美国国家公共电台 NPR Classical Music Captures A Young Wife's Anxiety In 'On Chesil Beach'

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

To another newlyweds story and the story of two newlyweds who clash and connect over their differing musical tastes on their honeymoon 1 night. This is the new film "On Chesil Beach." It is based on the 2007 novel by British author Ian McEwan, who's adapted it for the screen. As Tim Greiving reports, it is a story about repression 2 and how music expresses what words and bodies cannot.

TIM GREIVING, BYLINE 3: "On Chesil Beach" opens with a cocksure Edward, played by Billy Howle, mansplaining the blues 4 to his new wife Florence, played by Saoirse Ronan, who has much more sophisticated tastes.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ON CHESIL BEACH")

BILLY HOWLE: (As Edward) So we're in E.

SAOIRSE RONAN: (As Florence) The tonic 5.

HOWLE: (As Edward) No, E.

RONAN: (As Florence) All right, E.

HOWLE: (As Edward) So four bars of that. You know the sort of thing. (Singing) Woke up this morning, head felt so bad. Then into A.

RONAN: (As Florence) The subdominant.

HOWLE: (As Edward, singing) Woke up this morning, head felt so bad - same thing, different chord. See?

RONAN: (As Florence) Neat. Tricky 6.

GREIVING: It's a lighthearted moment on their wedding night when music reveals their differences. But director Dominic Cooke, a veteran of theater making his feature film debut 7, says as the story goes on, music becomes an outlet 8 for both pain and passion.

DOMINIC COOKE: It's about a very particular moment, a particular moment in a couple's life but also a particular moment in history - 1962, before the kind of revolution of the '60s kicked in and Britain was still stuck in a very sort of repressed, austere 9 time. And so it's how these young kids navigate 10 their way through such a kind of difficult and stuffy 11 atmosphere.

GREIVING: In the novel, Ian McEwan made music an integral part of the story because as he told NPR in 2007...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

IAN MCEWAN: My life is absolutely permeated 12 by music. And it's part of my own mental furniture, so it often ends up being part of the fate, destiny of my own characters to be either musicians or for music to be something of a key to their character, really.

GREIVING: On screen, viewers see Saoirse Ronan as Florence, a talented violinist with a string quartet. They hear her played by Esther Yoo, a rising star in the classical world.

ESTHER YOO: I got the book, and I read it very thoroughly 13, paying very close attention especially to Florence's character and her relationship with her instrument and what music means to her and how it makes her feel, especially in contrast to her relationship with Edward often.

(SOUNDBITE OF ESTHER YOO PERFORMANCE OF BACH'S "PARTITA FOR VIOLIN SOLO NO. 3 IN E MAJOR, BWV 1006")

GREIVING: Yoo plays selections by Bach, Schubert and Mozart, many of them pieces written into McEwan's script accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She also plays original music by English composer Dan Jones.

DAN JONES: And I sort of love the way that Ian has written the music absolutely into the fabric 14, the sort of DNA 15 of the existence of these characters.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAN JONES' "DATE ON THE RIVER")

JONES: The music I write almost feels like a - not a sideshow, but it feels like it was wanting just to create some space around the intensity 16 and beauty and focus of this classical music which is just so important and written into the film.

GREIVING: In the film, we see the actress appearing to play the violin. But director Dominic Cooke says it took some training.

COOKE: One hand was very accurate. The other hand...

(LAUGHTER)

COOKE: ...I don't want to give the game away - was slightly less so. But, yeah, she learned all the onscreen passages as best she could.

GREIVING: She does OK, says Esther Yoo.

YOO: As a violinist, there are several movies out there where you kind of watch the scenes where there's a string player and cringe (laughter) at the end result. But I have to say that in this film it's been done very well.

(SOUNDBITE DAN JONES' "FEAR OF SEX")

GREIVING: Yoo performed all of the violin solos on the soundtrack, expressing the emotional and spiritual voice of the restrained Florence.

YOO: For Dan's pieces it was definitely very, very important to keep Florence's headspace and all the emotions that she couldn't express verbally - a lot of that came out through the music she played. And Dan did an amazing job of translating that into his music, that inner anxiety and inner fear and trauma 17.

(SOUNDBITE DAN JONES' "FEAR OF SEX")

GREIVING: Esther Yoo was cast like another actor, and director Dominic Cooke says she performed like one.

COOKE: It's a kind of reminder 18 about what being an artist is because I could give a note which was kind of like a note I'd give to an actor about a feeling, and Esther would take that, play the same piece completely differently...

YOO: (Laughter).

COOKE: ...Whilst being very accurate musically. I thought that was so interesting because it makes you realize how much of the person is in the sound. It's not just about the music itself, the instrument and the skillful playing of that. It's to do with the soul of the person and how that comes out.

GREIVING: Maybe the soul of a girl who loves Beethoven and the soul of a boy who loves Chuck Berry just weren't meant to be. For NPR News, I'm Tim Greiving in Los Angeles.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAN JONES' "SOLEMN LOVE")