Listen to Jonny Greenwood's chilling 'Spencer' score
Pablo Larraín‘s new film Spencer is about Princess Diana, but it’s not a biopic, instead falling somewhere between melodrama and anxiety horror, imagining the three days over the Christmas holidays in 1991 when she decided to divorce Prince Charles. (Kristen Stewart plays Lady Di.) Even if you didn’t know anything about the film, the score, by Radiohead‘s Jonny Greenwood, would make it pretty clear this is not the fairytale the pubic was presented with Charles & Diana’s 1981 wedding.
“Arrival,” the first track on the score, opens with with an ascending organ arpeggio straight out of a Mario Bava film that will send chills down your spine. Elsewhere, Greenwood brings in elements of free jazz and, as usual for his scores, lots of strings — sometimes swaying, sometimes right out of Psycho — and more doom-laden organ. He also makes great use of harpsichordist Katherine Tinker on a few eerie, baroque pieces. It’s an intense listen.
Spencer is in theaters today and you can listen to Jonny’s score — and watch the trailer — below.
Jonny has a busy November. He also scored Jane Campion’s new film, The Power of the Dog, which is out next week, and he composed the title theme for frequent collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming Liquorice Pizza (which stars Alana Haim), that’s out November 26.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20BIS4YxP5Q
