Today, Milan Records released the original motion picture soundtrack for the new A24 film [_The Lighthouse_](https://www.instagram.com/lighthousemovie/)_,_ starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Director Robert Eggers and multi-instrumentalist Mark Korven collaborated for the second time as a follow-up to Eggers’ equally mad film, _The Witch_. The score by Mark Korven won the Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 and was nominated fourteen times for Canadian Film and Television Awards. The soundtrack has proven to be vital in the success of the film, leaving viewers with chills and goosebumps.
_The Lighthouse_ is a period piece - “a hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.” This black and white film is undeniably complex and strange, capturing the fascinating dichotomy of humor and distress. As a result of their hard work and experimentation, the intricate score perfectly compliments the wildness of the film.
_The Lighthouse_ premieres today and the album can be streamed [here](http://open.spotify.com/album/2BhIDZrVtzZ5v9xY6KblYJ). A vinyl edition of the soundtrack has been released today via [Sacred Bones Records](https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/) and is available for [purchase.](https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr232-mark-korven-the-lighthouse)
Flaunt had the pleasure of speaking to director Robert Eggers to get a deeper understanding of the creative process that went into the film and his experience working with Mark Korven.
**Your new film, _The Lighthouse_, starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, had a really hypnotic effect on audiences at the Cannes Film Festival. Part of that is because of the captivating soundtrack by Mark Korven. Can you tell us about your collaboration with Korven in capturing the film’s aesthetic with the track “Curse Your Name/Dirty Weather” for your upcoming film?**
We worked together in _The Witch,_ which was great. When I first met Mark, he was very shy, but when I returned to my inbox later that day, Mark had recorded himself playing all kinds of rare instruments including a nyckelharpa and really capturing the 17th century sound that I was looking for. Also, it was clear that he understood the 20th-century dissonant music very well.
**What was the process of creating the score like for you guys?**
When it came to _The Lighthouse_, I initially didn’t want any strings in the score, because _The Witch_ is so string-heavy and the screechy strings had been done too much. Mark, in the beginning, was saying I should put some string textures in there but I went to town exploring this idea of no strings and we started with a very minimalist, aleatoric brass score. We also did glass harmonica and friction mallets rubbing against timbales; anything you could imagine to create ethereal bounds that have to do with the light and the lens of the lighthouse. But, as the score was coming together, I learned that there’s a reason why the screechy dissonant string rises are a part of the musical vocabulary of horror movies and that they just work in a way that nothing else does. We had string players experiment on how to get string textures that didn't quite sound like strings, but had the same effect. Michael Schaefer at New Regency was concerned with the score and suggested that I retry by doing a traditional movie score to support the black and white imagery, but it just didn't work. Schaefer said to ask myself _“when is the obscurity of the music adding to the tension and when is it just weird?”_ Mark and I listen to Stockhausen riding the subway, so it was a helpful guide to reining us in a bit. I did realize that we needed a bit of something to remind us that it looks like an old movie, so we ended up as Mark Korven suggested, adding low string motifs that have the slightest hint of Herman here and there.
Mark Korven
**Where did the idea of two men dissenting into madness come from?**
My brother came up with the concept of a ghost story in a lighthouse and we collaborated on writing this thing and I thought it could be an interesting two-hander about identity, among other things.
**Did Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe fill the roles that you were hoping for or did they transform the characters that you had originally imagined?**
The film, overall, is quite close to my original intentions. Sometimes preconceived notions are sometimes wrong, for example, no strings, but I think by adding the strings, both in moments of high tension and giving a nod to older films, it was needed to further articulate my original intentions. So Will and Rob brought things to the table that wasn’t what I had pictured, but it was because my preconceived notion was wrong.
Courtesy of A24
**_The Lighthouse_ and _The Witch_ are equally mad (in the best way), yet there are obviously big differences between both. What differences did you see through the process of creating them?**
The process was different and the same. I learned a lot doing _The Witch_, my first feature, director of 20th theatre, a couple short films and I've been on set a lot as a production designer and doing other things in the art department. But I've never directed a feature film, so you learn a lot and make adjustments from there. The film does have some similarities story-wise, and some things that aren’t very far apart, but I think it’s not surprising that there are similarities partially in the isolated locations, because it’s more financially feasible to do it that way. So that in itself is going to make things more similar. It takes place in New England, and both films are me trying to commune with the folk culture of my regions. But I think most authors have primal narratives to their work, even good ones like Charles Dickens. He kind of just wrote the same book over and over again but slightly differently.
**What was the main reason you wanted to have this film in black and white?**
I pictured it like that from the beginning as soon as my brother said ‘ghost story in a lighthouse.’ I pictured this black and white crusty, dusty, rusty, musty atmosphere and I think it’s a bleak austere lifestyle and setting, and I don’t think that can be communicated as well in color. Also, the film takes place in the 1890s, and while it’s not necessarily always a good choice to make film black and white, just cause they’re old, I thought for this movie that it would work well.
**What does the lighthouse symbolize? Is the overall movie an allegory for something that you’d like to interpret?**
I sure hope so. I don’t write something going in with an intended message, nor would I want to be bluntly giving answers to an audience. I know that a lot of my members that make this kind of movie wouldn’t be in the scene, but this movie was definitely about provoking questions rather than providing answers.
Courtesy of A24
**How was the experience co-writing the script with your brother?**
It was a blast. He’s my brother, I love him! I’ve written many scripts by myself and I wrote this in a TV pilot with my brother, which was very enjoyable. I’m enjoying collaborating right now. There's something about passing the drafts back and forth that is really joyful.
**How did you share ideas and decide what works and what doesn’t?**
Yeah, I mean in order to co-write, it’s helpful to have someone be in charge. Of course, it’s easy for me to say that because I am the one in charge. I think film is an incredibly collaborative process, and as a director, unless you are Ridley Scott, you pretty much are always going to be the least experienced person on set. If you’ve made 5 films as a featured-film director, that’s a formidable career. Part of your job as a director is to know when to listen to all the people around you who know more than you and when you need to reinvent the wheel.
**I know that your writing is research-based, why is that important for you? How do you go about your research?**
I am doing period pieces, so I enjoy the act of research. Researching is a means to an end, creating a specific atmosphere and world. I also just enjoy the act of researching. I don’t think I would do a contemporary movie, because I am more interested in exploring who we are, where we are going, and where we come from. So all the writing and creation comes from doing a tremendous amount of reading and looking at photos, paintings, and building a world.
**I like that you explored the idea of finding humor in distress. Where do you draw the line between the two?**
You can probably laugh at anything in the right context. I don't know if we've walked the tightrope well, but we were certainly trying to. _The Witch_ takes stuff very seriously, which it needs to in order to work, but I thought if I could explore misery again, I’d like to do it with humor.
**What was the most challenging part while filming? What was the most difficult scene to have come to life?**
Every scene was really hard, honestly. The black and white 35mm negative takes a lot of light to get exposure. The scene work between the actors was really tense, and the exterior work was hard. It’s not worth it to be complaining about because we all knew what we were signing up for. We were signing up to be punished by mother nature. Nothing was easy, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t fun.
**Album Track List:**
Arrival
Sonovabitch
Cistern / Old on Lens
Swab Dog Swab / Seagull / Winslow's Story
Curse Your Name / Dirty Weather
Murder / Mermaid / Heavy Labour
Stranded
The Sea King's Fury
Mermaid Lust / Stabbing the Charm
Why'd Ya Spill Yer Beans?
Filthy Dog
The Light Belongs to Me
Into the Light
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