Carter Burwell

And John Powell wasn't the first choice as the composer on Identity.

Carter Burwell, legendary composer and regular Coen brothers collaborator, was actually hired and recorded a big orchestral score for the film.

Yes.

Yeah, Liman liked it, but Burwell give him the antithesis of what he was looking for really.

Just by chance.

Mm-hmm.

Ironically, after losing Carter Burwell and going for an electronic score, Powell and Liman changed their minds and decided they wanted an orchestral score.

Brilliant.

Their day continues with the two of them attempting to dance to Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy in Edward's room, climbing some trees and listening to Edward play Bella's Lullaby on the piano, with Robert Pattinson actually playing the fan favorite tune with his own piano playing skills during this scene.

And when composer Carter Burwell first made the Bella's Lullaby piece, it wasn't originally meant for the film, but instead was a song that Burwell wrote for a woman that he deeply loved but lost through a breakup.

According to Burwell, Bella's Lullaby was meant to be a musical expression of what it felt to experience both the exhilaration and pain of love, one that he would ultimately send to his lost love to show her how he felt.

And very fortunately for Burwell, his attempts to win her back would ultimately pay off, as he would later marry the love of his life in 1999.

So the credits start, you know, true story, which is, again, flatly not true.

And then right away, we're hearing this Carter Burwell score that is magnificent, a great tone setter.

And we're seeing what Roger Deakins is going to do with the look of the film, which, as you already have stated... is very simple and that is something he is touching on constantly in the commentary that like i that's why i love deacons i mean he has his own podcast and he always talks about movies like this his episode when he was talking about jesse james he's like this was a tough movie i don't think andrew dominic and i will work together again and that's that's okay that's okay like it was a tough shoot it was a tough movie so he always gives it to you honest and clean and he's like fuck you know the commentary yeah you know we had some problems but like it's fine you just it's so easy it just i don't know it's just like can we do this in one fine yeah we're doing one And I don't know if it was until this commentary that I realized those oners that they're doing a lot in the movie, you know, just the one scene oners, but because the camera's moving and then still, and then when the conversation's done, it readjusts.

Yeah.

oh yeah geez yeah your teenage son who's just had his mom be kidnapped like he you might want to check in with him buddy no he's just thinking about money thinking about himself how he can get out of his jam well gee yeah there's that so they don't know that It's personal.

Yeah.

hands on the glass so he could see through the window which is funny and then as soon as he breaks that the cones are like you know carter burwell score takes off garb smashes through the front door and this is real this is a home invasion and you should be scared and we are i mean it's just a great scene that also has moments of like levity you know i need on one like that and yeah and then and then moments of great tension the you know the phone through the door the great one shot of Him putting on the Anguint on his hand and staring at the shower curtain.

It's just, it's great stuff.

Yes, I agree with that.

I love the music in this movie, which was done by Carter Burwell, who is the Coen Brothers' go-to composer, one of my favorite composers of all time.

And every time I watch this film, I'm really just rooting for High and Ed to make this work.

Not necessarily kidnapping a baby, but they have so much love to give that they got no one to give it to.

I mean, that was the thing we talked about.

Score by Carter Burwell, who at that point had already been working with, like, the Coen brothers.

Some of the opening song, like, some of the up-tempo stuff was reminding me of his Hudsucker Proxy score.

And then, like, shot by Peter Deming, who shot, like, stuff for David Lynch.

It relies heavily on practical Pacific Northwest locations rather than green screens.

And it features a very specific, melancholic score by Carter Burwell that treats the supernatural romance almost like intimate chamber music, rather than relying on a loud, bombastic action movie brand.

Here's where it gets really interesting, though.

The visual language of that first movie was strictly unapologetically designed for the dark space of a movie theater.

We've got a new 4K restoration from original camera negative.

We got a interview with the composer, Carter Burwell.

We've got a interview with t- production designer David Brisbin, uh, on turning Toronto into Chinatown.

We've got an interview, another new interview with action director Robert Samuels, an archival audio commentary with James Foley, uh, archival featurette, and oh my goodness, UGK's Take It Off music video.