The Courier, directed by Dominic Cooke and scored by Abel Korzeniowski, is receiving Oscar buzz!
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley and Merab Ninidze and tells the true story of Cold War spy Greville Wynne and his Russian source, who try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Korzeniowski stated that his main inspiration for the score was the “constant anxiety, relentless suppression and grotesque absurdity embedded in everyday life behind the Cold War’s Iron Curtain. Since I lived that life myself, having grown up in communist Poland, this is still very personal. The sound is raw and rough at times, like a concrete wall of the prefabricated social housing of that period. For the sake of authenticity, we recorded in a large, old scoring stage in Warsaw with Orchestra Sinfonia Varsovia, which infused it with the characteristically expressive and emotional Eastern-European sound. My music follows the impossible transformation of Greville Wynne, from an average, money-oriented businessman, to a selfless hero, from a five-bedroom house in Chelsea, to a Soviet prison cell.”
Movie Music UK stated that “The core of the score is a waltz” which “Korzeniowski hasn’t written with this sort of classical sound in years, and it’s a wonderfully evocative piece, rich and lush, which perfectly encapsulates the concept of spycraft and espionage as being akin to a dance, full of moving pieces and requiring expert timing to achieve.”
The Courier—Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is available digitally via Lakeshore Records.
Click here to read the Movie Music UK article
Click here to listen to the soundtrack