Manic is based entirely on the soundtrack of the Roman Polanski thriller Frantic. It uses snippets of the Morricone score as well as snatches of dialogue and sound effects. I wanted to reflect the nature of the film within as short a time-span as possible, to make a fast-forward condensed version which heightens the pace and tension of the film to the nth. degree. I also see it in some ways as an ‘alternative’ version of the soundtrack, seen through a distorting lens. Nothing is quite as it seems – sound effects are combined in surreal contexts, and the music is taken apart and reassembled into something that (sometimes) still sounds like Morricone, but is actually very far from the original. I think I’ve ended up with the soundtrack to another film, not yet made, which bears a passing similarity to Frantic, but is altogether more peculiar..
Manic was written for the Illegal Art/Negativland CD Extracted Celluloid, a collection of works based entirely on (illegal) samples from Mainstream cinema
