Debuts and re-dos seem to be the thread of late. Restaurants in the DC Metro Area are opening and remixing at a astonishing rate no one could have imagined a few years ago. Forks up!
La Tasca Gets A Culinary Facelift
At La Tasca the privately owned chain of Spanish-themed restaurants, there’s huge buzz with the hiring of Josu Zubikarai, former executive chef at DC’s posh Taberna del Alabardero. The Basque native, whose knowledge of Spain’s authentic regional cuisine has earned him a beloved following, has come back to DC to ratchet up La Tasca’s menus with tapas and paellas both traditional and modern. He’ll work on pairings with his former Alabardero colleague, Aurelio Cabestrero, whose last stint was sommelier at Marcel’s.
Flamenco dancers at La Tasca – photo credit Jordan Wright
In my experience Spanish wines are some of the unsung stalwarts of the vineyard. At a recent gathering of sophisticated Spaniards I asked an elegant socialite why she thinks Americans aren’t more enlightened about Spanish wines. “Because we want to keep them all to ourselves!” she cheerfully explained. I’m hoping Cabestrero will be more inclined to share his knowledge from the fantastic wine list he’s assembled.
Berenjenas served with a warm Cabrales cheese dip – Pulpo a la Gallega – Steamed octopus with potato – photo credit Jordan Wright
Of the five La Tasca outposts around the DMV, I chose to visit the Old Town Alexandria location. As I approached the sound of flamenco music was pouring out onto the street. A party! Even though the sun was barely setting, the bar was lively, with patrons sipping sherry or drinking pitchers of sangria, some with filled with summer berries or fresh peaches, and nibbling on tapas.
There are over fifty tapas to choose from – – traditional nibbles like Manchego Frito, (fried manchego cheese) served with honey orange marmalade and Croquetas de Pollo y Jamon (croquettes with ham and chicken). The list goes on and on. More contemporary tapas like Mejillones Tigres (spicy mussels breaded and deep-fried with a béchamel sauce) are fabulous and you can’t go wrong with a cured meat platter of salchichon, cana de lomo, jamon de Serrano and chorizo served with picos and Marcona almonds or a cheese board of Tetilla, Montenebro, Valdeon and Manchego that arrives with a delicious fig jam.
Eggplant with almonds and goat cheese – Brazo de Gitano – A rolled sponge cake layered with quince jam and served with Manchego cheese ice cream at La Tasca – photo credit Jordan Wright
Some diners never get around to the paellas, but you should venture forth. Most of the rice-based dishes incorporate shellfish along with the traditional peas and peppers. One variety uses chicken and duck. Finish with café cortado or a glass of Gran Torres Orange, a Spanish liqueur, and hot and crispy house made churros or a creamy flan, and you’ll find yourself clicking your heels and shouting olé! www.LaTascaUSA.com.
Sofitel Lightens Up
No matter how critics whine and moan about small plates, they are here to stay. Whether it’s to please grazers whose palates operate like Twitter, or dieters who eschew heaping portions of protein, diners are choosing smaller, lighter and healthier portions.
Sofitel Washington DC – photo courtesy of Sofitel
To that end Sofitel DC has reintroduced its popular, De-Light by Sofitel, with a lightened up summer lunch menu guaranteed to have business diners served and out in thirty minutes if they so choose, which I do not. Because who wouldn’t want to linger at an outdoor table with a glass of rosé, savoring the cuisine of Executive Chef Franck Loquet and the heavenly macarons from Pastry Chef Vincent Bitauld?
The 30-minute De-Light luncheon menu from Sofitel – photo credit Jordan Wright
Or why not dine languorously under the smashing black & white celebrity photo portraits by Gilles Bensimon covering the dining room walls?
But this is news about a quick, well-balanced, low-calorie lunch whose courses are served at the same time. That’s an appetizer or salad, entrée and dessert with a calorie count of under 200 without sacrificing taste or satiety. There are a few choices to make first – Grilled Asparagus Salad with orange basil dressing or Branzino Tartare scented with lemon, ginger and vanilla, a delicate Chicken Tagine with fennel and pearl onions or Mixed Grill, an assortment of fish, tomato, lemongrass and glazed baby vegetables. Dessert is a strawberry and milk foam treat called ‘Milky Way’ for its etherealness.
Bearnaise – Adventures in Retro French Bistro
On the opposite end of the spectrum of Gallic cuisine are the cholesterol-heavy dishes of Bearnaise – Spike and Micheline Mendelsohn’s latest endeavor whose steak frites concept beckons like a croupier at a baccarat table. To say this type of cooking is as out of fashion as Carla Bruni, is an understatement. I had thought we were fast-tracking towards healthier fare, not the cardiac unit. Don’t expect to celeb-spot vegan goddess Gwyneth Paltrow slicing into a filet mignon here.
Downstairs dining area at Bearnaise -photo credit Jordan Wright
I enjoy revisiting the past as much as the next memoirist. Traveling back to a more innocent time, before Bocuse, Guerard and Vergé gave butter and cream the heave-ho and snubbed their consensual noses at the great Escoffier. Before the culinary renaissance of the 60’s trumpeted nouvelle cuisine and French restaurants reigned supreme, sauciers held sway, crepes suzette were made tableside, and bistros redolent of Gauloises and café filtre could be found on every street corner in France. We are enamored of that sexy epoque and so is the restaurant. Framed posters of Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot and Coco Chanel dominating the cream-colored walls, are a dead giveaway.
The most difficult decision of the night – photo credit Jordan Wright
Bearnaise is steak-centric and the tender cuts are cooked to perfection. Serving them with a choice of sauces – béarnaise, spicy béarnaise, au poivre, bordelaise or maître d’hôtel butter – ups the ante. Sides include roasted Portobello mushrooms, Brussel sprouts dripping with bacon and tarragon-infused béarnaise, bone marrow for the Paleos, and potato gratin with lardons in a creamy Reblochon sauce. The night I dined there the soup of the day was vichyssoise that would have benefited from more leeks. But the crispy frites made from Yukon Gold potatoes. Sacre bleu! I dare you not to dip them in one of the exquisitely made sauces!
The bespoke French table at Béarnaise -Steak frites with béarnaise – photo credit Jordan Wright
The restaurant prides itself on its affordable French wine list. Over two dozen vintages are offered at $40.00 a bottle or $10.00 per glass. A few, like the 2009 Cardinale Cabernet at $400.00 a pop, are for high rollers only.
So would I eat here again? Mais bien sûr, mes amis! Though I’ll have to eat like a peasant for a month before returning to the French onion soup smothered in melted gruyére, escargots bathed in garlic herb butter and topped with a jaunty pastry beret, flat-iron steaks, unlimited frites and chocolate mousse.
The questions remain. Will the Mendelsohns’ legion of fans that flock to We, The Pizza, and Good Stuff Eatery’s burgers and shakes put their money on steaks frites? Will General Manager Chris Connor bring members from his former gig at the Cosmos Club to the stylish spot? Will Exec Chef Brad Race, formerly of Jose Andres’ Minibar and Michel Richard’s Michel be able to coax diners into dining on bistro cuisine? I’m betting the bank they do.
Malmaison – Not Just for Josephine
While we’re weighing in as Francophiles, I should mention Omar Popal’s new Malmaison is now serving dinner. Mussel soup, vichysoisse, short ribs Bordelaise, vegetarian bouillabaisse and house made duck confit are a few of the offerings in this hidden Georgetown spot best known for hosting dance parties. Malmaison has jiggered its cavernous space, once an ice factory, to provide diners with a view of the Potomac while dining on dishes from Michelin-starred chef Gerard Pangaud, formerly of Gerard’s Place and sweet treats from pastry chef, Serge Torres, an alumnus of New York’s Le Cirque.
Pastries at Malmaison – photo credit Jordan Wright
Popal’s other hot spot, Napoleon Bistro & Lounge, will be celebrating Bastille Day on Saturday, the 13th with a “Vive la France” party at their Columbia Road address. They’ll be spinning French beats and offering champagne cocktails. The French-themed costume party invites you to sport your best beret, black and white stripes and a moustache – ladies are exempt from the latter.
Whisk and Quill is delighted to welcome guest contributor Cary Pollak a Washington-based attorney, veteran reporter, feature writer and culinary educator. Cary’s articles have appeared in DC Style, Capitol File and www.DCDigest.com. In addition he is a writer for the National Press Club’s members’ newsletter, The Wire.
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After a two-year change of venue to Washington, DC the Fancy Food Show has returned to its West Side digs in the recently renovated Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. For Communications Director, Louise Kramer, who was delighted with their stay in the nation’s capital, the show’s return to the Javits Center, “was like coming home.”
The show has grown immensely since its inception in 1955 and features over 260,000 innovative specialty food products. Even with a three-day window it’s almost impossible to cover 354,000 square feet of exhibit space filled with 2400 exhibitors and their exciting products. Attending the numerous food seminars and cooking demos can present even more of a challenge.
For a retailer on the hunt for new products, a visit to that section of the show is all they’d need. But for the casual visitor, strolling aimlessly, there’s no sense in racing down the aisles, especially with all the tempting displays of candies and cookies, olives and oils, vegetables, fruits, meats and seafood products set out for sampling.
Bins of Olives and Mushrooms – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
When you discover a new product at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or any other supermarket, there’s a good chance it debuted at this show. The ubiquitously known Perrier, Ben & Jerry’s and Terra Chips are just a few of the thousands of products that have debuted at the Fancy Food Show over the years, so it is especially interesting to search out new offerings there. Many of the exhibitors highlighted below either introduced new foods or are perennial favorites.
Twice a year the Specialty Food Association announces the winners of the sofi Awards for specialty outstanding food innovation in 32 categories. One of the most coveted awards is “Outstanding New Product”, and this year two cheeses, Point Reyes Bay Blue produced by the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company in Marin County, CA, and The Fine Cheese Co. Pearls of Pure Goats’ Cheese distributed by Artisan Biscuits Ltd. of Britain and Ireland, tied for first place. The former stood out for its “fudgy texture and sweet caramel finish,” and was hosted by Farmstead’s Donna Hagan.
Farmstead’s Donna Hagan – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
The latter was not much to look at swimming in a bowl of sunflower oil, but a marinade of garlic, herbs and crushed pink peppercorns gave it a distinctive flavor. For a list of the winners visit http://www.specialtyfood.com/sofi/finalists/2013/.
sofi Award winner from Artisan Biscuits Ltd. – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
Stories of the sacrifice and determination that go into creating a successful food product abound. Vanessa Miller of New York City was a primary school teacher when she decided to bottle her delectable salad dressings. She created a company name, Get Dressed Salads, and though she knew how to obtain the bottles, design a label, and find a production factory, she was short on cash. Miller got help from the fund raising website www.Indiegogo.com but still had to put up all the money she had as well as sell some of her own jewelry before she had enough to get her project off the ground. Her dressings are now available at about six local gourmet shops and online at www.abesmarket.com. This was Miller’s first Fancy Food Show and the www.express.com website identified her dressings as one of “eight brands worth a bite” at the show.
Vanessa Miller of Get Dressed Salads – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
Another newcomer to this year’s show was former marketing specialist, Julie Busha, whose Slawsa is a new kind of relish that works well on grilled meats or as a dip. Busha has foregone starting a family and buying a bigger home, pouring all her profits back into the company for marketing efforts. Each retail account she landed was as the result of a pitch personally made by Julie, who explained how she would market her brand to move it off the shelf. Within 18 months her product was selling at 4200 retail outlets.
Julie Busha of Slawsa – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
Owner/chef Alain Sinturel’s popular Trois Petits Cochons produces a line of all-natural paté and charcuterie. This charming if somewhat stoic gentleman lets the long row of sofi awards atop his display case speak for itself. The little porkers on the company logo, however, are all smiles. And why not? Business has been booming since the company started modestly in Greenwich Village in 1975. Last year they introduced a new line of pork-free products. Could that be another reason why the little fellows are smiling?
Alain Sinturel of Trois Petits Cochons – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
My favorite packaged cookie of all time, Almondina, is a former winner of the sofi for Outstanding Classic. These crunchy wafers studded with nuggets of almonds and raisins are uniquely delicious. Other products look somewhat like it, but none can deliver as amazing a taste as Almondina’s. Grandma Dina had baked these treats in her kitchen in Haifa, Israel. Grandson Yuval Zaliouk, a world famous former conductor of the London Royal Ballet, orchestrated a business plan and today its Ohio plant produces 200,000 cookies daily. Dina’s great-granddaughter, Tamar Markham, was proud to display her family’s product.
Tamar Markham of Almondina – Photo Credit Cary Pollak
Although the Fancy Food Shows are open only to the trade, if you have ever thought of starting a business that is any way related to gourmet foods, gaining access to this extravaganza is reason enough give it a try. It’s the greatest collection of sights and bites you’ll ever come across.
JULY 02, 2013 BY JORDAN WRIGHT Special to The Credits – MPAA
Filmmakers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon with Liam James on the set of THE WAY, WAY BACK – Courtesy Fox Searchlight
After winning an Oscar for their screenplay for The Descendants, the screenwriting duo of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash appeared to have burst onto the scene as a couple of unknowns. In reality the writing and directing team have been on Hollywood filmmakers’ short list since 2007, when their script for The Way, Way Back was being read and praised by insiders. The Credits sat down with the old friends and collaborators in advance of their already well reviewed coming-of-age comedy to find out about their process, their history, and what’s on tap next.
The Credits: Can you talk about how you two break down a script that you’re working on? What is your process?
Rash: It evolves. We break the stories down and do the treatments together, and then we get started based only on my wonderful neuroses. That’s to say there are times when Nat needs to send me to a coffee shop while he tends to his family so this single guy can sit and talk to himself. After that we get back together.
You both went to prep school. Was that experience helpful in writing a coming of age film?
Faxon: It was more about our memories of summertime and the people that influenced us when we spent our summers in Nantucket. I remember when I was first included in doing cool stuff with the older kids and being part of the gang. It was more about recollections.
Rash: I wasn’t popular like Nat probably was. I pulled more from pain—specifically in the first scene, which we used verbatim from an incident when my stepfather called me a three on a scale from one to ten. We just have a fondness for rites of passage, the moment when something shifted for us. We bond with that protagonist.
What was the lifecycle of this script? It’s been kicking around getting good buzz for a while.
Faxon: This script was sitting around for a while. It was written back in 2005 before The Descendants. And it had gotten on The Black List. It did open a lot of doors for us, and we got some great meetings, one of which was with Alexander Payne’s production company that has the rights to The Descendants. Even still, making a movie in Hollywood is always a challenge no matter what level you’re at, and this was no exception. We had to find financing and casting to put all the pieces together. It was a struggle all the way through.
Allison Janney as “Betty” in ‘The Way, Way Back.’ Courtesy Fox Searchlight
Who was the first talent you got on board?
Rash:Allison Janney. We knew her through different circles and had written the part pretty much with her in mind. So we started with her and it really was a building pattern from there. The last piece was Steve Carrell.
How did your journey into becoming filmmakers begin?
Rash: We met at The Groundlings Theatre in late 1998 when we became part of The Sunday Company, which is the farm team that feeds the main company. Eventually we both got to The Groundlings and we were there for about 11 or 12 years. That’s where we became friends and started writing television together. We’re both actors and we’re still acting.
Faxon: For me I had a lot of characters in my family that I used to imitate and make fun of at the dinner table and get some good laughs. Later I did school plays. I knew early on that I wanted to get into the entertainment industry. After college I moved to LA and got involved in The Groundlings and in acting and sketch comedy, and did commercials. Slowly I got TV jobs. I didn’t know anybody out there. It’s hard. Nobody tells you how to play the game.
Rash: I was consuming some dysfunction and pain and then utilizing it later. It started clicking then. I took screenwriting classes and worked for the student TV channel. I did some theatre and then went to LA.
As writers, what are your favorite books? Do you gravitate to any particular author?
Faxon: I am rereading “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” Also Jonathan Tropper’s “This is Where I Leave You.”
Rash: “A Separate Peace” and, of course, “The Catcher in the Rye.” At Lawrenceville I liked Southern literature, although I really struggled through Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom.”
Faxon: I loved Russian literature early on. I found the stories and the writing to be fascinating. Coming from the East Coast I like Nathaniel Philbrick stories and survival tales. Right now I’m reading [Jennifer Egan’s] “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” which is a collection of stories in which the characters are interwoven. For comic writers I like David Sedaris and Bill Bryson and the twisted characters of Carl Hiaasen.
Liam James as “Duncan” and Sam Rockwell as “Owen” on the set of ‘The Way, Way Back’ Photo by Claire Folger, courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
How was the filming process on The Way, Way Back?
Rash: We pretty much got hit with a lot of rain when we started. The house stuff was shot outside of Marshfield, MA in Green Harbor, and the water park was in East Wareham, MA. The town was very supportive and very helpful during the whole shoot. One night, during a very climactic scene we were shooting in someone’s backyard, most of the town came out to watch from their mini cocktail parties. There was this sort of theatre-in-the-round thing going on and the actors really enjoyed it.
Faxon: Certainly we had challenges at the water park since we shot in the evening. There were a lot of hot days and all we wanted to do was go down the slide. One night the folks at Water Wizz, a family owned place, opened the park for us and it was so much fun.
What’s next?
Rash: We’re writing another movie with Fox Searchlight, a sort of dysfunctional tap-into-some-pain type story, and then we’re writing an action comedy for Kristin Wiig, who is a friend of ours from The Groundlings. It’s a little grittier and little darker.
Featured image: Filmmakers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon with Liam James on the set of The Way, Way Back
It’s 2013 at Arena Stage or is it? The house is exploding and a tripped out light show has begun. Eight slim-hipped long-haired musicians – a three-man horn section, a crack drummer, bluesy keyboardist and three flaming hot guitarists – are cranking out the wailing sounds of blues and heart-stopping, mind-altering rock n’ roll. The audience, lit up by white-hot strobes and pulsing psychedelia, is in their seats – but barely. They are nodding in sync to the earth-shaking beat in their button-down shirts and summer dresses, remembering their lives before kids and jobs, paychecks and mortgages. It’s the ‘60’s all over again. A time of peace signs, free love and magic mushrooms. A time when you might have been lucky enough to catch Janis Joplin performing in 1968 at the city’s former roller rink known as the Alexandria Arena.
And then it happens. Janis Joplin, the tiny Texas ball of fire, streaks down the catwalk and onto the stage. It’s her! It’s just like her! No, it’s Mary Bridget Davies, and she’s totally channeling Janis. The scratchy voice, the stuttering syllables, the “yeah, man” and “far out” and hoarse cackle she punctuated her lyrics with. Davies has Janis down pat – down to her round rose-colored shades and salty language, down to her bending forward in search of a single note and delivering a primal sound, a cry, and twisting it in a new way, rearing backwards to let it out with a howl. So like Janis with arms outstretched in supplication, then punching the air fighting for her place in a straight world – drawing us in while telling us we’ve failed her. We know the desolation of her soul, her lost loves, her emotional release. And Davies does too.
Mary Bridget Davies as Janis Joplin Photo by Jim Cox.
It was all about the blues for Janis, “It’s the want of something that gives you the blues,” she once said. She latched onto it as a kid in middle-class Port Arthur singing folk songs at Threadgill’s, a local honky-tonk near Austin, where she met a two-bit manager and ran off to San Francisco to front for the acid-rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company just before the “Summer of Love”.
But it was her love affair with the music of Bessie Smith, “She showed me the air and she taught me how to fill it,” that lingered. Later it was Odetta, who inspired Janis’ rendition of “Down on Me” and Nina Simone whose haunting version of “Summertime” was covered by Janis. Even Aretha Franklin and Motown’s The Chantels were her muses paving the way for her to invent her own sound.
Sabrina Elayne Carten sings these early blues and gospel influences with an astonishing vocal range that is heart-stoppingly soulful with a spectacular and nuanced portrayal of Bessie, Aretha and Odetta. Carten’s voice on “Spirit in the Dark” an early Aretha-written song, Nina’s “Summertime”, and Bessie’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” is as expressive as it is powerful, harkening back to the singers’ early renditions.
In One Night With Janis playwright and director Randy Johnson lets Janis share her musical story from art school dropout to the feathered spangled rock star we came to know as ‘Pearl’. And ultimately it’s Davies ripping up the stage with Janis’ greatest hits, putting another little piece of her heart out there in “Me and Bobby McGee”, “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)”, “Cry Baby” and “Down On Me”, that grabs you by the throat – those and twenty other jammin’ Janis numbers performed by a killer rock band and three-girl backup that translate into the grooviest night of music and memories from the “Queen of Rock and Roll”. It’s like so far out, man.
Through August 11th at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SW, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 484-0247 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
Quidam diabolo performer William Wei-Liang Lin – photo credit Jordan Wright
The critically acclaimed Cirque du Soleilis bringing Quidam to our area next month. The captivating extravaganza which has toured five continents and been seen by millions over its 17-year history, will be at the Patriot Center at George Mason University.
Last week at Georgetown’s newest restaurant and event venue Malmaison, I had a chance to chat with Jessica LeBoeuf and Cirque’s newest performer, William Wei-Liang Lin, the company’s 24 year-old diabolo act who hails from Taiwan.
LeBoeuf, Quidam’s publicist, described the complex logistics of moving the production from city to city via fifteen trucks loaded with the set, costumes and equipment to stage a show consisting of fifty-two world-class performers including singers, acrobats, musicians and characters from twenty different countries and staging it in an arena. “The show has been redesigned for an arena from the usual Big Top. But it’s the same show, just under a different roof. It’s theatre-style seating, which gives us five hundred to a thousand more seats, still with the sound of a live concert. We take about a third of the stage area, think of a hockey rink, for the backstage where there’s a gym, all the props, costumes and a place for the performers to warm up, plus the band pit and the garage. The stage comes out nearly to the front rows,” she explained.
“There are a lot of aerial acts in the show, though we don’t use a safety net or safety line. We use the téléférique, the French word for cable car. It’s an arch that comes halfway across the arena and stops above the audience and then there’s a cable car system on each of the five rails where we fly the performers in and out on their apparatus. It’s all sheer human power.”
For William Lin the journey to Cirque stardom has been as circuitous as it has been auspicious. As a schoolboy his aim was to study tae kwon do, but when the hoped-for class was filled he wound up studying ‘diabolo’, a technique evolved from the Chinese yo-yo that incorporates string and one or more axles that are spun and tossed.
Quidam by Cirque du Soliel
Eventually Lin developed tremendous expertise, winning first prize over all the acts at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in France, an international competition akin to the Oscars for the Circus Arts. Soon after he was discovered in England by Cirque’s scouts. Although he curtailed his university studies, he still needed to complete mandatory military service. Even so he had to wait a year until a spot opened up in the company this January. “Cirque du Soleil is my dream,” he beams. “My work is my diabolo. I love learning new tricks. Many of my ideas come from videos and movies. For me the possibilities are limitless.” Lin has become wildly popular back home in Taiwan where he is flooded with request for TV interviews.
In a story of a young girl bored by the world and her apathetic parents, young Zoé seeks to fill the void of her existence with the imaginary world of Quidam, which offers characters that encourage her to free her soul. The show is notable for its poetic transitions and beautiful acrobatics that create an exhilarating sensory experience.
As LeBoeuf puts it, “The performers need to keep their bodies in good shape for eight shows a week while performing at the same level. They do Pilates, stretching, yoga, dance classes, conditioning and cross training. To keep them interested and involved local dance teachers are often invited in to do demonstrations. In Detroit we had a famous dancer come in that did hip hop. It was very cool for the foreign performers to learn hip hop. The contortionists said, “I don’t understand how you move!” It was pretty funny coming from them.”
Quidam will hold seven performances from July 17th through July 21st at the Patriot Center at George Mason University 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030. For tickets and information visit www.CirqueduSoleil.com or call 703 993-3000.
JUNE 14, 2013 BY JORDAN WRIGHT Special to The Credits – MPAA
According to a 2007 British survey Hans Zimmer is considered “one of the world’s 100 living geniuses.” He shares space on the list with the likes of Stephen Hawking, Prince and Philip Glass. Zimmer’s own list of achievements includes an Academy Award, several Golden Globes, Grammys, Lifetime Achievement Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and dozens of film credits that attest to his significant contribution to many of the industry’s finest films.
Zimmer’s scored a slew of classics. Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man and The Lion King are a few of his famous past films, as well as more recent blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean, Madagascar, The Da Vinci Code, Sherlock Holmes, The Thin Red Line and Dark Knight. Today’s release of Man of Steelcontinues this living legend’s legacy of creating the mood and musical identity of some of our biggest films.
There may not be a single filmgoer who has not been touched by his music. The Credits spoke to him about his craft, his passions, and his hopes for Man of Steel.
Hans Zimmer – photo credit to his wife, Zoe Zimmer
The Credits: Can you talk about your approach to composing for Man of Steel? How did your sense of the script guide you?
Zimmer: Not one bit. I never read it. I told David Goyer [Man of Steel scriptwriter] forgive me for not reading it. For me there are two types of directors. There’s the writer/director and the director that works from somebody else’s script—and what’s important for me is figuring out what the director has in his head. So I said to Zack [Snyder, Man of Steel director] let’s sit down. Tell me the story. And while the telling is going on I find out what’s really in his heart—what the emphasis is for him. The weird part of the process is that as someone tells you the story you start to come up with sounds and music. So in my head I’m scoring Zack telling me a story. That helps with starting. But also I was somewhat overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. Because I was working on Dark Knight Rises at the same time and I didn’t think I was quite up for it. The master, John Williams, had done rather well by it, and it was part of my growing up and DNA loving John Williams’ score. The inevitable comparisons are out there, but I couldn’t care less about what anybody says. Find me a composer who isn’t driven by paranoia and neurosis.
I don’t ever remember seeing a film that had a musical score throughout most every scene. It must have been quite a task to create such an enormous score. What was the reasoning behind that decision?
It’s because the score is fairly new. It goes from me playing a little upright piano to these rather grand gestures that you’d expect. In an odd way, though it’s a Superman movie, there’s an absolute inherent reality in this film, because America really is America, and America is real. So it felt like it would be nice to create this “through line” from the word go to the end. When we get to the second half it gets pretty intense, but we tried to use music to create beautiful silences as well. For example, when Krypton blows up, and I don’t think I’m giving anything away here, the tendency would be to go hugely bombastic and throw everything at it–but it’s just one single solo violin.
Can you talk about the musical transitions in the film when you segue from battles to farm scenes? Do you look at the film and it comes to you or is it a separate process?
Transitions are tricky because we change tones so dramatically, and you just hope that you’re replacing very kinetic energy with emotional energy, because I did try to make the farm scenes tiny and emotionally poignant. Part of the disadvantage I have in this interview is I haven’t seen the movie with an audience. All I know is that I spent many months loving the process and that’s truly the whole thing. I love writing music and sitting with my friends and colleagues and the musicians and the director and we’re building something and hoping people will love it as much as we love the process. But by the end of it you have no idea if you’ve succeeded or not. You just try your best.
How hard was it to make this music different when everyone already knows the music from the Christopher Reeves’ movies and John Williams’ score?
It really comes from the filmmakers having a very different take on how we can tell the story. I remember when we were doing Gladiator with Ridley Scott and he was speaking about when he first saw Spartacus and how it resonated with him and how those movies should sound. And I kept saying to him but that’s my job, that the next bunch of fourteen-year olds should have their own music.
And that’s what Chris [Producer, Christopher Nolan] wanted me to do…to find my own language. If Zack had sat down with John Williams and told him the story the way he told it to me, John would have written a very different score from the one he wrote [for the earlier film], because it’s a very different movie. Ultimately I write from a very personal perspective. I have to find my own personal bits. Being a stranger in a strange land, being a foreigner in a culture that is not necessarily your own culture, and forever being torn between the two cultures, I think is interesting. And so for me as a foreigner I think there’s a chance to hold up a mirror to America and to let it see the things it’s become a little bored with. The things it takes for granted.
What do you mean by ‘the things America takes for granted’?
I remember when we were in the Grand Canyon shooting Thelma and Louise and we were saying, “Wow! It’s the Grand Canyon!” and there were these kids standing there saying, “Dad, Can we go home? It’s just the Grand Canyon.” So as a foreigner that used to look at America with wonderment, I just want to give that back to America. To say, “Look at your towns. Look at your people. See what’s good and decent and noble.” I have no idea if I’ve succeeded. At the end of the day it comes down to two questions; were you entertained or did it make you feel something? That’s all you can hope for. That somewhere in one little corner of this vast movie you got to feel something and you were in this world.
It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to use the old Superman theme. Because suddenly you would have recognized it and thought, this is the old Superman, and then you would have been aware you were watching a movie. I was terrified of parody in any sense, even unwitting parody. Part of my very simple plan was to exorcise anything out of my orchestra, like the main instruments that I remember John Williams using, like the trumpet fanfare. I didn’t use any of that. By narrowing my palate I felt I was doing something different.
Do you compose electronically, on a piano or on another conventional instrument?
Nothing conventional! I had two weeks of piano lessons. That’s my formal education. I write the stuff in my head and then I use a computer with a music word processor. After all, I am a child of the twentieth century and whatever works is how I get there.
Have you ever had your music pirated?
Yes, of course my music gets pirated all the time! The thing that worries me the most, from a film composer’s point of view, is that the more things get pirated, the less value they have. And the flip side of this is there are all kinds of horrible and nasty things you can say about Hollywood. But you should always remember that Hollywood is the last place on earth that commissions orchestral music on a daily, if not hourly, basis. It gives children a reason to have a passion to learn an instrument and actually make a living at it. So every time one of those very expensive film scores gets pirated what you are doing is directly affecting if we’re going to have, or not have, orchestras left in this world. If we lose orchestras, it’s going to rob us of more than just a bit of culture. There’s a lot of heart that’s going to go missing.
In Mozart’s time he had to make sure he could get his score published the following day because during the premiere there would be people in the audience scribbling along and pirating it the next day. Pirating has been going on forever.
Featured image: Henry Cavill and Amy Adams in Man of Steel. Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
