Words by Joe Williams

Lila Neugebauer has established herself as one of America's most revered theatre directors, having directed plays off and on Broadway, winning multiple awards and receiving considerable acclaim for the way in which she stages productions.

As co-Artist Director of New York-based theatre company The Mad Ones, she has demonstrated a deft ability for directing ensemble work. By populating the stage with a multitude of unique and three-dimensional characters, Lila utilises a rich and varied cast to tell a story - which is why her first foray into filmmaking is so striking and surprising.

Causeway is at its heart a character study, focusing almost entirely on one character - Lynsey, portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence - and her journey to recovery following a life-changing injury whilst on tour in Afghanistan. Rather than incorporate the distinct musical history of the film's setting of New Orleans into the score, Neugebauer by contrast allows the city's sounds to be represented diegetically.

The score, on the other hand - composed by Alex Somers - is designed to be expressive of Lynsey's soul, emanating from within the picture rather than simply sitting on top of it. Lila explains how she and Alex worked together to create the sonic journey which is so integral to the film's identity.

Coming from the world of theatre, was working with a composer a new experience for you or was that something you’ve dealt with before?

I have collaborated with composers in the theatre. I have had the great pleasure of working with some really remarkable music makers - I worked with the composer Gabriel Kahane on a revival of this Kenny Lonergan play, The Waverly Gallery, that I did on broadway. I’ve also worked with some New York-based composers: Justin Ellington, Dan Kluger, and Bray Poor… that said, creating a film score is its own undertaking. I would say the intimacy of that collaboration - the process of getting so deep inside the work, together - felt new. There are absolutely commonalities in those conversations, of course, but the project of using the score to get inside a character's soul — was revelatory.

How did you and composer Alex Somers go about shaping the identity of the score?

I had known Alex’s work for some time before I reached out to him about the film. I was familiar with his ongoing collaboration with Jónsi and Sigur Rós, he’s also produced an incredible range of musicians - I then encountered this set of companion albums: Siblings, and Siblings 2.

I was stopped in my tracks by these albums - I was intensely moved and I recognised the soul and the heartbeat of the film in that music. I reached out to Alex, not being in touch with him before - and sent him a rough, incomplete cut of the film. He is one of the first people that saw an incomplete cut of the first half of the film, with no temp tracks.

Was it all nerve-wracking, shooting the picture without having any idea of how the score might sound?

Candidly, no - perhaps because I’d never done it before. Also because I was listening to the music of the acting; I was listening to the meters, the rhythms of the characters inner logic and of the dialogue. Also New Orleans as a place, diegetically, is so sonically rich that, whilst we were shooting, I was more concerned with embedding myself in the sonic landscape of that place. 

Once I’d sent Alex the cut we spoke and his immediate insight into the character’s inner life was so striking; it revealed such kinship with the project, the conversation was so natural and our instincts were tremendously aligned. I already knew how moved I was by his music - so that’s how we began.

Did you find the score informing the storytelling at all, or shape the scenes in ways you hadn’t imagined - or was it more a case of placing tracks in as you had always planned?

Alex’s score is used very deliberately and - relatively speaking - somewhat sparingly. We don’t score dialogue scenes. That was very intentional and felt intuitive to both of us early on in the process. We did a bit of trial and error and exploring - to do our due diligence - but our initial instincts tracked to the end of the process. I think that Alex’s music reinforced many of my pacing instincts - the film is patient. It's in its own way steady - until it's not.

There is, at least initially, a fairly legato aspect to the score. I would say that the way that Alex approached the sonic architecture of the film encouraged my convictions about how to pace it.

There’s one track, mid-way through the film, which is distinct in how melodic it is compared to the rest of the score. What was the thought behind this?

We worked very closely with our music editor, Katherine Miller, who also produced and did additional mixing for the score. She’s a long-time collaborator with Alex, and - like Alex - someone I hope to work with for the rest of my life. That score, that moment, that passage - is a mix, a reimagining that incorporates stems from a piece on the Siblings collection called Tell Star (For Joe Meek) - and a series of cello parts that Alex wrote for the film. When I listened to that album on that track - I knew I had to hire him.

So, both Alex and Katherine built that piece utilising stems from the original track. And then this cellist called Gyða Valtýsdóttir, who’s a hugely accomplished Icelandic musician - Alex has long-standing relationships with tremendous musicians - is playing Alex’s cello parts. Her cello playing, plus Katherine mixing stems from Tell Star, equals that particular track. It’s been such an education for me. I grew up playing classical piano - but scoring this film has shown me the way a soul of a musician is conveyed. I’ve had that encounter before, of course, witnessing live music, but to watch it come to life in your own film - there’s an additional kind of magic in that.

What’s your perfect listening environment?

I’m a big fan of the old-fashioned way of listening to music: listening to an album and artist mix from beginning to end, the way they’d like you to hear it. There’s a journey that an artist is inviting you to take when they create an album, and to the best of my ability, within the constraints of life and time, I want to fully experience that journey I’ve been invited to take.

What was the last album you listened to? 

It was a Sylvan Esso album. That was two nights ago. But I'll confess I was cooking - so I was doing something - but I still listened to it from beginning to end.

Going forward for your next project, is there anything you’d want to do differently regarding the score, or another avenue you’d like to explore?

I would like to bring the composer on earlier.

Causeway is available NOW on Apple TV+