[In Latin] “What is the hymn you are whistling?”
[In Latin] “Dancing Queen… By ABBA.”
Fernando Meirelles’ The Two Popes, available on Netflix, is a study in contrast. The above dialogue, in which the central characters briefly discuss 1970s Europop using Ecclesiastical Latin, just about sums up their relationship.
The “Dancing Queen” returns two scenes later, marching the College of Cardinals into the Sistine Chapel for the first round of voting in the 2005 papal conclave. In 2012, Meirelles’ plot revisits the Sistine Chapel. This time, a free jazz saxophone solo fills the room, punctuated by a pipe organ playing plagal cadences (the kind that sigh “A…men” at the end of a hymn).
Most film soundtracks fade into the background, out of the way, speaking up only when it serves to echo and emphasize the existing mood of a scene. Sometimes, audiences don’t notice the soundtrack at all because it blends so well with the rest of the movie. In such cases, the director made the mistake of repeatedly choosing the cue that “best fits” each scene.” How boring!
Happily, Bryce Dessner’s soundtrack in The Two Popes is a different story.
In music, “counterpoint” refers to a dialogue between voices. It comes in two basic varieties: “parallel motion,” in which the voices trace the same path up or down; and “contrary motion,” in which they move in opposite directions. Counterpoint is one of the most important forces across all musical styles, and good “contrapuntal” music tends to use liberal amounts of both parallel and contrary motion.
Film and film music are most impactful when they work in varied counterpoint. A soundtrack lapses into insipidity when restricted to parallelism, aping the onscreen action without expressing original ideas of its own. In great films, the visual and audio elements of film interact like two individual characters. They sometimes agree, but each remains free to challenge the other, asking an occasional contrarian question.
Whether playing jazz in the Sistine Chapel or tranquilizing angry protesters with Debussy’s Claire de Lune, Dessner and Meirelles enjoy a healthy repartee throughout The Two Popes. In fact, Dessner was invited to Rome during filming, and “began composing in the room with the actors and crew,” as if he were developing his character along with the rest of the cast.
What results is a compelling relationship between film and film music to rival that of the two title characters themselves.
“…Ah! Das ist gut… ABBA.”