Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/681807
21 Q2 2016 / CINEMONTAGE Gellhorn meander through a Chinese market following their meeting with Chinese ruler Chiang Kai-shek. Out of each doorway, corridor or window are snippets of music, necessitating the use of many cues. "Phil wanted it to feel like you were just surrounded and enveloped by all these different sounds and textures," Diener recalls. "They said, 'We need things coming from each little shop and different windows and areas.' It was complicated because I had to set it up in such a way that it all wove together." The only visual suggesting music was of a man playing the erhu, a Chinese two- stringed bowed instrument. "There was no sound for that," Diener says. "Evyen sent me several erhu pieces and I was able to create something that matched the on-camera erhu player." Despite the labor-intensive post-production, Diener was continually moved by the lead characters; for example, she was touched each time she watched the scene of him pleading with her not to divorce him: "Open up, Mrs. Hemingway," he says, knocking on her door. "Mr. Hemingway loves ya." "I remember crying," Diener says. "I saw that scene so many times, where he's banging on the door and begging her to open the door, and it got me every time." When the Primetime Emmy nominations were announced, Hemingway & Gellhorn received recognition in 15 categories, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. In the end, the film won two Emmys, both honoring the film's soundscape: Navarrete was awarded for Outstanding Music Composition and Diener was included in the group awarded for Outstanding Sound Editing. She also received a Golden Reel Award (her fifth) from the Motion Picture Sound Editors for her work on the film. Of course, the plaudits the movie received could not compete with making it. "It was one of the more engrossing, satisfying, enriching experiences I've ever had," she effuses. And, reflecting on the long hours spent in close collaboration with Navarrete, Murch, Kaufman and others, Diener invokes the film's protagonists: "We were definitely in the trenches — just like Hemingway and Gellhorn." f "I had read a lot of Hemingway's books when I was growing up, but I didn't really know about Martha Gellhorn. I loved this strong female character in battle with Hemingway." – Joanie Diener