Have
you seen Unbroken, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Argo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The King’s Speech, or The
Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Then you know the music of French film
composer Alexandre Desplat.
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| Courtesy of Wikimedia.org |
Desplat
has many film credits and numerous nominations and awards to his name. He grew
up in Paris to a French father and Greek mother and fell in love with music at
an early age, listening to the works of Ravel and Debussy, as well as jazz and
world music. I think you can almost hear these influences in some of his
scores. Desplat claims that he loved film music early on, especially tunes from
Disney’s 101 Dalmatians and The Jungle Book.
Desplat
met his wife, violinist Dominique Lemonnier, while working on his first film.
She has been a great artistic advocate ever since. Many say Desplat is as
successful as he is because, not only does he possess a strong sense of
musicality, but he communicates well with film directors. Desplat says that it
is not unusual for film composers to write their scores quickly—sometimes in as
short at three-weeks’ time!
Here
are a few of my favorite Desplat scores. Enjoy!
What
influences do you hear in these examples?
