When approached by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal to compose an original score for a silent film from the National Film Board of Canada, I was immediately drawn to Peter Foldès’s 1974 film Hunger. Its distinct, surreal imagery and powerful social commentary struck me as remarkably relevant, even decades after its release. In the film, Foldès explores the grotesqueness of excess, greed, inequality, and the objectification of women. The film can be read as a critique against gluttony and how our obsessions can have self-devouring tendencies.

Though the film is at times disturbing, it is also interspersed with surprisingly comical, even beautiful, moments. I immediately began imagining how I might translate the film’s unique morphing quality—made possible by early experiments in computer animation—into malleable orchestral music. Part way through the creative process, I decided to add a featured improvised drum set part, performed by Michel Lambert at the world premiere. This role became an essential thread throughout the work, bringing energy and spontaneity to the score (much like the improvised music of silent films in the early 20th-century). It also connects the music more viscerally to the film’s urban, retro aesthetic. In addition to being drawn to the experimentalism of Foldès’s animation aesthetic, the film’s clarity of form also appealed to me. The transparent delineation of the boldly coloured backdrops and the use of repetition (or parallel scenes) suggested to me a useful structure from which to build my composition. I analysed the film closely, viewing it hundreds of times, breaking it down into scenes and building a structure that echoed its form without resorting to a literal, one-to-one synchronization. Though I wanted certain points to intersect in a precise and conscious way with the film, other moments are intended to create a push and pull between the sound world and Foldès’s work.

While composing for film was a new territory for me, this work feels like a natural extension of my past interdisciplinary artistic expression. Hunger challenged my creativity and I’m grateful to have had the chance to reimagine this remarkable film through sound.

Zosha Di Castri