in space in ways that were both totally convincing and utterly visceral.
Cuarón also utilized music to, as he says, “take the role of sound or give a tonal suggestion of sound.”
Freemantle collaborated closely with composer Steven Price to layer the two components. Price says, “It was great working with Glenn and his team. They were using vibrations and low frequencies to subtly underpin the action, so you feel the impacts without hearing them in the traditional sense. I wanted to do that in a different way with the music.”
Cuarón offers, “I wanted the music to be textural, to blur the line between music and sound, so I told Steve I didn’t want any percussion. It was a challenge for him because he had to score all the action and suspense without some of the fundamental instruments he would normally use in a conventional action score. He began blending more electronics with acoustic instruments to cause pulsations in place of percussion. Once he landed the concept, he just started flying with it.”
“It was a case of building intensity in the music without the usual orchestra,” Price adds. “It freed me to try anything, and do my own version of what an action cue or an emotional cue would be. The great thing about Alfonso is he’s looking to push things as far as they can go, so you’re inspired to try things you would never have thought of.”
Apart from the actor’s performances, almost all of GRAVITY was accomplished with a seamless fusion of CGI and computer animation, requiring the total orchestration of man and machine.
“‘Gravity’ may be the most challenging project in which I’ve ever been involved,” producer David Heyman states. “There were so many facets and everyone contributed so much to achieve something unique. It is beautiful, elegant filmmaking whose complexity and difficulty tested everybody to the umpteenth degree. But none of that is visible.”
Alfonso Cuarón concludes, “It was a total collaboration, combining all the different elements of the images and sounds and extraordinary performances. We want audiences to come along on this journey…to share in the experience of floating weightless in the stunning but terrifying realm of space.”
You’ve never heard a score quite like this. Director Alfonso Cuaron’s GRAVITY is nothing akin to a sci-fi fantasy world, but rather depicts the stark realities of being marooned in the harshest environment known to mankind. It is a real game changer. Audiences will be given the illusion of being in space in ways that are both totally convincing and utterly visceral.
The film opened at #1, had a record setting $55 million opening weekend in the U.S. and is set for a November debut in the United Kingdom. GRAVITY premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival with screenings also held at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. The film will play this week among the highly anticipated Galas at the BFI London Film Festival.
Before it’s release, I spoke with the film’s composer Steven Price from England. The GRAVITY original motion picture soundtrack is available now on digital download and CD from WaterTower Music.
During our half hour conversation days before GRAVITY opened, Price and I discussed everything from his reaction to seeing it and the instruments he chose to use, to what initially drew him to the project.
MM: The last time we spoke was earlier this summer for your work on Edgar Wright’s THE WORLD’S END. Here we are now for your score on GRAVITY – I saw it a few weeks ago.
Steven Price: Oh, you’ve seen it. Well done! At an advance screening?
MM: We did
SP: What did you think?
MM: It’s such an amazing film and so breathtaking. From the minute it begins, you grab on tight – like a big roller coaster ride.
SP:I went on a Saturday to the friends and family screening and it’s the first time I’ve ever taken my wife to see it. She had not seen a frame of it. It was just hilarious because she grabbed my hand more than once – there were some tense scenes. It was just horrendous.
MM: What was the crowd’s reaction there?
SP: I had not seen it with an audience totally new to it, but there were quite a few there. It was really exciting. There were people there who had worked on it.
I was at the premiere in Venice and there were quite a few people there who were new to it and it was also exciting with a lot of gasps.
It’s been fun hearing feedback from people – getting that sense that they are really in the picture and get carried away with it.
MM: I’m so pleased to hear that you were at the Venice Film Festival.
SP: It was a real treat. I got taken out for the premiere – it was really an exciting day. I was wandering around, doing a little bit of sight-seeing afterwards. The reviews started coming out and you’re never sure, because you can get too close to it.
But the reviews were very nice. Then the whole day and night were very relaxed. It was good fun.
MM: What drew you to this project, initially?
SP: Alfonso Cuaron, basically. It was a strange start for me. At that point I had done my first couple things – feature films wise. But I still had to do other jobs, like music editing, and I got a phone call about coming on board to help for two weeks on this film called GRAVITY.
I didn’t know much about it. I had heard things over the years because it was in development for so long. And I knew various people working on it. But I really didn’t know much about it and then I came in for a meeting – just assuming it was for a music editing job. It was a meeting with Alfonso and it was fantastic! He told me all about it. Within minutes we were talking about the context of how the music could be in a film like this. He was really clear that he didn’t want it to be a conventional kind of thriller.
There’s no sound in space, so there’s no reason why the score should do conventional jobs. You’re not competing with a load of sound design, like traditional explosions. The music could play a different role – an expanded role expressing what would normally be sound in a tonal way.
Plus it could convey in a single way the character of Ryan (Sandra Bullock) who carries the whole film. The music can really be with her all the way. Really focus on her feelings and express her journey. So Alfonso and I got started quickly after one meeting and within a few days I was starting to play with ideas. We would go back and forth with the sounds. I would play these ideas and we would talk about them. The whole thing got massively out of hand really. (laughs)
I ended up working on it for better part of a year. Trying things out.
MM: GRAVITY is set in a soundless world – what sort of instruments did you use?
SP: A lot of different things. There was a lot of experimentation. Some of it was quite instinctive at the start. As soon as I saw the visuals, it seemed to me very pure tones, very glassy tones were appropriate. The intensity of some of the situations made it clear that the characters were dealing with total extremes. It was the most beautiful thing that you’d ever seen, and the shots were so amazingly, strikingly beautiful, but equally it was utterly terrifying. Unimaginably awful things that were going to happen.
So I was trying to convey both extremes and an intensity of feeling. It was a matter of finding ways of expressing the beauty and the tonal side of things… using glass noises and glass harmonicas. Those tones seemed to work greatly with that.
The other side of that was a lot of experimentation. I was finding ways for the score to be aggressive and intense. I wanted it to be overwhelming, without going for those film clichés of lots of drums and percussion.
MM: I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of percussion throughout the score.
SP: It was a rule – right from the start. Alfonso was very keen on no percussion. We talked about it in great detail and he felt it’s sort of a cliché on action films. I agreed with him on this type of film as there was no need to do that. We had conversations on how we weren’t going to use percussion and let’s find a different way of doing it. It was all very exciting.
It would be the next day and I would be sitting in my studio, thinking, right, now what. I had to find ways to do it… to find pulsating sounds. We used computers and various other effects to manipulate regular sounds that I had recorded. It started to fit the way the film looked.
MM: So many non-traditional instruments.
SP: Yes. Even the traditional ones were manipulated. We recorded a big orchestral section at the end and an executive in the room said, “oh that sounds great,” and I’m thinking, I’m going to go away and trash that now.
We always wanted it to feel like a real merging. I didn’t want the organic instruments to feel like they had an electronic edge and I didn’t want the electronic ones to feel like they were organic – so many of the sounds have weird origins. There’s a lot of drone like sounds where we used human voices that were processed and then tuned down or played at half speed. So there’s a lot of human noises that come across as electronic. Hopefully it always feels human.
MM: Did I hear vocals and choirs in the background?
SP: Traditional choir was only at the very, very end of the film. There’s literally only 30-40 seconds of that, but there’s a huge amount of textures that were derived from vocals. Very early on in the process I got a friend of mine called Haley Glennie-Smith. She’s got a beautifully, pure voice. I recorded a lot of very early ideas with her and they would become part of the palette. I would build instruments out of her voice and synthesize her almost. A starting point for the film cues would be a voice manipulated and pulsing slightly. It came from her but it became an ethereal thing.
Later on in the process, a singer called Lisa Hannigan, who I’ve always been a huge, huge fan of, came in and she sang a lot of the solo lines when I was writing, to me, a “Ryan’s theme.” The voice was associated with Ryan and her thinking of her daughter. The voice was hugely important to it.
There are other voices in there as well. There was one session where it was me, the music editor and the orchestra all around the microphone in the studio and sang as low as we possibly could. We slowed it down and that became a ‘doomy’ section. Hopefully no one will recognize the voices.
MM: There are so many gorgeous moments tied to your score – all with a very emotional connection to Bullock’s character and the backstory. I’m glad I had tissues with me.
SP: Oh good. It’s so rare nowadays because so often directors don’t want to go for that. It’s all about the emotions with Alfonso… it’s all about the feeling and the moments. Sandra’s performance is so incredible. It was all there to accompany her and to go with her.
For a film set in a soundless world, sound became one of the filmmakers’ most challenging design elements. Cuarón attests, “There is no sound in space, and we wanted to honor that as much as possible. There are certain sequences when we strip away the sound, but we felt to sustain it for the whole film would alienate the audience.”
Sudden silence was also an integral part of the sound design. Cuarón carefully chose those moments, unexpectedly cutting away that aural link to remind the audience that the characters are in a void where nothing exists to sustain life.
Cuarón also utilized music to, as he says, “take the role of sound or give a tonal suggestion of sound.”
MM: How closely did you work with the sound editor/designer?
SP: I’ve worked with Glenn Freemantle and his team before. It was an easy thing from the word ‘go’. He was incredibly supportive. He’s done some incredible stuff with vibrations and low frequency. In space, you’re not getting the sound through your ears – it’s through vibrations. He was doing all this interesting low frequency work.
I would keep him in the loop with what I was doing and the work I was coming up with – especially with what Alfonso and I were talking about. They would get the cue in very early. Off and on in films you have test music, but because we were on the film for so long, Glenn and I swapped things back and forth, so we could see how things and sounds were shaping up.
Even things like heartbeats are amazing alongside music and the whole thing fits together. The frequency ranges that we were dealing in were complimentary, so we were working together to hopefully make you feel like you’re up there with them in space and in the experience.
MM: You feel as if you’re in the spacesuit.
SP: Some of the amazing shots of how the camera moves within the helmet – that’s another instance of how sound and music come together. We tried to make those moments where the perspective changes so you’re really in the suit and you’re seeing it through Ryan’s point of view. It was fun working with Glenn’s team because they’re very open to trying things in different ways. Alfonso would hear them all and have some great input – really a creative type to building the sound and score.
MM: You’ve done so many different types of films. (THE WORLD’S END, ATTACK THE BLOCK) Are you leaning towards a favorite genre?
SP: The great thing about doing film music is that you can do lots of different things. There are so many films that I enjoy watching and you start imagining what you could do with that. I have young kids, so the idea of scoring a kid film would be an amazing thing.
Maybe a strict drama for the next film… something not in space. The last few things I’ve done have been in space or an alien invasion from space. It would be exciting to try different styles.
MM: Do you plan to see it with an audience when GRAVITY opens in the UK in November?
SP: I’d like to sneak in to see what that feels like opening weekend. It’s kind of odd because there’s such a gap between viewings. I feel like if you see it too often you start picking holes in it – maybe that’s a half decibel too loud or I got that wrong. I’d like to see it with an audience to look around and see what the reactions are. Hopefully people keep connecting with it.
MM: One last question. If you were an astronaut would you want to be a pilot, engineer or commander?
SP: (laughs) Oh dear. That’s a really interesting question. Wow!
I think pilot would be fun, wouldn’t it?
Engineer? If it was engineering with flying and being an astronaut – like my engineering when I’m recording music – I would end up with whatever the equivalent of distortion is and with strange sounds. That might be a bit risky for the other people on the mission.
Commander? I think would probably need someone who’s a little calmer. A little less excitable than me, so I think pilot is quite important as well. I think, yeah.
But let’s face it, pilot is probably not a good idea at all. (laughs).
GRAVITY was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films). Chris deFaria, Nikki Penny and Stephen Jones served as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes team includes multiple Oscar®-nominated director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (“Children of Men,” “The New World”); production designer Andy Nicholson (art director “Alice in Wonderland”); editors Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (VFX editor “Children of Men”); and costume designer Jany Temime (the “Harry Potter” films). The visual effects were handled by Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Tim Webber (“The Dark Knight”).
Alfonso Cuaron’s GRAVITY doesn’t begin with a stunning view of Earth from above or some crazy trick shot or some dense look at space and all the marvels it holds; don’t worry, all of that comes soon enough. No, the film simply begins with some words set against a black screen that informs us about the atmosphere above Earth followed by a warning: Life in space is impossible. For the next 90 minutes Cuaron uses every tool and trick of the trade to hammer home this point through some of the most impressive visuals you are likely to see in a film this year . . . or any other year for that matter. Just keep in mind that you are in space; so don’t be surprised if the film leaves you a little cold.
GRAVITY is essentially one unfortunate event that eventually dominos into multiple tense and exhausting sequences. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski are two astronauts working on the US Explorer when they hear of satellite debris from a Russian station storming towards them. Pretty soon the two of them are clutching on to one another for dear life and figuring out what their options are as they are left to survive in space.
Cuaron has Bullock playing to her strengths. As expected, she once again plays someone that is strong on the outside but struggling on the inside. She’s the resilient woman who eventually will overcome her own personal obstacles through her our restored will and determination. This is not to say that she doesn’t earn her stripes and move up from Miss Congeniality. In fact, she’s very good in the role. I don’t have a personal bias against the actress, it’s just that I’ve never seen her in a film where I became so engrossed in the character that I forgot I was watching Sandra Bullock. The same can be said for George Clooney. His easy smile and good-natured humor have served as character building attributes for many screen roles over the years. And once again, Clooney coasts through . . . well . . . technically floats through . . . this film on his natural charm.
Outside of the two famous faces, the other major star of the film is the film’s impressive visuals. Immersive doesn’t begin to describe Cuaron’s floating camera and ultra-realistic effects. Several long shots – one lasting for more than 15 minutes – turn the camera into an aerial performer flipping and circling around the two leads like a Cirque du Solei gymnast. A minimal score lets the precise sound design do all the talking. Loud crashes, the scraping of metal satellite pieces, and heavy breathing create an anxiety-driven orchestra. And then just like that, the film will cut to bleak silence that almost seems to dare the audience to take a moment to breathe. Trust me though, you’ll be struggling to catch your breath during the majority of the film.
Yet for all the impressive feats on display by all involved, GRAVITY frequently left me feeling cold. Even as a fan of the overall look of the film, I found myself tiring of Cuaron’s weightless camerawork and wanting more of a story than what felt like just one elongated sequence of survival. An attempt is made in the finale to elevate the nerve-racking experience into some form of “new life” symbolism. It’s hard to beat around the bush here without delving into some spoilers, but it should be noted that the film’s final images don’t beat around the bush either. It’s as if Cuaron is not so subtly acknowledging one of the most famous science-fiction films ever made – 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY – and declaring that man doesn’t need the monolith anymore to signal a new stepping stone or to give us the power we need to advance in life. We can lift ourselves up by our own two feet. Life is no doubt a struggle and by the time the credits roll (as well as the days that follow), you don’t necessarily connect with the character’s struggle and exhaustion as you simply feel, “wow . . . that movie looked really cool.”
