A Chat With Elliot Goldenthal

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Elliot Goldenthal is one of the most sought-after film-score composers in the world today. He studied music under the tutelage of no less than Aaron Copland. Mr. Goldenthal has worked on a wide range of films, and his baroque, complex style distinguishes him from other composers. He also works on non-film music projects, including pure classical music and theatrical productions such as ballets and operas. Mr. Goldenthal just won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Golden Satellite for his score for "Frida", starring Salma Hayek and directed by Julie Taymor (Mr. Goldenthal's long-time collaborator and love interest).

Recently, on Thursday, 29 May 2003, at 3:20 PM American Central Time, I had the pleasure of chatting with Mr. Goldenthal.

Elliot Goldenthal: Hello?

Eddie Feng: Good afternoon, my name is Eddie Feng, and I'm with the website www.DVDTown.com. I'm calling you, Mr. Goldenthal, concerning the DVD release of "Frida".
Elliot Goldenthal: Yes, Eddie

Eddie Feng: How are you this afternoon, sir?
Elliot Goldenthal: Great, great--thank you.

Eddie Feng: Is there a time limit for this interview, sir?
Elliot Goldenthal: Well, ten minutes or so...I'm sure we can cover a lot of ground.

Eddie Feng: Okay, that's great! Before I begin, I just wanted to let you know that I've been a big fan of yours since "Interview with the Vampire" (1994).
Elliot Goldenthal: Well, thank you!

Eddie Feng: Well, let's get this started...I would imagine that you began your professional career with an eye towards composing music purely for music's sake. What made you decide to work heavily in film?
Elliot Goldenthal: Well, I've always divided my life up into three areas...into the personal work that I do in the concert stage or in chamber music or more classical-oriented music, and theatre, and then in film. The thing is is that if I compose a classical piece, you know, sometimes, thirty people will hear it, sometimes if I'm lucky, like my oratorio, maybe a few thousand people will hear it. My ballet, maybe ten thousand people will hear it? But, you compose something like the score to "Batman" ("Batman Forever", "Batman and Robin"), one of the "Batmans", and a billion people will hear it. People [end up with] a different perception of your work.

I love music in almost all areas, and I love to investigate and to work with it. The cinema is just one of them.

Eddie Feng: You've composed music scores for films since the late-1970s. When do you think that you began to be noticed by the industry as being perhaps a cut above the other composers out there?
Elliot Goldenthal: Well, I wouldn't say a cut above...I would say an alternative...I would say after "Drugstore Cowboy".

Eddie Feng: Oh, I see. Wow, that was early, then.
Elliot Goldenthal: Yeah. I think that people started to recognize me in that period.

Eddie Feng: Now, let's talk about "Frida". How did you become involved with the project?
Elliot Goldenthal: Well, it was between Salma Hayek and Julie Taymor. Salma Hayek and Julie Taymor were, uh...convinced me to, you know, sort of roll up my sleeves and get involved in a project that was gonna take me about a year, you know?

Eddie Feng: How much research did you have to do for the movie, or were you already familiar with Latin-style music?
Elliot Goldenthal: I was already very familiar with Latin-style music, but what I wasn't familiar with was certain regional, Mexican-styles like "jarocho" or "azteco" and the "corridos", so there were certain regional styles that I became more and more acquainted with as the project developed and sort of weaved into the fabric of the movie.

Eddie Feng: Most of your film scores--even for works as diverse as "Alien 3" and "Michael Collins"--have instruments and music cues that sound "Goldenthalic". You're probably the first to admit that "Frida" doesn't sound like most of your other scores. Was their a conscious decision to make the "Frida" score as different from your other work as possible?
Elliot Goldenthal: See, it's the actual subject matter, the drama of the music, that dictates what's happening.

Eddie Feng: I also noticed that, for this movie, you used a repeated theme ("mi-fa-so-la-so-fa-mi-re-fa-mi-mi") a lot more than you usually do with themes with other film scores. Was this also another decision to suit the subject matter?
Elliot Goldenthal: Well, it's the subject matter, but they're not repetitions...they're more modified repetitions. It's almost like seeing a person with, on any given days, with a different haircut...(chuckles)...something like that. It's like modifications that happen, and it creates a kind of familiarity, this character, that is a lot different from other movies. In many ways, this movie is a love story.

Eddie Feng: "Frida" is, as noted by "The New York Times", almost a musical. Was that your way of reflecting on how colorful and expressive Frida Kahlo's life and art was?
Elliot Goldenthal: That was more of Julie's (Taymor) decision to actually have on-camera singing...in the movie, in terms of songs...there are about eleven songs and, let's see...one, two, three of them...four of them actually--five of them--are on-camera, where you actually see people singing. So, it feels like a musical in that sense.

Eddie Feng: You've been nominated for Golden Globes and Oscars in the past. How gratifying was it for you to win both just in one sweep?
Elliot Goldenthal: It was very special and very surprising and of course it was gratifying, especially because it was on a project that I cared so much about.

Eddie Feng: I noticed that Salma Hayek did some of her own singing. How long did it take for everyone to get a recording, a version that everyone really really like and thought that was good enough for a movie release?
Elliot Goldenthal: Not very long. It was like one or two takes--she is very extraordinarily talented, and we weren't looking for perfection. We were looking for something that was real.

Eddie Feng: Just out of curiosity, were you able to find some sort of archival recording of Frida Kahlo's own voice so that you could use that as some sort of base for Ms. Hayek's singing?
Elliot Goldenthal: No, not really--no. We did know that...we were aware of what type of music she sang and listened to. The big link would've been Chavela Vargas. She was a lover of Frida, she was very close to Frida, a friend of Frida, and she sang for Frida and Diego, and she actually lived in the house. We actually had a very very direct link with Chavela.

Eddie Feng: You collaborated with many international artists for "Frida". How many countries did you have to visit for this project? I know that you visited Brazil.
Elliot Goldenthal: Brazil and Mexico.

Eddie Feng: As you know, there are many notable director-composer relationships throughout the history of filmmaking (including Alfred Hitchcock with Bernard Herrman and Steven Spielberg and John Williams). Do you imagine that you're building a similar legacy when you work with Neil Jordan and Julie Taymor?
Elliot Goldenthal: Yeah, I think that when a director becomes comfortable with a composer and vice versa, it takes on a different dimension where you feel that you don't have to..."a)" the composer doesn't have to audition for the director and prove themselves and "b)" a director knows instinctively where they can take you.

Eddie Feng: What about Joel Schumacher? (chuckles) Do you think that you'll work with him again? (Goldenthal and Schumacher worked on "Batman Forever", "Batman and Robin", and "A Time to Kill".)
Elliot Goldenthal: I wouldn't count it out. We did three movies...we had an impasse over scheduling at one point, so we got into a disagreement about that, but we work together quite well.

Eddie Feng: As you noted earlier, your film career keeps you very busy, so do you find that you don't have as much free time to devote to projects like "Fire, Water, Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio" as you would like?
Elliot Goldenthal: No...I choose my projects, and film projects, for the most part, don't take up a whole year. I'm pretty fortunate in the sense that I can get these things accomplished.

Eddie Feng: What are some of your upcoming projects? Do you have something else coming out soon?
Elliot Goldenthal: June 18th is gonna be the Great Performances premiere on TV of my ballet "Othello", and that'll be seen throughout the United States. Then I start work on my opera "Grendel", which will premiere in Los Angeles.

Eddie Feng: Is that ("Grendel") the one on which you're working with Ms. Taymor?
Elliot Goldenthal: She'll be directing, yes.

Eddie Feng: Well, thank you so much for your time, sir!
Elliot Goldenthal: Have a nice day.

Eddie Feng: Thank you--you too!
Elliot Goldenthal: Thank you.

Elliot Goldenthal Selected Filmography (music composer):
S.W.A.T.
Frida

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Titus

Batman and Robin

Michael Collins

Heat

Batman Forever

Interview With the Vampire

Drugstore Cowboy

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