Scoring another four feature films and one short, all released in 2009, Mansell headed into the production of Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Returning to his psychological thriller roots, Aronofsky used Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Double’ as part-inspiration for the story of a dedicated ballet dancer placed under immense pressure during a prestigious production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’. As she finds herself competing against her understudy for the additional role of The Black Swan, she begins to lose her grip on reality and is powerless to stop the unravelling of her mental stability. With a story that features music as such an integral part of the narrative, the stakes were higher than usual for Aronofsky’s favourite composer.
The film presented Mansell with a new challenge – to build an effective original score upon iconic musical source material, rather than only Aronofsky’s cinematic and visual input. The result is an unparalleled triumph. Employing his characteristic piano melodies and the sampling experience he gained in his years with Pop Will Eat Itself, Mansell takes the most important and recognisable phrases from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and blends them seamlessly with his own musical depiction of the dancer’s descent into madness. His original composition evokes lilting paranoia and creeping darkness, building a palpable sense of panic as more and more of the classical masterwork sneaks in. Violent bursts of Tchaikovsky’s own furious crescendos punctuate Mansell’s beautifully executed soundscape, which perfectly mirrors both the internal worlds of the characters, and the external action playing out under Aronofsky’s careful direction.
In addition to Mansell’s compositions and the work of Tchaikovsky, the soundtrack for Black Swan also features the dance music of The Chemical Brothers, although this was omitted from the released soundtrack CD. The use of the classical source material also made this work – arguably among the best of the Mansell-Aronofsky collaborations – ineligible for recognition by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during the 2010 awards season. In discussing his work on Black Swan with The Quietus, Mansell mused on the reasons why Aronofsky seems to bring about his best work:
“I like to have as much time on a project as I can. I look to find whatever the film is saying to me, you know, and find that sound, that language, that voice, so I can draw on whatever it’s bringing out of me to create the music. That takes time to do. I think that’s undoubtedly why some of my best work has been with Darren. Not just because he’s a great film-maker but because I have time to investigate and experiment.”
Following the critical and commercial success of Black Swan, Mansell spent three years producing original scores for a diverse range of projects – from James Strong’s film United, to the video game Mass Effect 3 – topping off 2013 with the double-whammy of Stoker and Filth. All roads seem to lead back to Darren Aronofsky, however, and his latest project – the biblical epic Noah, released this month – presents another opportunity for Mansell to demonstrate something new. Something even bigger.
Depicting the biblical character of Noah experiencing visions of an apocalyptic flooding event, and taking action to protect his family, the film bears a disclaimer from Paramount:
“The film is inspired by the story of Noah. While artistic license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide. The biblical story of Noah can be found in the book of Genesis.”
The music for this film would need to reflect the iconic nature of the story, along with the balance of darkness and hope – and early indications suggest that Mansell has once again excelled himself. In what is something of a necessary departure from his previous works, Mansell has created a powerful, pounding anthemic score, with his characteristic use of percussion set against sweeping choral tones and soaring strings. Indeed, his music in this case casts us off into waves of melodies – sometimes into calmer waters, and sometimes into the full, relentless orchestral maelstrom.
Reflecting on the works of Clint Mansell as we await his latest collaboration with the director that debuted alongside him fifteen years ago, it is clear that his style has evolved greatly over time – the result of continually committing himself to projects that hold passion and artistic value for him. While lesser film composers find their work stagnating after a number of years, Mansell seeks challenge and the opportunity to explore new ground – even with his most regular collaborators. That being said, throughout his back-catalogue, there is a distinctive flavour to a Clint Mansell original film score. There are the stirring strings and punctuating percussion. There is the close relationship with cinematography and the fearlessness in using additional sound and samples. Overall, however, there is the unavoidable sense that the music is steadily forming a conduit to allow the film and its images to jab directly, and intimately, at your soul.
When asked about his ‘sound’ by Hey U Guys in 2013, as Stoker was released, Mansell concluded:
“I suppose there is a certain inevitability about that really. I don’t particularly see myself as a film composer in maybe what is the traditional sense of a film composer. If you go back to people like Hanneman, and Miklós Rósza, a lot of those guys, when they would do live TV, and would actually score TV shows, those guys really were the real deal, in as much as they were, ‘OK, you want happy, here’s happy, you want sad, here’s sad’, whereas my work is probably much more – I go to a lot of films not so much thinking, obviously I do think about what the film needs, but I’m looking for if this film speaks to me, if it’s going to bring something out of me. With that, there are things that I like, there are certain progressions that hit me musically, that hit my ear, that hit my soul, if you like, that make sense to me; I’m sure I’m always looking for those structures that I respond to, and hopefully, while I hope they’re not always the same, I’m sure they have common traits that you could go, ‘that sounds like Clint Mansell’.”
The sound of Clint Mansell will hit the big screen once more with the release of Noah on March 28 in the US, and April 4 in the UK.
