SCORING THE RICARDOS A Celebrated British Composer Evokes Lucy and Desi’s American Dream
Composer Daniel Pemberton’s lush and romantic orchestral score for Being the Ricardos evokes the Golden Age of Hollywood, with all its glamour and longing for a better, more perfect world. Pemberton captures the film’s rich and complex range of emotions and timeless elegance, using a 69 -piece orchestra recorded at Abbey Road Studio One in London. “Even though the story at its core is about the relationship between two people, it’s also about something somuch bigger,” Pemberton says. “So we got the biggest orchestra we could get into a studio during COVID. I wanted to remind audiences of how big a star Lucille Ball was. I wanted a score that would represent the world in which she and Desi lived.” The idea of dreams, he says, is central to the film and the score, and Ball’s dream of having a home and a family is at the top of the list. “But in some ways, it is also about the American
Dream and a moment in time when it was probably at its most potent,” according to Pemberton. “ I Love Lucy is a cultural touchstone in America and so is the story of Lucille and Desi, who both came to Hollywood with very little and became stars. I wanted to reconnect the audience with that sense of emotion and hope, with the dream of a simpler time that might not ever have really existed.” Perhaps the most challenging but crucial element for the score was to help transport the audience inside Ball’s creative process. While the film does re-create some classic moments from the television series, Sorkin was adamant that the scenes weren’t there for comic relief. “He wanted them to showcase Lucille’s creative genius and hard work. The music was a big part of trying to make it all feel effortless. As with her comedy, a lot of effort goes into making something feel effortless.”
When Desi Arnaz wants to be whisked away to his native Cuba, all he has to do is drape his luxurious, loose-fit silk suit over his lithe frame and the next thing you know he’s hearing the distant beat of congas and bongos beating down his door. Part silk, part smooth, all man! Slip on the true style of Cuba and soon the ladies will be lining up at your Havana cabana before you can say “hola!”
SOUND DECISIONS
Award-Winning Sound Editor Renée Tondelli Helps Usher Audiences Into the Mind of a Comedy Genius
and even in Lucille Ball ’s imagination. The job of creating distinct sonic landscapes for each of these settings went to supervising sound editor Renée Tondelli, whose work on Aaron Sorkin’s previous f ilm, The Trial of the Chicago 7 , earned her a Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) Golden Reel Award. One of the thorniest questions facing Tondelli was how to signal the transitions out of the writers’ room and into Ball ’s mind’s eye as the actress visualizes proposed scenes for upcoming episodes of her sitcom. “Lucy has this uncanny gift of knowing whether the audience is going to laugh at a gag or not,” explains Tondelli. “We talked about how to make a sonic change from the room where they’re pitching her an idea, into her head where she imagines herself on set performing it, and then back to reality.” Tondelli and her team presented Sorkin with numerous approaches before hitting on a solution. “One of the things we ended up doing was diminishing and dissolving the sound of the scene with all the people talking to her and then going into her head with various reverbs, reverse reverbs and sound effects before centering on the imagined set, where we change the sound pressure of the audience and ambience.” For the transition back to reality, Tondelli says she used a sharp sound, like the f lick of a Zippo lighter or a music cut. “Something that would snap us out and then we would go back into another transition. It was one of our big challenges as far as sound design and a lot of fun to work on.”
The central drama of Being the Ricardos unfolds during a single week in 1952 . But the story also takes place in multiple f lashbacks and f lash-forwards, in re-creations of I Love Lucy and the 1940 movie musical Too Many Girls ,
Don’t forget your pocket square like Desi’s!
Lucy loves the conga-cut of his jib!
A suave style to beat the band!
MAK I NG I T B I G . Composer Daniel Pemberton used a 69-piece orchestra to underscore Lucy and Desi’s momentous achievements − and the daunting challenges they face in the film.
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