“What's the thing that's not already there that I could bring? I'm not that interested as a composer in amplifying things you're already seeing on screen. I'd like to find some subtext or something that isn't necessarily clear, even if it's at odds with what you're seeing, but that it makes the experience richer and more dramatic.”
The Bulwark · Policy · November 2026
Context
Asked how he starts working with a director on a rough cut, composer Carter Burwell gives the one question he asks himself on every film.
Transcript
…And I thought that this music allowed you to feel all those different things. So that was it, basically, chronologically. I'm just trying a lot of things out and seeing what it does to the picture. And I felt that this was the best solution. I played it for Martin pretty early on, and he agreed.
…other director? I mean, do you, I assume you get a rough cut of the film at some point, and then you start layering the music in. But, you know, there's questions about do you want music under this dialogue or do you not want music? Like, how does that actual back and forth work with the director?
…will say, can I show you a scene and you tell me what you do? And I say, I can't, there's no way I could tell you what I do with a scene because I need to know where we're going. What is the ultimate payoff for this film and for this score? But once I see a rough cut, I basically always ask myself this one question. No one else needs to ask it, but I ask myself this one question, which is, what's the thing that's not already there that I could bring? I'm not that interested as a composer in amplifying things you're already seeing on screen. I'd like to find some subtext or something that isn't necessarily clear, even if it's at odds with what you're seeing, but that it makes the experience richer and more dramatic. So I do that. I go away, come up with some answer in my mind, or maybe not even with an answer. All I have is the question. And then the director and I, in this case, Martin, we do a thing called a spotting session. So Martin's based in London. I'm based in New York. So I went over to London and we sit in a room together with the editor and we go through the film from beginning to end. And at…
Yeah. Yeah. Again, it's fascinating too, because I had a sense we were going to have this conversation. So I was trying to pay attention to the score. And it really does blend into the background pretty seamlessly in a lot of places in the sense, you know, sometimes you hear a score and you're…
It depends on the movie. It really does. This one, I agree. It's more the music is often not making a big deal of itself. That's partly because there's so often dialogue in the film that it's, you know, it's Martin a writer. And so there's, you know, the dialogue is always in the, yeah, the, always…
Yeah. I mean, I guess. And I just looking at your own filmography, I can't imagine raising Arizona without the, you know, kind of yodeling or the in Bruges without that kind of like brooding, almost noirish constant tune in it. I just, I, again, I rewatched In Bruges not long ago. I just, I can't…
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