Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/681807
20 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2016 of a fishing line with the music). "Walter did some really wild stuff; he layered a couple of different demos of Javier's, and some of them, unfortunately, we didn't even find in the final music," Diener remembers. "That one was really crazy." The film's abundance of source cues also proved daunting, with snippets of music selected to go along with dozens of scenes, from historical montages to scenes of Hemingway and Gellhorn at home. "In some cases, Walter actually grabbed stuff off of YouTube," Diener says. "A lot of times this was kind of an archaeological dig because we had to figure out what it was, where it came from, and how to either use it or recreate it." The folk song "Red River Valley" was always intended to be featured but required substantial post-production finessing. It is heard early in the film, when Gellhorn is aboard a train en route to cover the Spanish Civil War and is seated across from a young fighter, called Brooklyn, who starts to sing the tune while accompanying himself on guitar. The music, which continues to play over several subsequent scenes, echoes the hope and excitement of the era of Hemingway and Gellhorn's relationship. Unfortunately, the production track was not useable. "They were originally talking about replacing his voice," Diener recalls, "but Phil and Walter loved his vocal quality, which was very natural." But when the actor re-recorded the song, he did so at a different tempo. "It was very tricky because I had to take his singing and literally match it to his mouth," Diener says. "I'm a singer myself, so I'm very picky about that. I look at it sideways, I squint at it, I walk away, I come back." The actor also replayed the guitar. "Some of it was a little rough, and sometimes I had to change the chord or the note," she adds. "A lot of editing was required to match the picture." The result, however, is a haunting mood-setter. Later in the film, the tune returns in the form of "Jarama Valley," a variant of "Red River Valley" that came about during the Spanish Civil War; an injured Brooklyn sings the song while recuperating. "Javier's score enters and weaves around the song," Diener remembers. "He scored it to a different version with a different chord progression, so I had to actually cut his orchestral piece and change the harmonic structure a little bit — to make it sit right in with Brooklyn's singing and guitar-playing." Nimble music editing was also needed in a bravura sequence in which Hemingway and Hemingway & Gellhorn. HBO/Photofest Joanie Diener and composer Javier Navarrete with their Emmy Awards for Hemingway & Gellhorn.