After collaborating on the score for Prehistoric Planet, Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve were tasked with composing the music, now nominated for two Emmys, for The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the TV adaptation of Heather Morris’ novel of the same name. The story follows a Slovak Jew who was imprisoned at Auschwitz and fell in love with a girl he was tattooing in the concentration camp.
Here, the composers talk about Talve’s personal connection to the story, the challenges of tackling such difficult subject matter and working with Barbra Streisand on the finale song.
Kara, tell me about your connection to this story.
KARA TALVE My grandma’s story is really what brought me to this project. When she was 9 years old, the Nazis invaded Paris, and there was a knock on her door, and the Nazis were there with a list, and they had every single family member on the list except hers, and so her mother pushed her out of the way. She said, “She’s not on your list, so you have no business with her.” They took the whole family to Auschwitz, and she was left there alone. She escaped through the fire escape and ran to her piano teacher’s flat. Her teacher was working with the French resistance at the time, so she was hiding my grandma and several other Jews and passing them off as her children. Because of that, she survived the war, and she took piano lessons with that teacher, and that very piano that she had during that time — when she came back to the States, she brought the piano with her — now lives in my studio. This is the piano that you hear throughout the score.
HANS ZIMMER It’s authentic. … By Kara having access to that piano that saw everything that went on, there was a piece that I felt was very important that could be taken into the story with great authenticity.
How did you both get into the mindset of composing for such an emotional story?
ZIMMER I can say what I said to you: “Kara, don’t be sentimental.” I think that was about the only comment I made, because one of the things that I love about what Kara does is she has an extraordinary courage to go and play it straight and not make it all that easy on the listener, either, and be committed to being daring. And I’m now overstepping greatly, but in a peculiar way, that feistiness, that courage, I think, is a way of honoring her grandmother.
TALVE You’re right. The show itself has this really important message of defiance. Lali and Gita’s relationship is this act of defiance. So the music itself had to highlight that. And what Hans said at the beginning of the project stuck with me so profoundly. At first, I didn’t know what he was talking about, but soon I started to understand the difference between being sentimental and emotional. It’s such a difference, and being illustrative in this show or over the top or epic immediately felt wrong and disrespectful.
How did you both collaborate on this? What was the process?
ZIMMER I’m realizing as we are doing this interview, that one of the huge advantages that Kara and I have is that we can communicate in a language that is beyond words. Because when you start trying to talk about a project that involves the Holocaust, words suddenly seem to be vulgar. You can’t describe the depth that you need to get to. There’s huge respect that I have for the book and the story, and there’s a huge respect I have for the filmmaker. Kara, you need to tell me if you think I’m completely off my rocker here, but I do find that some of the things that are so unmentionable and unspeakable and so beyond our imagination can sometimes only be expressed in that language that Kara and I have, even though Theodor Adorno did say that after Auschwitz, there’s no more place for music or poetry. I think as human beings, it’s just our duty to keep struggling against the darkness.
What were some challenges you faced with this production?
TALVE Just the thought of starting this score was a challenge. I think when Tali [Shalom-Ezer, the director] came to us, immediately, my response was, “I don’t feel that I can do that.” Writing music about this harrowing topic that also means so much to both of us, it’s a lot of pressure, and there’s this fear that we’re going to tell the story wrong. I think the whole production had this fear the whole time, and that’s what made us second guess every decision we made.
ZIMMER It’s so easy to make music that pushes all those sentimental buttons; it’s much harder to write music that can stand on its own two feet and authentically opens a door and just says, “Feel — I am giving you an opportunity to have an experience and to have the autonomy to have the experience.” You have the duty to tackle the subject and not let it be forgotten, and on the other hand, everybody needs to fall to their knees before the task. You have to go at it with the most unbelievable humility and just know that you have to do the task, because nobody else is going to do it.
Was there any hesitation to be part of this when you were first approached?
ZIMMER It doesn’t matter what it is, I always think I’m not worthy. I’ve done so many movies, and each movie is the same thing. It’s just the glare of the blank page staring at me, thinking, “There’s no way
you can do this. You should just go and give the director the phone number of somebody who can.” Of
course, it gets heightened when you have something like this.
TALVE It’s actually comforting to hear this coming from Hans Zimmer, isn’t it? Every time I write any music, I’m in such pain. I don’t know how people love writing music so much. For me, it’s absolutely painful, but I think that helps make a product.
ZIMMER Here’s the thing: I hope we did OK. That’s all you can do at the end of the day. I hope we are capable of giving people an autonomous experience, but invite them into this extraordinary world, which is horrifying and at the same time, a glorious, incredible love story.
At what point did Barbra Streisand join the show?
TALVE We were on a Zoom that [music producer] Russell [Emanuel] couldn’t make. This is a man that’s [usually] on every single call with us. We were talking about what we’re going to do for the episode six end credits, and we spoke of somebody singing the love theme with lyrics, and the showrunners said, “It needs to be an iconic Jewish person who can represent this type of ending of the show.” We all immediately knew, “So we’re talking about Barbra Streisand right now.” Then I had to tell Russell that he needs to call Barbra Streisand. He looked at me like he wanted to kill me. But he’s amazing and the shepherd of the whole thing.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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