FILM INTERVIEW: MARVIN HAMLISCH
The Man Behind Matt Damon's Musical Moods in 'The Informant!'
It can be argued that composers Burt Bacharach, Quincy Jones and Lalo Schifrin were trying to be Shagadelic when they composed such scores as Casino Royale, The Split and Enter the Dragon. All were essentially spy-caper flicks where heroes infiltrated various permutations of the military-industrial complex to kick ass with rocking jazz grooves. That lady-killing groove was as essential to a leading man back then as was his slick jacket, cologne and cigarettes. Sure, these scores had a wink to them as opposed to groovy condescension they’re heard with today, as if employing a fuzz guitar or Hammond organ for a retro character was the next best thing to a shove in the ribs.
But if there’s one director who gets hip musical kitsch, it’s Steven Soderbergh, who had David Holmes effectively ape the mod-jazz sound in all of its American and European permutations from Oceans 11 to 13, as well as Out of Sight. But when so many of the guys who started that sound are seeing cobwebs grow on their rotary lines while people try to imitate them, why not just phone one up and have them do the real thing? Now, Soderbergh finally makes that call to Marvin Hamlisch, who effortlessly and hilariously cooks up that old magic for The Informant!
It’s not as if this Oscar-winning composer and songwriter was ever really one for the espionage thing (though he certainly did kick that ass with his underrated 007 work on The Spy Who Loved Me). Romance and comedy were more his bag — slapstick yucks that made Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run and Bananas all the funnier, while his beautifully heartfelt work on The Way We Were, Sophie’s Choice and Ice Castles broke out the Kleenex. And that’s not to forget that Hamlisch won an Academy Award for adapting Scott Joplin’s classic ragtime tunes for The Sting — a retro yet timeless jazz vibe that’s also very much on happy display in the frequently insane mind of The Informant!’s Mark Whitacre. Hamlisch’s groove slams in the real-life character’s crazy, lounge-irific energy with a score that plays like some spy jazz Vegas act in bizarrro world. But whether his music here ranges from lush or bonkers, Hamlisch’s talent for timelessly memorable melodies also elevates the insanity…to the tune of another Hamlisch Golden Globe nomination for Best Score. The fizz has never been stronger in his jazz cocktail, especially with this big, jolly grin of a score for the most inept and simultaneously successful corn-mole the FBI has ever had.
Daniel Schweiger: Steve Soderbergh has an obvious liking for “retro” scoring. What were your discussions like of what The Informant! would sound like and what its emotional goals would be, particularly in terms of accentuating the comedy?
Marvin Hamlisch: It was all about accentuating the comedy, and we were on a very tight budget. But sometimes tight budgets can be very helpful. If you can’t have 70 musicians, you need to figure out what you can do with 16 or 18, so what I tried to do was use different combinations of about 17 or 18 players featuring different people in different parts of the score. That gives you some zany, off-the-wall scoring. You have piccolos, kazoos and a bass saxophone which gives you a hoedown while Mark is taking a polygraph test. So all of this stuff is really zany, but it’s all part and parcel of the brain of Mark Whitacre. The truth of the matter is that we’ve given the bipolar part of his personality a voice.
DS: While The Informant! is a “period” film, it certainly doesn’t go back as far as this score’s style. Do you think your music shows Mark Whitacre as a hopelessly fuddy-duddy guy from another time, let alone a person who turns out to be pretty much insane?
MH: The score of The Informant! is not so much about notes as it is about choices. Because the character is bipolar, I came to believe that the music would have to represent the part of him that the world didn’t see but that he inside of himself did. So therefore, as far as the theory of this score is concerned, Mark would respond to the FBI as though he thought they were kind of silly. Therefore, they get kazoos and he gets this happy-go-lucky theme. That was the idea behind the score, and I’m very happy that Steven Soderbergh, who really knows how to use music, was happy with this approach.
DS: Were you at first worried about your approach for The Informant! as being so zany that it would throw viewers off?
MH: No, I actually wasn’t. I thought the score was going to be helpful rather than throw people off. It’s very much like my approach to The Sting – I mean, depending on how you look at it, you can think “My God, these people are terrible,” or “There’s a lot of fun in this thing too.” The salt-and-pepper tones of the music are sometimes very important, and we put some major salt and pepper in this one!
DS: The Informant!’s bouncy sound recalls your equally delightful delusions-of-grandeur work on Bananas (which also has just been released on Kritzerland). Do you think there’s a point where this “swing spy lounge” style passes into hip kitsch, or was it supposed to be this eccentric to begin with?
MH: Well, it was supposed to be pretty eccentric. The way I looked at it, Whitacre’s brain is like a cassette machine and just puts on music for different parts of his life.
DS: The Informant! also reunites you with songwriters Marilyn and Alan Bergman for “Trust Me.” What did you want the song and melody to convey about Mark Whitacre and the film’s satirical themes in general?
MH: Steven Soderbergh wanted to make sure that the music let the audience know the film was funny, and that’s what I wanted in the song “Trust Me.” The reason I chose the Bergmans was because I knew they were very politically savvy with what was happening in the political and financial worlds, like the bank bail-out and the Bernie Madoff scandal. What they came up with was the title “Trust Me,” which I totally fell in love with. It also has the great line in it: “Life’s so much fun when you’re using other people’s money.” They really hit the nail on the head with The Informant!
DS: Among your many classic scores, one of my favorites is The Spy Who Loved Me. Could you talk about working on the “real deal” spy music of James Bond?
MH: The most important thing I wanted to make sure of in doing a Bond film was not to move forward without looking backward. So I actually, first, looked at all of the Bond films up to that point. I decided there was too much good stuff to throw out, so the only new or different thing I did was starting the film very, very quietly instead of bombastically. Aside from that, I’m a huge fan of James Bond and had a ball.
DS: As a composer who’s been around the Oscar block a few times on his own and with the Bergmans, do you think the Academy has a prejudice against comedic scores? And do you think that might have any impact on The Informant!, especially now that the Music/Comedy category has been consolidated into the regular one?
MH: Truthfully, I don’t really think about those types of things. I think in terms of the work that we’re doing, which is very good work. Everything else is gravy. If we happen to get nominated, I’ll be thrilled. I don’t think about what could or could not be the ramifications of doing anything. If you start to play that game, you’ll go crazy.
DS: But you’ve certainly just gotten a Golden Globe nomination for The Informant! What’s it like for your eighth time up at bat with these awards, which you’ve already shared song wins for with the Bergmans on The Way We Were, and Johnny Mercer on Kotch?
MH: I am thrilled for this nomination. It truly means a great deal to me. It is wonderful to return to scoring movies!
Warner Bros. Pictures' 'The Informant!' is released on September 18, 2009.
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