Cyril Holtz (‘Emilia Pérez’ sound mixer) on creating ‘fluid’ and ‘natural’ movement between singing and dialogue

“The idea of grace-as-movement perfectly captures the essence of what we tried to achieve,” explains re-recording mixer Cyril Holtz when describing the singular style of “Emilia Pérez”. The sound artist reveals that “movement” was the word mentioned most often by the film’s writer and director Jacques Audiard. So the post-production process focused on making the songs in this unconventional Netflix musical “lively and full of motion.” He held the belief that movement, if erratic or unusual, can unlock emotion. We spoke to Holtz as part of our Meet the Experts sound designer panel. Watch the video interview above.

Perhaps the most important aspect of motion to Holtz, was the transition between spoken dialogue and singing. “One of the primary goals was to create a completely organic sonic musical fabric, where each sound element belonged to a cohesive whole,” he explains. “Emilia Pérez” frequently bucks the trend of traditional musical theater where there is a steady build to a musical outburst. A character might be speaking one moment, before suddenly jumping into a few notes of a song, with a sequence sliding back and forth between these two modes of communication. So the quality of each person’s voice needs to contain the same texture. “We aimed to ensure that the musical comedy genre did not appear obvious and did not involve a brutal and systematic transition between spoken dialogue and song mode,” says Holtz. “Instead, we wanted the transition to be as fluid and as natural as possible.”

WATCH ‘Emilia Pérez’ production designer Emmanuelle Duplay on creating a modern-day ‘operatic’ film

Holtz reveals that the entire premise of “Emilia Pérez” is “built on the idea of pushing boundaries…and the sound follows the same approach.” The movie’s unique story is told via a mix of studio-recorded and live vocals, which ebb and flow with the dialogue and organic sounds to aid in the story’s overall aesthetic of magical realism. “Pushing boundaries is sometimes about dissolving them,” says Holtz of the film’s style, “and that’s what we try to do.”

Holtz has been nominated for France’s prestigious César Award 14 times. He won the prize three times for “Read My Lips,” “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life,” and “The Sister Brothers.”