Following Madonna’s marching orders

From Variety.com:

Madonna has more than a few things in common with Tom Ford beyond their mutual love of fashion. Both took on the challenge of filmmaking from the pinnacle of other creative expressions: his from couture, hers from pop. And Ford’s influence on Madonna’s sophomore directorial effort, “W.E.,” about the scandalous love affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, is evident in the film’s Vogue-magazine visuals, exquisite costumes and Abel Korzeniowski‘s hypnotic music.

Madonna knew she wanted Korzeniowski to score “W.E.” -which alternates between the royals circa ’30s/’40s England and a modern-day New Yorker, Wally (Abbie Cornish), obsessed with their romance – from the get-go. After all, she had temp-tracked Korzeniowski’s music from Ford’s “A Single Man” into the film’s rough cut, and the “Single” score had already been referenced early on in the screenplay she co-wrote with Alek Keshishian. So when Korzeniowski got the call last December, as “W.E.” was in the early stages of post-production, it was a fait accompli.

“She basically interviewed Tom about me, how it is to work with me, and apparently she got a greenlight from Tom,” recalls Korzeniowski about their initial meeting in L.A.

Madonna tells Variety when she saw Ford’s film, she was struck by the score’s “bittersweet” qualities, “this melancholic, romantic, sweeping emotional kind of heartbreaking beauty.”

These very qualities are evident in “W.E.” – concerned as it is with obsessive romance – with its aggressive use of strings accented by electric guitar, harp, viola and, in its quieter moments, piano. This combination of traditional and modern instrumentation seamlessly bridges the movie’s two worlds.

Read the full interview on Variety.com.