John Adams Featured in Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt Soundtrack
John Adams’s music is featured in Luca Guadagnino’s new film After the Hunt. The soundtrack, released by Nonesuch Records, features selections from Adams’s Gnarly Buttons, The Death of Klinghoffer, and City Noir.
John Adams’s music features prominently in Luca Guadagnino’s new psychological drama After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny. The film premiered at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival and opened in cinemas on October 10. Released by Nonesuch Records, the soundtrack features the original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as a selection of Adams’s works that deepen the film’s emotional and narrative texture.
The soundtrack includes four major Adams selections:
Gnarly Buttons:
II. Hoe-down (Mad Cow)
III. Put Your Loving Arms Around Me
(performed by the London Sinfonietta)
The Death of Klinghoffer (Act II):
“It is as if our earthly life were spent miserably”
Desert Chorus
(performed by Kent Nagano, Orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, and the London Opera Chorus)
City Noir:
III. Boulevard Night
(performed by David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony)
After the Hunt is a gripping psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.
Adams’ music has featured in almost all of Guadagnino's work. His music first shaped the director’s breakthrough film I Am Love (2009), the first project Adams allowed to be scored entirely using his pre-existing works. Guadagnino subsequently featured Adams’s music in A Bigger Splash (2015), Call Me by Your Name (2017), the HBO series We Are Who We Are (2020), and multiple documentaries.
“Adams’s music comes to me constantly. Discovering it was transformative and changed my life as a director forever,” states Guadagnino. “It comes with a capacity of interpreting reality, interpreting the history of the reality, interpreting the history of the United States, and understanding even the boundaries of music to become a cunning exploration of the identity of human nature and the politic relationship that ties all us in.”
> Read more: "My Beloved John Adams": The Music of John Adams in the Films of Luca Guadagnino