The Invite

A remake of Spanish film The People Upstairs (2020),_ The Invite_ has a new trailer that sports a modern remix of the famous opera aria “Habanera” from Georges Bizet’s Carmen. It’s a Spanish-inspired American film using music from a Spanish-inspired French opera. The trailer opens with some verbal sparring between Angela (played by Olivia Wilde, who directs and co-stars) and Joe (Seth Rogen) while a persistent note on the double bass and pulsing shakers establish a groove. The editing here helps many of the words in this dialogue land on beat with the music.

Five seconds into the trailer, as we see a block of brie cheese with the production company’s logo on it (very subtle, A24…), we hear a doorbell buzzing (in the same key as the music, of course!) as a cello introduces the melody from Carmen’s infamous “Habanera.” After the first phrase of the melody has been played, the music cuts out, leaving space for the arrival of Angela and Joe’s neighbours, Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton).

At 0:15 cello and double bass return with the Habanera rhythm, as Olivia Wilde’s directorial title card pops on screen in time with the music. Great interplay between music and visuals at 0:18: the music jumps to a note we weren’t expecting, highlighting the moment when Hawk puts his hand on Joe’s shoulder and says “he is a f***ing weirdo.”

At 0:22 we cut to Angela gushing to Joe about how cool Piña and Hawk are, and now we begin to hear a repeating sample from an operatic soprano. Meanwhile, the music begins to fade in a new layer of percussion evoking house music: Bizet is being retrofitted for the 21st century. Angela instructs Joe to put on some music at 0:30, as we hear a pulsing electronic drum groove, with the Habanera bassline now on synth, and a sampled opera vocalist with a delay effect.

At 0:36 the trailer editors introduce a fun audio-visual move that features critics’ reviews popping on-screen a little off-kilter, in bright colours, in time with the music, and accentuated by an opera vocal sample. Once established, this critics’-reviews-in-bright-colours concept becomes a motif. To build up to the second round, at 0:42 the synth bass cuts out for a moment, leaving room for cello to play a run of 1/16 notes, on top of which Joe’s next line of dialogue “what is going on here?” aligns expertly in time with the music almost as if they’re rap lyrics–certainly unintentionally for Rogen but very intentionally for the trailer editors.

From 0:44 to 0:56 we see four rounds of critics’-reviews-in-bright-colours, and each time one begins, strings and wordless vocals restart the Habanera melody. Each time, we only hear the first 8 notes of the phrase, the part where the melody descends; instead of finishing the phrase, though, it keeps restarting. Scenes from the film are continuing in rapid fire amidst this pulsating Bizet remix, leading up to the line where Hawk and Piña make their “invitation” - at which point the music cuts out (at 0:59). Joe and Angela take a stunned moment to clarify that the invitation is what they think it is, and then at 1:01 they pop the champagne and have the trailer’s big finish - five quick cuts between shots, each on the beat of the music, each lasting for only one count. Then the words “The Invite.” are spelled on screen, this time synched to the rhythm of the Habanera melody played on cello.

According to the trailer, it’s a compact film - four characters, one apartment, one night. The music, likewise, is compact, using basically just one memorable melodic phrase from a famous opera aria, and getting as much mileage from it as can be gotten.

The Invite is in select theatres June 26.

— Jack Hui Litster