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The Verge
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
The soul of The Last of Us is in Gustavo Santaolalla's music
When fans nervously tuned in to watch HBO's adaptation of one of their favorite video games, there was one familiar presence that immediately calmed their nerves: the mournful guitar of Gustavo Santaolalla. As certain story beats changed and beloved polygonal faces were replaced with new actors, the beating heart of The Last of Us — its mesmerizing, tension-ridden score — survived the transition to TV intact. '[Series creator] Neil Druckmann has said that my music is part of the DNA of The Last of Us,' Santaolalla says. 'I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn't do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.' Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Santaolalla first started releasing music when he was 17. Loving both English rock bands and the traditional Argentine folk music that he was raised on, Santaolalla melded both into his own unique sound, part of a genre called rock nacional. Before he could fully make his mark, Santaolalla's family fled the Argentine junta dictatorship in 1978, moving to Los Angeles, where his unique sound soon caught the attention of filmmakers. Snapped up to score the 2000 film Amores Perros and 2003's 21 Grams, their success led to Santaolalla composing the soundtracks for Brokeback Mountain and Babe l, both of which won him Oscars. Santaolla's sonic secret? Embracing the eloquence of silence. 'I work so much with silence and space, because silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you're playing,' says Santaolalla. 'I remember on Brokeback Mountain when I first sent them the music, the producer said 'I thought you were pulling my leg at first, because you wait so long to play the next note!'' 'Silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you're playing.' After winning two Oscars back to back, Santaolalla carefully considered his next career move. Despite being a self-professed 'terrible gamer' Santaolalla tells me he always loved watching his son play, mesmerized by the on-screen kineticism. 'I always thought that if somebody connects this at an emotional level with a player, it's going to be a revolution.' It turns out, the universe had picked up on Santaolalla's newest interest. Post-Oscars, he was approached by several game companies to do music, but turned them down because 'I'm very picky about the work that I do.' That includes a lucrative gaming project that he is careful not to name. 'Everyone thought I was crazy!' he chuckles. Still, Santaolalla quietly hoped that a more emotionally-resonant project would materialize. 'So, I waited… and then Neil appeared,' Santaolalla says. 'When Neil told his colleagues that he wanted me to do this, [his colleagues ] said, No, Gustavo is not going to be interested — he won two Oscars! But when Neil [told me] the story, and that he wanted to do a game that connects with people on an emotional level… I was sold. What even Neil Druckmann wasn't prepared for, however, was that Gustavo's music would become just as crucial a presence as Ellie and Joel. In a post apocalyptic world where life is scarce and danger lurks around every corner, silence hangs in the air like a threat. Santaolalla's scuffed notes, discordant melodies and screeching fret slides reverberate across the dilapidated city streets, feeling as unpredictable as the world Ellie and Joel inhabit. 'I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes.' 'I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes,' Santaolalla explains. 'Any professional guitar player when they're recording tend to avoid all kinds of noises; when you run your hand on the fretboard or little glitches in your playing. But sometimes, I'll push those in my mix, and I think that humanizes it. That's why many people have said that my music becomes like a character — a presence. It's why I play things myself.' In the second game, Gustavo's music becomes a physical part of the fiction, with Ellie carrying a guitar throughout her quest for vengeance. She takes out the instrument during welcome moments of downtime, offering cathartic respite. And just like Gustavo's score, these beautiful vignettes break up the harrowing silence, which carries through in the second season of the show. 'I love the TV series too,' says Santaolalla. ' For the show, Neil associated himself with another incredible talent, Craig Mazin — the guy that did Chernobyl — who knows that media and that language. I think it was a big, big challenge, because when you go from one media to another one, people say no, I like the original better! So, I think, once again, that the way we have used the music has been instrumental to keep that fan base attached.' He adds that 'I think that when a story is really great, like a theatrical piece — like Shakespeare — it doesn't matter who plays the character. Obviously Pedro Pascal's Joel is different than the Joel from the game, but the substance of the character is so powerful that those things are just superficial. They could have done this as a series, as a feature film, as a puppet theatre piece, or an animation and it will still land regardless — because it's just great writing.' Now as Santaolalla finds himself releasing his very own instrument — the Guitarocko — it feels like the culmination of the musical journey he started as a teen. Melding the traditional Bolivian 10 stringed ronroco with the form factor of a Fender Stratocaster, Gustavo feels a father-like pride for his musical creation: the 73-year-old is invigorated by what The Last Of Us has given him at this stage in his career. 'I've been blessed with the fact that I have connected with an audience since I was very young,' he says. 'But the way I connect with the fans of The Last of Us and the way they connect with the music… here's a special devotion that is really beautiful. I have this new audience which is fantastic, and I love that they didn't know me as an artist or as a film composer! Now they look for my music, and they discover these things. It's been a gift for me, at this point — after everything that I've been through — to be involved with a project like this.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Palm Dog: ‘The Love That Remains', ‘Sirât', ‘Pillion' And ‘Amores Perros' Honored
Before the Palme d'Or gets dished out and after power cuts took down the town's electricity for a day, Cannes was abuzz with the burning question: qui a gagné le Palm Dog? The answer came yesterday afternoon at a star-studded-collar event on the beach at The Members Club. In a woof-and-ready ceremony, jury member Peter Bradshaw noted that 25 films had come under consideration for this year's honors, pointing out that some were made by directors who hadn't even been born when the event first took place at the UK Pavilion back in 2000. • The top prize — The Palm Dog itself — went to sheepdog Panda, for her part in a film directed by her owner: The Love That Remains, Hlynur Pálmason's tragicomic, gentle family saga. More from Deadline Ethan Coen's 'Honey Don't!' Gets 6.5-Minute Ovation In Cannes Cannes Awards Predictions: Deadline's Critics Make Their Picks For This Year's Palme D'Or & Other Main Prizes Chilean Drama 'The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo' Wins Top Un Certain Regard Prize - Cannes • Mutt Moment — for the year's best scene-stealer — went to the British Un Certain Regard film Pillion for its long-haired Dachshund Hippo and Rottweiler Rosie. • The Grand Jury prize went to the two dogs in Oliver Laxe's apocalyptic road movie Sirât. • The inaugural Four-Legged Fellowship went to Alejandro González Iñárritu's Amores Perros, screening in Cannes Classics. Pillion director Harry Lighton was unable to attend, but sent a message saying, 'I'd like to thank the jury for recognizing the nuance, complexity and raw sex appeal in Hippo's 'performance. I hesitate to use that word. Hippo doesn't perform, she inhabits, and while Harry and Alexander do solid work, it's Hippo who carries the film on her little legs… This award is for every small dog out there with big dreams.' Sad news came from Sirât star Jade Oukid, who revealed that Pipa, the dog in the film, was actually her own, and had passed away after the shoot. However, director Laxe kindly added that, thanks to the power of cinema, Oukid's dog had become 'eternal'. And in a move so new that disorganizer Toby Rose forgot to mention it on the Palm Dog press release, this year also saw the inauguration of a brand new award, The Four-Legged Fellowship. This went to the team behind Alejandro González Iñárritu's Amores Perros (2000), which, like the Palm Dog, celebrated a quarter of a century at the festival this year and is about to get a shiny new re-release courtesy of Mubi. Iñárritu was a bit too tied up, shooting Tom Cruise in London, to attend, but producer Martha Sosa sent a message saying, 'We are truly honoured to receive this recognition from the Palm Dog Awards, for the beloved canine stars of Amores Perros, who are sadly no longer with us. This year marks a significant double celebration: the 25th anniversary of your awards and 25 years since the premiere of Amores Perros at Cannes. A heartfelt thank you to the entire Palm Dog Awards team from all of us.' Best of Deadline 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg Everything We Know About Amazon's 'Verity' Movie So Far Everything We Know About 'The Testaments,' Sequel Series To 'The Handmaid's Tale' So Far
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alejandro G. Iñárritu on 25th Anniversary of ‘Amores Perros' and Making a 'Brutal Comedy' With Tom Cruise
Alejandro G. Iñárritu has always known how to make an entrance. The four-time Oscar winner returned to the Croisette this week, not with a new film to premiere — at least not yet — but to honor Amores Perros, the snarling, kinetic masterpiece that launched his career a quarter century ago. The 25th anniversary screening of the Mexico City-set triptych took place Tuesday night in Cannes with Iñárritu in attendance, fresh off wrapping his latest project — a 'brutal comedy' starring Tom Cruise and Sandra Hüller — in London. The celebratory event was less a retrospective than a reawakening. A new theatrical re-release of Amores Perros is slated for later this year, along with an immersive museum installation, a making-of book, and, of course, plenty of stories from the director about how the film nearly didn't happen at all. More from The Hollywood Reporter Fame and Shame: The Deadly Toll of Celebrity in South Korea Carla Simón on Going Back to the Roots With Cannes Competition Title 'Romería' Channel 4 to Move Into Production Amid IP Focus: "Global Income to Drive U.K. Content Investment" 'Back then, in Mexico, we made maybe seven movies a year,' Iñárritu told The Hollywood Reporter at the Mondrian Hotel in Cannes, the same place he stayed back when he brought Amores Perros here 25 years ago [when it was still called The Grand]. 'There was no real national cinema. If you made one film, that was it. That was your shot. And I poured everything into that film. All the contradictions, the rage, the love, the chaos of Mexico City — it's all in there. That's why it's messy. That's why it's alive.' Shot on a shoestring $2 million budget from private financing by Altavista Films — a rarity in late-'90s Mexico where most movies were still state-subsidized — Amores Perros was edited by Iñárritu himself, in his home, over several grueling months. Starring Gael García Bernal, in his breakout role, the film weaves together three stories connected by a violent car crash, each segment orbiting around characters grappling with love, loss, and Mexico City's brutal underbelly. One scene in particular — a gritty underground dogfight — was as real as it gets. No animals were harmed, but the crew nearly got dropped. 'We were shooting in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Mexico City, just overrun with gangs, crack city,' Iñárritu recalled. 'One day, I was on the phone with Carlos Cuarón, the brother of Alfonso, and I felt a gun against my head. I looked back and saw my cinematographer on the ground with a gun to his head. These guys robbed us — took everything, all our equipment. I gave them my watch, my money, even a medallion that wasn't worth much but meant a lot to me personally.' He continued, 'but the location was perfect, so we went back and negotiated with them. We said: If you let us shoot, you can be in the film. And that scene? That's them. It's those same guys who robbed us. I asked them about the medallion, but they said they'd already sold everything.' Iñárritu submitted Amores Perros to Cannes but the film was initially rejected by the festival's Latin America programmer, who deemed it too long and too violent. 'We begged them to show it to the main committee. They said no,' Iñárritu recalls. 'At that time, you only had American cinema, European cinema, in the main competition. Latin American film was off to the side in the ghetto they called 'World Cinema'.' Eventually, the film landed at Cannes Critics' Week sidebar. The premiere screening didn't go well. 'People were walking out, I thought: 'That's it. It's over,' says Iñárritu. 'Only later did people tell me those were international distributors, going out to tell their people to buy the film.' Amores Perros went on to win Critics' Week. Lionsgate snatched up U.S. rights, helping the movie go global. It would eventually gross more than $5 million domestically and over $20 million worldwide. It scored an Oscar nomination for best international feature, launching the director's career and marking the unofficial beginning of the Mexican New Wave — a movement soon joined by friends Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También) and Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) — bringing Mexican cinema into the global mainstream. 'Suddenly, we were not long outside, we were in conversation with the world,' says Iñárritu. Iñárritu has big plans to mark Amores Perros's Silver Jubilee. He is following the Cannes screening with an ambitious visual installation, which will exhibit in Milan at the Fondazione Prada (September 18-February 26) and in Mexico City at LagoAlgo (October 5-January 3, 2026), with an L.A. showcase also planned. The director compiled the video installation from outtakes and never-used footage from the '1 million feet of celluloid' he shot for the original film. 'When I edited my film, it was 2 hours and 45 minutes, and that was 16,500 feet. Nine hundred eighty-five thousand feet was left, stored at the National University of Mexico, like wine,' said Iñárritu. MACK Books is releasing a making-of volume on the film later this year, featuring stills, scripts, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and essays by collaborators. And the film is getting a proper theatrical re-release, rolling out later this year. 'So that young people can see it on the big screen, not just on one of these,' Iñárritu said, waving his phone. Iñárritu also used his Cannes visit as a soft launch for his next wild experiment, with Tom Cruise. The new film, tentatively titled Judy, just finished production in London. It marks the director's first collaboration with the Mission: Impossible superstar. 'All I can say is it is a brutal, wild comedy of catastrophic proportions. It's insane. It's scary and funny and beautiful. I know comedy is not what people expect from me, or Tom, and making this film was terrifying for me,' says Iñárritu. 'But I don't like to repeat myself, and every film should scare you a little. I felt Birdman was a comedy, a dark comedy, and this one was challenging like that. And Tom makes me laugh every single day. He has this total commitment, this total madness.' Oscar-nominated German actress Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) is part of the ensemble cast of July, which also includes Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Emma D'Arcy, Sophie Wilde, Michael Stuhlbarg and John Goodman. 'I've loved Sandra since Toni Erdmann,' Iñárritu recalls. 'I met her here in Cannes that year [2017] and have been wanting to work with her ever since. Judy has wrapped production at London's Pinewood Studios. Iñárritu said he'll begin editing the movie 'next week.' Judy is set for theatrical release via Warner Bros. next fall. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Prada Foundation Furthers Commitment to Big Screen With Fund to Support Independent Film
Prada is putting more money toward the big screen in support of independent cinema. The news, first reported by Variety, will see the launch of Fondazione Prada Film Fund, a yearly initiative to sustain independent cinema to the tune of 1.5 million euros ($1.68 million). A call for entries is expected this fall, and the fund seeks to 'support works of high artistic value.' Every year, the fund's jury will select 10–12 feature film projects (with no geographical or genre restriction) to receive cash for development, production and post-production phases. More from The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood Flashback: When Cannes First Fell in Love With Juliette Binoche Picture From Auschwitz: Why the Holocaust Memorial Is Launching a Virtual Film Location Cannes: What Ever Happened to Tariffs? Since February 2023, the Fondazione's cinema program has been under the helm of Paolo Moretti, who served as the director of the Cannes Fortnight section. Per the house, Moretti is credited with developing the idea for Fondazione Prada Film Fund and he will be charged with bringing it to fruition. He'll do so while working alongside Rebecca De Pas. Her past tenures include serving as a member of the selection committee at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, as an art consultant for the Viennale, and as co-director of FiDLab from 2009 to 2019. The luxury fashion house, like its peers at Chanel and Saint Laurent, has long shown a commitment to the cinematic arts. Prada's stretches back two decades. 'Cinema is for us a laboratory for new ideas and a space of cultural education,' explained Miuccia Prada, who serves as president and director of the foundation. 'For this reason, we have decided to actively contribute to the realization of new works and to the support of auteur cinema. For over 20 years, the Fondazione has been investigating these languages in different ways, thus advocating a free, demanding, and visionary idea of cinema. Through this fund, we intend to deepen and broaden a dialogue with creation and contemporary experimentation.' Also on the horizon at Prada on the film front: An immersive exhibition conceived by Alejandro González Iñárritu focusing on his 2000 film Amores Perros. The exhibit will be on view from Sept. 18, 2025, through Feb. 26, 2026. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
