Malkovich

When I first watched the movie Being John Malkovich, it left a significant impact on me. In the movie, John Cusack’s character Craig Schwartz finds a portal into John Malkovich’s brain, where he experiences and senses everything as John Malkovich does himself.

My music is based upon the scene in which John Malkovich enters the portal. He finds himself dining in an upscale restaurant. In the restaurant, everyone has his face, only on different bodies. They all converse by rapidly and repeatedly saying the word “Malkovich.” This particular scene affected me in a profound way. It is absurd, surreal, humorous, and horrendous all at the same time. Years later, after watching the movie again, I decided to create music out of this wacky concept.

Although the cadenza in the middle resembles the tune he sings in the scene, Malkovich is not a tone poem, nor a depiction of the movie. It is merely the impression it left behind in my mind, an artistic influence.