New Jesse Eisenberg film ‘A Real Pain’ is scored entirely by Frédéric Chopin
21 January 2025, 17:26
Watch the trailer for A Real Pain
Chopin’s much-loved solo piano music takes centre stage in ‘A Real Pain’, a new film by Jesse Eisenberg out now in cinemas.
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The score for Jesse Eisenberg’s latest film is made up almost entirely of music by the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.
A Real Pain follows cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) on a Holocaust tour around Poland to explore the horrors of their family history. The choice of Chopin’s music, which runs as an undercurrent throughout the film, perfectly centres the picture in post-war Poland, giving rhythm to the narrative, and a simple elegance to the mood.
“My entire soundtrack for my film is Chopin, Frederic Chopin, the classical composer,” Eisenberg told Billboard at the Golden Globes, where he received two nominations for Best Actor and Best Screenplay. “That’s what I was listening to when I was writing the script, and that’s what the entire score is based on.”
Among the featured compositions are Chopin’s ballades, études, nocturnes, preludes, and waltzes. Sadly, Chopin won’t be getting any posthumous Oscars, as the music – which is performed by Canadian classical pianist Tzvi Erez – is not eligible as it isn’t an original score.
Read more: A new piece by Chopin has been discovered after almost 200 years
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Eisenberg, who has Polish-Jewish ancestry, visited Poland in 2008 to explore the origins of his family, who lived in Krasnystaw until World War II. On the same trip, he visited Chopin’s birthplace in Żelazowa Wola.
On his return to the US, he wrote a play called The Revisionist which needed some incidental music – and he chose Chopin. He has since told press, “I’ve been writing plays for 20 years… it’s really nice to be acknowledged as a writer as well now”.
Some years later, while writing the script for A Real Pain, Eisenberg started drafting up where certain nocturnes and études could sit within the film. “I was just listening to all these pieces, and a lot of times they were inspiring me for what the scene should be,” he said. “I’m sitting at the library writing, and it’s just playing on an entire loop for hours in my head.”
His choice of music came from a desire to add a sophistication to the film, which sees two New Yorker cousins go to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late grandmother: a formidable woman and Holocaust survivor whom Benji has decided was the only person who ever really understood him.
“As I was writing A Real Pain, it was focused on this funny and fraught relationship between these two guys that were trying to connect to their past relationship, and in many ways, they became children around each other,” Eisenberg told THR.
“And I wanted the tone of the movie, very specifically, to not be juvenile. I wanted the tone of the movie to be a commentary on these characters falling into old patterns against the backdrop of historical trauma. I wanted the movie to have a sophisticated, traditional, mature look and feel to it.”
Eisenberg was adamant the music be consistent throughout the film, persuading producers that Chopin’s writing would elevate, rather than overwhelm, the plot.
“While we were editing the movie, some producers were getting a little nervous about the accessibility of this movie for young people, and I was encouraged to explore more pop music on the soundtrack,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
“My argument was always, ‘This was in the script. This is what we all had agreed upon, so why change it now? Let’s take this risk. It’s not overwhelming. The music is not jarring in any way. Let’s commit to what this is.’”
One piece stands out as not being by Chopin. A cover of Slim Smith’s reggae song ‘My Conversation’ plays over the end credits. “My editor, Rob Nassau, who’s great, he just felt like the movie could use a little bit of lightness there,” said Eisenberg. “In retrospect, I probably would have kept it with Chopin.”
