Original subtitles

Washington turns out to be an employee

of President Richard Nixon's re-election

campaign committee. He is one of five

persons surprised and arrested yesterday

inside the headquarters of the

Democratic National Committee in

Washington. And guess who else he is? A

consultant to President Richard Nixon's

re-election campaign committee. The

trial started today at the federal. One

of the inherent dilemmas of this movie

was it came from a very successful play

that both Ron and I had independently

seen in London and both sort of loved

and we loved the performances and we

sort of went

this is a great play. So, so what how

can we not ruin the play but make it

cinematic? You know, we know the story.

We all knew the story. So, what new what

new new things could happen? What could

happen in this? And then lots of new

things happened and I thought it was

really interesting and I thought it said

a lot about it never talked down to us.

It was it always stayed at a at a level

that you want movie making to stay at or

a a play to stay at, you know. It was it

was thrilling. It was a boxing match

without anybody ever putting on the

gloves. It was,

you know, and it it consistently stayed

tough. I thought what was really

interesting just from a musical point of

view is that neither of the characters

are particularly likable. In fact,

they're not likable at all. And if I

ever make them likable, which is such a

tendency, you know, we we all have we

all have that tendency. We're trying to

we're trying to make things, you know, a

little bit more likable or a little bit

more humane or a little bit more

empathetic.

then sometimes they deserve and Peter

just you know in his writing just went

for it. He didn't do that. He just

maintained this sort of cold, detached.

Here it is.

John Dean, the ex-wife House Council,

testified today that President Nixon

knew about the Watergate couple.

And actually, it's interesting for me to

watch the opening of this movie again

because, you know, we yesterday we were

talking about these sweets that I write.

That's of my diary of, you know,

everyday writing a little bit further.

145page statement characterizing a

president who was easily outraged over

more protesters

up until you actually get to the actor

playing Richard Nixon. It's all just the

original suite. It just laid up against

it. And it wasn't Dan the editor cut to

it. But it gives you the right mode. It

gives you the right propulsion. And

certainly for Ron, it gave gave him the

right feeling for for the way he wanted

to tell the story.

president today accept the resation of

freedom.

All it is is me, bunch of synthesizers

and one chist. So the whole score that

that was the lineup for the score.

So it starts a bit crooked. It starts

with a good riff and it's just the

variations on that riff all the way

through that that became, you know, sort

of gold as far as material was

concerned. And I and I I never knew I

was writing the opening to the film.

White House aid told NBC News today that

impeachment of the president by the full

House of Representatives.

I thought we should we we we should have

a breathless quality about the whole

thing.

Serious the last hours of the 37th

presidency of the United States.

This is indeed a historic day. The only

time a president has ever resigned from

office in our nearly 200 years of

history. I think that should be a sense

of panic for all the characters.

Everything is at stake for them, you

know. Um, for Richard Nixon, he's going

to lose the country. He's going to lose

the presidency. He's going to be found

out.

15 seconds, Mr. President.

And for David Frost, things weren't

going so well. This this was a this was

a huge gamble. life wasn't, you know, he

he he was I think he was pretending that

life was a lot better than it was and

that his jobs were a lot better than

they were. I mean, I think at that

moment in time, he was doing a game show

in Australia.

Um, so plus you wanted to have the sense

of these two

rather odd adversaries meeting and you

wanted to have a sense that you wanted

to have a sense it was real as well that

we were talking about things which had

the events had taken place. Not all the

events in as depicted in the movie have

taken place but the you know the the the

big historical shift that you know that

really had taken place and the one thing

I didn't want to do is I didn't want it

to be sort of history big history notes

you know big strings big brass big you

know that there's a way of scoring

movies so there's like two ways of

scoring movies either one is very

objective you know for instance Star

Wars is very objective you It starts off

with the bum, you know, the big fanf

fair. I'm not going to sing it and get

John Williams to burn my house down. Um,

I'm not going to sing it. We all know

how Star Wars goes, but it's it's a big

orchestra and it's a big sound and it's

sort of it nearly looks down on the

action, you know, while this is sort of

like inside and it's a bit crooked and

it's a bit broken and it's a bit like

it's it's very low tech and it's, you

know, typewriters and bad pianos and

things which are just so so so it's it

it's more the mystery of the characters

are feeling and more the the slight

Everything is too fast.

One of the things you can do of course

in cinema which you can't do in a play

is you can do the close-up. So all these

sort of things which which we're talking

about is that for instance in a closeup

I can go and musically

sort of hint at what the character is

thinking or the subtext of this and we

started to get really excited and then

some of these close-ups became sort of

if you just did this one closeup in slow

motion just just cranked it a bit you

know all sorts of interesting rhythms

would start happening.

stand.

We're coming back on camera. Three in

four, three, two, and

I love doing this in movies that I make

the audience lean forward a little bit,

you know, just just lead you closer to

the characters. So So, you know, those

those were some of the things that, you

know, um Ron and I were talking about.

And then you know those thoughts would

come back and I would go, "Ah, okay. Now

I got to figure out a quick clever way

of making you lean in.

I let the American people

always knew that this was going to be uh

you know the the loudest silence you

ever heard. We saw how people would

watch the scene and we wanted them to

hold their breath. And if you heard

people breathing in the cinema, you

know, we knew we had failed.

My political life is over

because part of it is part of first of

all the writing is really good. Peter's

writing is really good. The performances

are really good. And sometimes just

letting the au uh actors hang in silence

was uh uh you know was

very powerful you know to to keep the

edge going

to not soften anything. It was great to

take the music out or just not to do

music in certain bits.

You know the the first and greatest sin

or deception of television is that it

simplifies it diminishes great complex

ideas. This is actually the piece that

you know when I wrote it and I played

it, it was I I could not make it not

sound romantic and sympathetic and

empathetic towards the character. Um

it's just not in my fingers to play

cold. And so a friend of mine had to go

and replay it who can play very

precisely and very cold.

All the piano is doing all the time is

just throwing one question at you. Every

note is a question, right? If you just

took that out, that would be, you know,

an energy, a beautiful energy left.

Is this what you call a dark song?

If I took the piano down and you'd hear

him off the strings, you know, you'd

automatically tie it to him. Especially,

you know, he's he's got the sad eyes.

You know, you you know that thing with

the dog um getting into the car slowly.

all everything everything everything in

the way it's shot you know lets you

basically set up a perfect trap for the

composer to go and pour trickly sugary

empathy over the whole thing and when

that happens the game is lost

a Mexican director once said to me

actually was it was a really good

description she said she wanted a piece

of music like a beautiful cake with a

knife in it, you know, and this is a

beautiful cake with a knife in it. The

notes themselves are

awkward and a little clashy and a little

at the same time you got a sort of a

bachelike

quality to it. Um,

and it's it's just it's it's really more

that the notes are fighting each other

than that they are supporting each

other. And at the same time I I very

gently try to put in the idea

of tragedy but not tragedy for Richard

Nixon but the tragedy of you know our

the people's betrayal by you know by by

a system we believed in by politics by

whatever that is you know the the you

know the the American dream sort of gone

wrong. We had a modest budget

um which when those conversations first

started out were going to be all eaten

up by um song licensing.

And then

it sort of turned out we didn't need all

those songs. We we found we found a a

different way of telling it. Um, but it

it was just fun,

you know, working within a, you know,

very limited means and, you know, you

never notice it. Yeah. That there's like

a like a shot in the movie which I I

sort of adore which is

it's um David Frost's office building

and I'm looking at it when when Sean

comes back and I'm suddenly realized,

oh, it's the production office. somebody

just painted a big 75 onto it quickly,

you know. So, you know, we we weren't

wasteful. Um, it's really important to

always be in a position where you have

to go and make something because you you

know, you fervently believe and that

this movie now needs to be made as

opposed to thinking it's going to be a

box office success. You know, Peter

Morgan had given us a script that

seduced us, enabled us, was a gift to us

to go and and and do something we hadn't

done before and and to try to work

really well and and and and try to be as

good as his words. So, um

you know, that's the stuff that makes

you get up in the morning.