Show Notes
Jonathan Glazer’s film The Zone of Interest follows the daily life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss’s family, who have built a seemingly idyllic life in a house next door to the camp. While viewers watch the monotony of family life, the horror occurring behind the back fence plays out entirely on the soundtrack. That unsettling soundscape was built by sound designer Johnnie Burn, who spent nearly a year compiling an archive of testimony, historical research and field recordings to construct what became, in effect, a second, unseen film running beneath the visible one. Johnnie earned the 2024 Academy Award for Best Sound for his work on the film, which has since been held up as a landmark in the use of sound as narrative in its own right. In this episode of Masterpieces, Johnnie reflects on that year building the soundscape, the effects it had on his personal life, and how his work on the film has shifted what directors now ask of him.
Hosted and produced by Caitlin Hennessy. Creative direction by Marie-Amélie Sauvé. Editorial direction by Jeremy Olds. Original song and sound engineering by Simon Benesch. Artwork by Image Worldwide. Special thanks to Cartier.
More from Masterpieces
Every world in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things began on the drawing board of production designer James Price. Adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, the film follows Bella Baxter played by Emma Stone – a young woman brought back to life with the brain of a child by an unconventional scientist – as she runs away with a lawyer to explore the world. Working alongside co-designer Shona Heath, the pair built a series of vivid stylized worlds for Bella to move through as she grows up: from a gothic Victorian London townhouse, to a candy colored fantastical Lisbon, an Art Deco ocean liner, and a dreamlike Paris - each reflecting a new stage in Bella’s awakening. The results swept the 2024 awards season, culminating in an Academy Award for Best Production Design, one of four Oscars the film took home. In this episode of Masterpieces, James reflects on building Poor Things from the ground up with Shona, converting Yorgos Lantimos’s dream into reality and what it takes to make an audience accept a world with its own logic. Hosted and produced by Caitlin Hennessy. Creative direction by Marie-Amélie Sauvé. Editorial direction by Jeremy Olds. Original song and sound engineering by Simon Benesch. Artwork by Image Worldwide. Special thanks to Cartier.
Twenty years ago, Sofia Coppola released her third film, Marie Antoinette. Its initial reception was famously divisive, but two decades on the film has undergone a significant reappraisal. It’s now widely regarded as a timeless portrait of a teenage girl thrust into an impossible role, and one of the great cinematic studies of girlhood. For the debut episode of Masterpieces, Caitlin Hennessy met Sofia in the Petit Trianon in Versailles, which was once Marie Antoinette’s own refuge, ahead of an exhibition dedicated to the film. Masterpieces is presented in collaboration with Cartier, a natural extension of the Maison’s longstanding devotion to the magic and craft of cinema. Hosted and produced by Caitlin Hennessy. Creative direction by Marie-Amélie Sauvé. Editorial direction by Jeremy Olds. Original song and sound engineering by Simon Benesch. Artwork by Image Worldwide. Special thanks to Cartier.
Welcome to Masterpieces, a podcast by Mastermind Magazine that pulls back the curtain on the making of some of film and television's most enduring works, told by the people who made them.