In Cold Blood

‘On 15 November 1959, two young men with criminal records raided a farm in Holcomb, Kansas, and murdered the occupants: the farmer Herbert Clutter, his wife and their two children. Having taken no significant loot, the perpetrators fled to Mexico, but investigators were soon hot on their heels. (..) Based on the novel by Truman Capote, who conducted in-depth interviews with the perpetrators and others involved, Richard Brooks directed a masterful black-and-white film that reconstructs the senseless crime using stark contrasts. Whilst a peaceful Sunday atmosphere prevails in the victims’ house to the sound of classical music, the murderers are driven forward by Quincy Jones’ expressive jazz score.” (Berlinale 2015)

“Despite his previous commercial success, Jones still faced scepticism when composing scores for films that did not centre on a Black protagonist. Director Richard Brooks reportedly had to fight against Capote and Columbia Pictures to hire Jones for the film adaptation of In Cold Blood. Capote, who was apparently unaware of Jones’s extensive classical training, could not understand why Brooks had ‘a Black musician compose the score for a film featuring only white characters’. The studio argued that the established symphonic composer Leonard Bernstein should take on the task instead. Jones responded to their objections by drawing on all his improvisational skills to embed Brooks’s film in the innovative soundscape he had demanded.” (Carol Cooper, Criterion, March 2020)