To celebrate the release of Saltburn we spoke with composer Anthony Willis about re-teaming with Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell for the film’s score. He discussed marrying the mid 2000s setting with a more classical gothic sound and some of the influences behind the musical themes.
Firstly, congratulations on Saltburn it went down very well at London Film Festival. How did you first get involved with Saltburn?
I’d composed the score for Emerald’s first film Promising Young Woman and she texted me not a whole lot after Promising Young Woman came out and said, “I’m writing my next script. I’m listening to the Promising Young Woman score.” I think she said something incredibly sweet. “I can’t wait for the iconic score you’re going to write for Saltburn although she couldn’t even tell me what it was called at the time”. And I was like, “okay, no pressure”. Then sometime later, she sent me the script, which I loved reading. I mean, the twists hit hard. The big shots just bounced off the page. And then I think it’s almost a year ago to the day she came to L.A. and screened her Director’s Cut, having shot the movie in London, in England. And she was editing in London, she came over and she showed it to the producers and invited me to come to and so that’s when I first saw the film. But I’d started permeating on some ideas before that as well. Sort of exploring how to inject a classical style with a little bit of Gothicism. And also, a little bit of a romantic feeling, which is the kind of through line of the score. That was how I how I started.
How did you find that fed into the mid-2000s setting? It’s a very particular point in time.
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think with, the setting itself and the amazing soundtrack that the Emerald curated, that really was the thing that established that sense of nostalgia and that that period feel. Our mission with the score was to underline something much more than that, that era, which was Saltburn itself, and what that represents, the idea that’s been around for a long time, which is why we wanted to start with a slightly classical style to evoke the sense of of tradition and mythology, almost assault that and that it’s that Saltburn has a maze and that’s an important part of it. I think the maze was a very gothic symbol of mystery. Of course, the structure of the film is very mysterious, Oliver is a mystery, so those two things were very much interlinked; it was his journey to the school, Oliver’s desire to fit into Saltburn and then you know, this is a spoiler obviously, but then ultimately his desire to possess Saltburn.
How did you find Oliver’s progression as our perception on who he is shifts throughout the film.
So initially, we really wanted grandeur to the score as he’s got these high hopes of fitting in at Oxford, then ultimately like a lonely, soulful, sad palate, which we did with a soft organ which we recorded in London and bass harmonics. Lonely in essence, and starkness. But not to give him a creepy feeling, but just to give him his life as sort of cold and lacking in, in colour. Then he meets Felix. And then actually, I mean, speaking of songs, they did want to use a song for this friend friendship montage. But Victoria, our brilliant editor, cut the sequence together in such a way that was very dialogue-heavy. So Emerald wanted an instrumental, but she wanted to be instrumental that was evocative of music at that time, as well as a kind of warm friendship, and romance. So the track I wrote which is on the album is called ‘Felix Amica’, because it underpins that, but also it has that classical arpeggio language where the strings are playing with a more contemporary twist more of a modular kind of Radiohead, Coldplay treatment.
Then ultimately, when it gets into Saltburn, it gets kind of dark and filthy and lustful. By the end of the movie, really. What I think is so useful about classical music is that it has a very mathematical feeling to it, especially Baroque music, which we associated with clap the cleverness and being calculating so that for the for the final act payoff was really useful. But, you know, that all kind of came, it all kind of comes into focus. We liked the idea that if you rewatch the movie, you recognise the shapes and the kind of distinct theme Oliver has that also can be started as a sort of Oxford romance on a bridge in them throwing pebbles, and then a bit Gothic with their arrival and Saltburn. You recognise the shapes the idea being that once you get to the end of the film, it was always hidden in plain sight. It’s not just like you experienced one film and then you’re told it was different at the end, it was very important to us that it’s all sewn in.
Were there any particular reference points for the score? Brideshead Revisited has come up as a comparison a few times.
Certainly, in that there’s a satirical aspect, to Saltburn, yes, Emerald once wants you to feel okay, I know what this kind of film is, it’s, you know, you know, it’s her Brideshead. And of course, then it isn’t it, you know, it shifts into a much more dark subverted place. And so Emerald loves playing with genre in that way. Supporting this world of this incredible estate was very important. That feeling and that sort of setting of timelessness that this place has been around for a long time was important to us.
Has your relationship with Emerald changed at all since you did Promising Young Woman?
I think absolutely. I think it’s become it’s become richer through every scene that you have the fortune to explore with a writer-director like Emerald. The amount of detail that she that she puts into her films across the board, and that extends to the music is just staggering and so enriching. Just getting the opportunity to work with as I’ve said a writer-director like Emerald who’s on a scene and then a different scene and then exploring different ways of doing things and what that does psychologically. For example, the maze reveal. It’s called The Maze on the soundtrack, when they go and they discover something terrible has happened after the party. We tried that in a couple of different ways.
With a filmmaker like Emerald, it’s worth seeing that because you’re managing the interplay between all the different cues across the film, but then also, you’re being very specific about what that cue needs to achieve. In a way, you kind of have to try it a couple of ways. Then bear in mind how that then affects other scenes. It’s kind of a game of chess or a really fun puzzle, and she’s just so fun to work with, she makes everything fun. She’s just excited about music, she loves music, she’s just a brilliant filmmaker. Promising was a bit of a whirlwind, and we didn’t really get to spend a lot of time together afterwards, because of the pandemic. So this has been fun that we’ve been able to do, you know, lots of events in both in L.A. and London. I’ve got to see her and hopefully, be a welcome relief raft in the sea of energy around the film, and it’s a wonderful problem to have, but it’s very intense at this time for Emerald too. I feel so lucky that as a composer, you never know, quite what your next project is going to be. Getting to enter a world that Emerald’s created is just such a privilege.
Can you tell us about the lust and romantic elements of Saltburn and how that fed into the score?
It was very important to Emerald that there was a lot of longing, and you know, romantic longing in the film. So once Felix comes into his life that’s really his main motivation. He’s just so enamoured with Felix so that was really important to have a sense of longing. Ultimately, that turns into a slightly more stalkery lust where I took the organ and I turned that into a kind of lust throb, which really underlined him really wanting Felix. Taking instruments that you kind of subvert, taking a harp and doing it really low for example, it really brings out the things that you don’t normally see, I think that’s what Emerald is so brilliant at. Okay, here’s a film and it’s got things in it that you’ve seen before. Okay, now I’m going to show you things you don’t normally see. I think that’s her observation about people is that we have this side that we want to put out all the time but then there’s the way we actually want to behave. Saltburn explores that very much; the sex scenes are having permission to live your fantasies and live things the way you want to. So that’s we’re taking instruments that we expect to be in a certain place and then putting them out, putting them away from those places. In the scenes with Venetia, we use quite almost noir, romantic chords, but rather than them being a very pretty sounding we gave them some grit and filth, and then you know, the low twangy harp and this pulsing organ. The throbbing organ is an innuendo Emerald finds hilarious. So that’s an important side of the film, I think because it’s a mistake to think it’s only like Brideshead and it starts like that but actually then it delves deeper. With them living in quite a gothic place. I think that kind of the cello quartet that then evolved out of this throbbing texture, does have a gothic romantic feel. So it’s still it’s, it’s still lived with the more you know, romantic music.
How do you find tackling the more shocking sequences like the bathroom scene?
The bathroom scene. I mean, the cue leads up to it and very much sets you up for this, this sort of anticipation. I remember reading that in the script and thinking, “oh my god, this is going to be a really hard moment to score when he’s actually licking out the bathtub”. Thankfully, Barry’s slurping did all the work for me, yeah, and that’s a fun one to see in the theater. Another shocking moment is one of the character deaths. How do you make that distinct from previous shocking moments? Emerald was clever to pull all the sound. In some of the screenings I’ve been to, especially, one of my favourites has been in SCAD, at the Savannah Film Festival with a theater filled to the brim of excited film students. You hear this huge gasp. It gets the audience for that moment because it’s the mirror gets shone back on the audience to react, there’s no sound in the film at all. That’s a really clever moment. Then you get a bit self-conscious because you’ve heard your yourself gasping and everyone around you. It’s a really clever trick. I think underlines really with the shocks. how great this movie is to see in a big room with lots of people because you react, the hilarity of it and the awkwardness of it. It’s infectious, I think to see it amongst a crowd. I mean, certainly, that bathroom and people just looking around at each other and going, oh my gosh, obviously other shocking moments too.
Thank you so much for your time Anthony.
Thank you so much. The soundtrack is getting some great attention, the score album I should say. It’s just such it’s such a joy to hear reactions. You try and put out your best work and then it kind of goes around the world and people start messaging you and saying I love this bit and this is what it makes me feel and oh my gosh, that’s what I hoped but you never know. It’s such a high point for me.
Chris Connor
