How ‘Marty Supreme’ Composer Daniel Lopatin Created a 1950s Landscape with a 1980s Vibe [VIDEO INTERVIEW]
Anachronisms are a funny thing. Sometimes it’s jarring and the clash isn’t playfully incongruent but distractingly bizarre. Sometimes it just makes sense in a ‘you know it when you see it’ way, or, in the case of Daniel Lopatin’s score for Marty Supreme, you hear it.
For his compositions in Josh Safdie’s upcoming film starring Timothée Chalamet, Lopatin mashes post-war with post-punk as his 80s synth fluidly finds its way on the social, emotional and physical journey of Marty Mauser, a bratty New Yorker and ping pong aficionado who’s bravado often gets him into trouble. In his early talks with Safdie, with whom he’s collaborated on for Uncut Gems and Good Time, Lopatin knew that the director was going to play with this time period for songs and needle drops, including liberal use of the 80s band Tears for Fears, and that set him into motion while listening to a spotting session.
The “speed of the game” and the “mercurial nature of the character” is where Lopatin found the link and the genesis of how he would tell Mauser’s story through music that included mallet sounds, vibraphones and the foundational instruments of early 80s pop like the Fairlight and the Synclavier.
In our conversation about the film’s score creation, we dive into certain influences and evocative moments and pieces ranging from Hans Zimmer’s score for Rain Man to Thomas Newman’s Desperately Seeking Susan score to Barry Lyndon to Constance Demby and more.
Marty Supreme opens wide on Christmas Day from A24 and the soundtrack is available to pre-save.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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