The Dead Don’t Hurt
Summary
Viggo Mortensen’slatest movieThe Dead Do n’t Hurtshowcases the many talents of a creative who turn down to be define by any peculiar role . This applies to his carrying into action in Peter Jackson ’s groundbreakingThe Lord of The Ringstrilogy , his Academy Award - nominated efforts inEastern promise , Captain Fantastic , andGreen Book , and even his role as an actor altogether . Mortensen write , calculate , and act inThe Dead Do n’t Hurt , a deliberate Western that tells the history of a doomed romance against the backcloth of the U.S. Civil War .
But Mortensen ’s contributions toThe Dead Do n’t Hurtdon’t end there . The worker also scored the photographic film , induce him a two - time film composer ( he also wrote the music for his 2020 directorial debut , Falling ) . Over Zoom , Mortensen is quick to jest that his melodic journeying is “ probably disturbing ” and downplay the fact that he has been quietly releasing albums since 1994 , with over 20 under his belt . The albums , often experimental , are n’t available on Spotify , but they put important context behind Mortensen ’s recent act to film composing . Though he is n’t a trained musician , Mortensen has a practiced and discerning spike , as can be heard in the sparse yet touching score forThe Dead Do n’t Hurt .
Viggo Mortensen ’s newest Western movie , The Dead Do n’t Hurt , go on a huge Rotten Tomatoes streak that has lasted for 10 straight age .
projection screen Rantinterviewed Viggo Mortensen about his body of work scoringThe Dead Do n’t offend . The thespian detail his melodic journeying , composing process , and thoughts on what he wants in a scotch .
From His Grandmother’s House To Green Rooms
Mortensen did n’t study medicine theory or play in band as a teenager . Maybe that ’s why , despite having two moving picture scores under his belt , he states,“Yes , I trifle the piano and I like music , but I do n’t think of myself as an accomplished musician . ”The piano that sparkle it all was his gran ’s , apparently starting an appreciation for the official document that stock through to the set ofMortensen ’s best pic :
Viggo Mortensen : There was a piano in my grandmother ’s house , and I would sit around and bet that when we ’d visit her . I liked it . It seemed like a soothing and relaxing thing to do , and usually I ’d associate it with images I had in my fountainhead , and soundscapes . I always enjoyed that as a sort of meditative affair to do .
Later on , as an adult , even though I did n’t have a piano at home , when I ’d be ride out at a hotel or at a restaurant where there was a piano , if nobody was around , I might sit down and represent for myself . Or , if I was in a green room somewhere , or in an actor holding area during a shoot , sometimes there would be a pianissimo and I would represent . I have n’t been steadily playing every sidereal day like you have to , but it ’s something I ’ve enjoyed doing .
Mortensen found himself drawn to collaborate with musicians and artist and reveal he has done spoken word performances in English and Spanish since the other ‘ 90s , sometimes even sharing a piano with someone at the events . It was through collaborations with player like Buckethead , however , that Mortensen turn over into melodic genre after musical genre in sessions that resulted in the spillage of 21 albums between 1994 and 2018 . When asked about these record album , which boast everything from singing in Spanish to experimental malarkey - influenced instrumental opus , Mortensen says it ’s about the process , not the result :
Viggo Mortensen : There ’s some stuff that we did n’t put in records , and there ’s a lot of hooey that we probably should n’t have put on record , but we were just doing it because we revel it . It ’s just like filmmaking — it should be fun . What I like about movies and music is the collaborative aspect . The thing that happen when two ideas meet , when two sound meet , two instruments , two musicians , dissimilar actors … those things collide and something else happens that nobody wait to pass . That ’s what you ’re reckon for . That intemperately - to - attain synchronism , or that nuclear fusion . It ’s just play , and when it ’s fun you ’re on the veracious track . Whether anybody even likes what you ’ve done later or not , it ’s the cognitive operation that weigh .
Film Financing Difficulties Turned Mortensen Into A Composer
The Dead Do n’t Hurtmarks Mortensen ’s 2nd metre scoring a movie he directed . The first wasFalling , a 2020 film that was his feature directorial introduction . As Mortensen key out it , he fell into the role of composer during the movie ’s long journey from handwriting to screen :
Viggo Mortensen : In the case of the first movie I directed , I had to wait several years before I find the funding , even though I had the screenplay and the main actor already . I was just sort of restless , and started thinking , “ Is there euphony in this pic ? There could be . What should it be ? ”
I start compose sealed themes and melody , and I terminate up recording quite a fleck of it before we even started shooting , just sort of accidentally . That proved utilitarian in terms of contrive certain scenes , knowing what the mood of certain scenes would be , and in the editing room too . It was like , “ I bonk what this is going to sense like , ” and , “ This view should last this recollective , ” and , “ It should have this form of regular recurrence , ” and so forth . There was an interplay between the music and the images we ’d shoot down . Since that had worked , I did it intentionally for The Dead Do n’t Hurt . I ended up coming up with the music , and we recorded almost all of it well before we start shoot .
The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become. Both a tragic love story and a nuanced depiction of the conflict between revenge and forgiveness, The Dead Don’t Hurt is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.
Scoring The Dead Don’t Hurt
For Mortensen’srealistic Western motion-picture show , he again wrote and enter the vast majority of the music before shooting . He even share the music with the cinematographer and other filmmakers to convey the mood of that solar day ’s scenes during yield . As for in reality writing the music , Mortensen utilize a astonishingly straightforward , yet comparatively singular , procedure :
Viggo Mortensen : I literally sat at a piano with the script and see at prospect one—“What would that be ? possibly there ’s a transition piece here , a petty short thing here , then here there would be full - on”—and then I would imagine the instruments and so forth . It was part of the composition . I felt like it was very much part of the screenplay , in a way . I ’ve take heed this from audiences in Q&A sessions after screenings — they’ll say , “ The medicine just really accommodate . It feel correct . ” That ’s the good thing you could hear , and I intend that ’s in part because of the process .
When I sit down with the musicians to record , I would tell them what the scene was about . We were thinking about the screenplay when making the music , and when we shot the moving-picture show , we were listening to the music . The writing , film , acting , and euphony are interlace from the start .
Mortensen also reflected on how he wanted his sexual conquest to fit his moving picture ’s naturalistic face and find , even as he broke undercoat in other areas . This let in draft violinist and Bob Dylan collaborator Scarlet Rivera , among others .
Viggo Mortensen : It ’s a different kind of Western in that you have a female character as the lead character reference , and you quell with her throughout the account no matter what adventures he gets up to . And your lead couple of character reference , instead of being Anglo - Saxon and U.S. born , do n’t have English as their first voice communication .
But I wanted the look and feel of the picture show to be like the westerns I grew up watching — the classic westerns where you ’re not thinking much about how the camera ’s look at things . You ’re just demonstrate landscape and hoi polloi in them in a simple , elegant way , ideally , which I consider Marcel Zyskind did a great job with .
It ’s the same with the euphony . It ’s original music , but I wanted it to find like music from that time with the influence that , as far as I make out from my research , come to bear back then , whether it ’s Celtic influences , some Hellenic influence , or even the Appalachian auditory sensation . We did that with the fiddle a fiddling bit , with Scarlet Rivera .
significantly for Mortensen , he did n’t want medicine that felt emotionally manipulative :
Viggo Mortensen : It ’s just personal taste , but I like soundtrack medicine that helps tell the taradiddle , that compliment it , and that is utile in telling the story . I do n’t wish music in movies that ’s paries - to - wall . No matter how estimable the euphony is , it ’s essentially manipulative . It ’s telling you , “ Now you have to be happy , ” or sad , or rejoice , or , “ This is a meditative moment . ”
The moment has to work without the euphony , and then the music can help it along . Let ’s say it transitions from one time period to another or , if you ’re advancing rapidly through ellipses in storytelling , sometimes the music can support that and add a layer and a feeling to it without try on to dictate how you should finger . That ’s what we did , and that was very useful .
The Future Of Viggo Mortensen, Film Composer
ease up that Mortensen has composed the scores for his two lineament directorial exertion , it ’s easy to assume this will be his approach path on every project moving forward . But as swimmingly as he fall into composing , the film maker is willing to fall out . For him , it ’s all about the needs of the project :
Viggo Mortensen : I just did it because it finger like rightfield . The next movie I direct , I do n’t think I will do the music for . I do n’t recall I would be the best somebody for that , whatever that medicine might be . In this vitrine , I knew what I wanted to hear and I had an musical theme of how to get it done and who to play with to make it act upon .
When need if he would nock a task he did n’t direct , Mortensen cites a 2014 calledJaujafor which he teamed up with Buckethead to contribute music . In terms of the future tense :
Viggo Mortensen : Yeah , why not ? I do n’t know if they ’d want me because I ’m not your normal composer . If they liked what I did for this and thought , instinctively , that I ’d be the right person to come up with stuff for them , sure , it ’d be fun .
About The Dead Don’t Hurt
The Dead Do n’t anguish is a story of star - crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s . Vivienne Le Coudy ( Vicky Krieps ) is a fiercely autonomous fair sex who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen ( Viggo Mortensen ) . The outbreak of the civic warfare separates them when Olsen create a fateful decision to struggle for the Union . This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place control by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller ( Danny Huston ) and his unscrupulous business partner , powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries ( Garrett Dillahunt ) . Alfred ’s violent , wayward son Weston ( Solly McLeod ) aggressively pursue Vivienne , who is determined to resist his undesirable advances . When Olsen returns from the war , he and Vivienne must face and make peace with the mortal each has become .
Check out our otherDead Do n’t Hurtinterviews with the following :
Viggo Mortensen ’s soundtrack forThe Dead Do n’t Hurtis on digital platforms now , courtesy of Milan Records .
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The Dead Do n’t ache is a tale of star - crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s . Vivienne Le Coudy ( Vicky Krieps ) is a ferociously independent woman who embark on a kinship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen ( Viggo Mortensen ) . After meeting Olsen in San Francisco , she match to travel with him to his home near the quiet townspeople of Elk Flats , Nevada , where they start a life together . The irruption of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful determination to fight back for the Union . This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place manipulate by tainted Mayor Rudolph Schiller ( Danny Huston ) and his unscrupulous concern partner , powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries ( Garret Dillahunt ) . Alfred ’s violent , perverse Word Weston ( Solly McLeod ) sharply pursues Vivienne , who is compulsive to resist his unwanted advances . When Olsen returns from the war , he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the somebody each has become . Both a tragic dearest story and a nuanced depiction of the engagement between retaliation and pardon , The Dead Do n’t Hurt is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving public dominated by unpitying men .
