A few weeks ago, Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson were unhappy to learn that some of their work appeared in Melania, Brett Ratner's recent documentary feature/propaganda piece/expensive corporate favor about current sitting US First Lady Melania Trump. Apparently, the film uses Greenwood's Oscar-nominates score from the Anderson film Phantom Thread. In a statement, Greenwood and Anderson said that they weren't consulted on licensing the music and that its use constitutes "a breach of [Greenwood's] composer agreement." They asked for the music to be removed. Melania producer Marc Beckman has some thoughts on that.
Marc Beckman is Melania Trump's senior advisor and manager. He's not a film producer by trade. Maybe that's why Beckman felt so free to talk to Variety about the soundtrack-clearance headaches that went into the making of Melania. Beckman tells Variety, "There was music that we tried to get, but sadly, there were politics to it." Imagine that. Politics.
Regarding the Jonny Greenwood situation, Beckman had this to say:
It’s funny — Radiohead is one of my all-time favorite bands. For them to have come out publicly and distanced themselves, I think that’s just part of the unfortunate time we’re living in. We went out and created a nice film that doesn’t get into any kind of political policy or anything like that. The music at that moment is so perfect, honestly, I was so thrilled to be able to use it. Obviously, my background is as a lawyer. We work with the best lawyers; this is Melania Trump. We spent top dollars for all that music, and we’re thrilled to have that song included in the film. If they’re trying to distance themselves from us, for political reasons, that’s just unfortunate. But, honestly, I’ll still remain a fan and listen to their music every single day.
As it happens, Greenwood expressed similar sentiments in a Times interview last week, saying, "I think music and art should be above and beyond political concerns." That's a funny sentiment when you're dealing with this Melania situation and when you also just scored One Battle After Another, a film that is not above or beyond political concerns. But that's Jonny Greenwood for you.
Anyway, Marc Beckman says that Greenwood's music will not be removed: "Please tell him he’s welcome to call me if he wishes to discuss. But that song is in the film forever, regardless of the infrastructure which delivers the content."
Beckman also describes the scene in which Greenwood's Phantom Thread music appears, and it involves Donald Trump's creative process:
That edgy, kind of nailbiting music right at that moment is so perfect. It’s in that scene where Melania Trump walks in on the president and she helps him on his inaugural speech. He says “peacemaker,” and she says, “peacemaker and unifier,” and then that extends into him using her language at the inauguration. It was so good. [Radiohead are] so talented — incredible music. But I’m very proud of what we did with the music in the entire film. It wasn’t easy. People do get political, so it’s incredible that we’re able to get the Rolling Stones and Elvis and Michael Jackson and even the song that we created, “Melania’s Waltz” [by composer Tony Neiman]. I think we really pulled it off as far as the music goes.
Beckman was nice enough to identify some of the artists who said no to having their songs in the Melania movie. Here's the esteemed list:
Guns N' Roses. "The guys from Guns N' Roses split down the middle politically. There was a beautiful song we wanted to use, and one of the guys — I don't want to name, it's not fair — said, 'You got it. Go.' And the other one was basically like, 'There's just no way.'... Guns N' Roses was definitely a disappointment for us; we all have a lot of respect for Guns N' Roses." (I have a sinking feeling that Slash is the one who was OK with it, but I hope I'm wrong.)
Grace Jones. "There was a song that we wanted to use from Grace Jones; obviously, also a tremendous amount of respect for her. She apparently couldn't get over the political hurdle, notwithstanding the fact that the film is not a political film. So that was disappointing, too. It's disappointing when people put politics so far ahead, and that happened a little bit with the film, for sure."
Prince's estate. "We were ready to go, and this lawyer that manages the estate was like, 'Prince would never want his song associated with Donald Trump.' And we're like, 'But it's not a Donald Trump film! He comes into the movie once in a while, but this is all about Melania. It's not political.' And that guy blocked it. It's so ridiculous." (There have been documentary-related reasons to be upset with Prince's estate recently. In my opinion, this is not one of them.)
Beckman had more success getting the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" into the movie. He says. "Mick Jagger was actually involved. He gave us his blessing, and we were thrilled about that one. We worked very close with them on that. That wasn’t something that we just pulled out. And that wasn’t a political thing. With the Stones, they were just like, 'Oh, you’re making a nice movie.' They were able to get over the hurdle." You can read the full Variety interview here.
Some of the songs that did get clearance to appear in Melania, at least according to IMDB, are James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World," the Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me," Boney M.'s "Sunny," Elvis Presley's "An American Trilogy," Sylvie Vartan's "La Maritza," Giorgio Moroder's "Chase," Ennio Morricone's "Elegy For Brown," and Aretha Franklin's version of "Amazing Grace." Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" reportedly also appears, which honestly seems far too on the nose. Melania Trump reportedly sings a little bit of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" in the movie. He's her favorite artist. She listens to "all kinds of music," including Miley Cyrus.
