As posted on CLAUDIA

When Kenneth Branagh started working on his third film as Hercule Poirot, after filming the classics Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile (a separate post about the new movie on the way!), he really wanted to move away from the traditional Agatha Christie style. ‘ and bet on something new.

Among the radical changes was the soundtrack for A Haunting in Venice, which, for the first time, features Oscar-winning and popular Hildur Guðnadóttir, the third woman to win an Oscar for her work on Joker. Until then, Branagh had always worked with his friend, Patrick Doyle (whom I interviewed many years ago and of whom I am a die-hard fan), who is also the author of the Frankenstein score. Why do I quote this? Simple. First, Frankenstein was one of the director’s first attempts at the horror genre, and with A Haunting in Venice, he flirts with a story of scares and ghosts. And trust me, the music is everything to help create the mood in yet another excellent work from Hildur.

With this long introduction, I confess that I was excited when the opportunity arose to have a quick chat with the composer, who lives in Berlin. She also wrote the soundtrack for Tár last year (with another Oscar nomination) and Cate Blanchett‘s character makes a reference to her, in a moment of metalanguage. Hildur, in addition to being a composer, is a cellist and singer and works with the vanguard of experimental pop and contemporary music. Her “signature” is, of course, a cello-oriented song, which was particularly perfect in A Haunting in Venice because it can be intimate and grandiose at the same time, exactly as the director asked her to do. From her apartment in Berlin, Hildur spoke exclusively to MiscelAna about her new challenge.

MiscelAna: Hi! We only have a few minutes so I’ll get straight to the point: in Kenneth Branagh’s films, music always has a lot of influence on the storytelling. How was working with him?
HILDUR: It was incredible because he is generous, gracious, and a wonderful human being. It’s great too because he knows exactly what he wants and is direct. Another thing I also loved is that he’s transparent about what he’s doing, and about the vision he has for his film. I like directors like him, unshakable, but open to suggestions. He really let me really participate.

MiscelAna: How was this dynamic?
Hildur: He gave me a very specific script of what he wanted, what his vision was for the film, but after that, he handed it over and left it all in my hands. And he told me “Do what you want” and that is having great trust and something very generous. It was truly a great pleasure to work with him.

MiscelAna: Branagh has traditionally partnered with Patrick Doyle and on A Haunting in Venice he works with you for the first time. How was this exchange?
Hildur: We never talk about it! (laughs) But he always wanted, from the 1st, that this film was different from the two other films [the two he made Poirot], he wanted an opposite direction from them and one of the main elements that would mark this change was the soundtrack. That’s why, musically, I don’t have any reference to the previous films and I didn’t try to stay in the same field.

MiscelAna: The music makes us very tense, and anxious in A Haunting in Venice. What instruments do you think help us to be “more afraid”? (laughter)
Hildur: Well, it helps that in the story there is a young girl who plays the cello and we see the instrument in a few moments. As it is precisely my main instrument I had an easy connection with it! (laughter)

MiscelAna: But there is more orchestration…
Hildur: Yes, but Ken [Kenneth Branagh] was very clear that he wanted a ‘small’ orchestration, not many instruments.

MiscelAna: For any special reason?
Hildur: Because he wanted a claustrophobic, closed-in feel, and from the beginning I knew there wasn’t going to be that sweeping moment of a full orchestra. Therefore, to live in the darkest environment it is like a chamber piece. (Note: When Hildur mentions this it is because this type of composition can be performed in small rooms, without a solo instrument, in an intimate setting)

MiscelAna: And were you influenced by a particular composer?
Hildur: There are so many amazing ones! But when I work, I make an effort precisely not to listen to them so as not to be influenced! [laughs], for A Haunting in Venice I tried to listen to Italian composers from the period of history and stayed away from soundtrack composers [laughs]. I heard composers who were part of this transitional time in which the film takes place: pre and post-war. And that’s where I focused my musical attention.

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