Cyprus State Orchestra one day, international film soundtrack the next. It can be hectic playing the bassoon
“THE obvious question,” as I said to Miriam Butler, “is how does a bassoon player with the Cyprus State Orchestra end up getting involved with Abel Ferrara’s new movie?”
That’s what Miriam is, you see – a bassoonist, playing in Cyprus for the past couple of years. As for Abel Ferrara… well, you may not recognise the name but chances are you’ve heard of Driller Killer, his 1979 exploitation film that became notorious as one of the UK’s first ‘video nasties’. Or perhaps Bad Lieutenant (1992), with a stark-naked Harvey Keitel crying “I’ve done so many bad things!” to a vision of Jesus. And now he (Ferrara, not Harvey) has made Mary, which premiered last week at the Venice Festival and stars Juliette Binoche as an actress who becomes obsessed with Mary Magdalene. To quote festival programmer Sean Farnel in the Toronto Star: “I doubt the Pope will be blurbing this one”.
So how did Miriam end up in Rome, recording a bassoon-heavy score for Ferrara and composer Francis Kuipers? Disappointingly, the answer doesn’t involve clandestine meetings in dingy alleyways or midnight abductions from the Strovolos Municipal Theatre. She and Kuipers collaborated on a documentary in her pre-Cyprus days – Miriam is Australian and peripatetic, having lived in Germany and Italy as well as a year in New York – and he specifically asked for her to play on the Mary score. Simple as that.
And how was the notorious Abel? “Incredible,” gushes Miriam, sounding momentarily like a starstruck teeny-bopper. “Full of energy… a very brilliant person”. Among other things, Ferrara loves music, and the two of them jammed together in the intervals between recording – he on guitar, she on bassoon – though he’s into bluegrass and other Deep South music while her background is strictly classical. And what about his, shall we say, flaky reputation? Well, replies Miriam diplomatically, you can’t make the kinds of films he makes unless you’re “a bit beyond the ordinary”.
The new film seems to be par for the course, taking in spiritual revelation and a look at the Gnostic Gospels (also known as ‘The Secret Teachings of Jesus’). Will it shock people? “It’s a film every person should interpret for themselves,” she says cagily, though admitting the look is harsh and far from glossy. Like The Passion of the Christ (but probably unlike Da Vinci Code), it’s made from the heart: Ferrara is a traumatised product of Catholic school, while Juliette Binoche’s “soulmate” is a theologian and one of the translators of the Gnostic Gospels. What’s a soulmate? “Oh, you know – soulmate,” says Miriam, as if all movie stars have soulmates on tap the way they have chefs and masseurs. Maybe they do.
One thing she can say for sure is that the soundtrack has a lot of bassoon. Ferrara was delighted with the sound, though he couldn’t always remember its name. “Put some more of That Instrument in!” he’d happily instruct during the final mix – a massive operation requiring all kinds of playback and a dozen technicians on mixing-decks. I’m not even sure what bassoon sounds like, I admit shamefacedly. Kind of like an oboe, yes? “Like a cello version of the oboe,” nods Miriam, with the air of someone who has to explain these things a lot. “Sonorous and velvety… It’s a very earthy instrument.”
It’s significant that Ferrara – who once described Mary as “a search for the heart of my religious upbringing” – decided to go with bassoon as opposed to heavenly choirs and the like; “gritty” (as opposed to ethereal) is the word Miriam uses to describe the effect. So far, it seems to be working. After Venice, the film plays the Toronto Festival, and has also been invited to San Sebastian next month. Miriam – who had to miss Venice because of an Orchestra tour in Patmos – hopes to attend, planning to meet up with the friends she made in Rome. Will she ever work with Ferrara again? “I certainly hope so!”
Does all this excitement make her feel a bit isolated in Cyprus, I wonder? After all, it’s not quite New York. She laughs as if to say ‘good question’, but assures me her job offers “a lot of flexibility”; besides, there are films here as well – she’s about to start work on a documentary about music in Cyprus. It’s not where you live, it’s what you do with it. “The essence of everything is understanding, looking, going beyond,” says the girl with That Instrument, growing philosophical. Talk about spiritual revelation.
