SPOTLIGHT WSA HONOREES
‘My tendency is to take a step back and try to bring the invisible, not what is visible’ Alexandre Desplat
a step back and try to bring the invisible, not what is visible.” This approach — which Desplat insists must always start with images on the screen, rather than words in the script — has made him the go-to composer for some high-profile international filmmakers, including Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro, Stephen Frears and Clooney. “I am very lucky to have directors who I like come and ask me to write their scores because they think we can get along,” he says.
Much has changed in the industry since Desplat’s breakthrough in 2003. Yet he is nonplussed when asked how technological leaps or shifts in audience tastes have affected him. “Storytelling is as old as human beings,” he says, “and in 20 years I don’t think storytelling is much different. There might be more superhero movies, but there were moments in history when there were only westerns, or only science-fiction movies. When synthesisers arrived, people thought every score had to be electronic. And then orchestras came back. Trends come and go.” He insists he has never felt any pressure to change the way he works. “I do what I like to do, otherwise I would change jobs. I write music that I’m proud of, and I’m proud for the musicians to play.” When asked to choose a highlight from two decades of work, Desplat is unable to pick just one. “I could say that meeting John Williams was an incredible moment in my life,” he suggests. “Or winning my first Oscar. Or having Stephen Frears call me in 2007 for The Queen. Or Terrence Malick for The Tree Of Life. Or Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer. There are all these people I’ve met who are great artists that I’m lucky to be working with. I couldn’t dream of a better s place to be.” n
Gabriel Yared
In service of the story WSA lifetime achievement award recipient Gabriel Yared tells Mark Salisbury that gut instinct and a traditional approach have been the bedrock of a 40-year career Gabriel Yared fter making his debut scoring JeanLuc Godard’s Every Man For Himself in 1980, French-Lebanese musician Gabriel Yared quickly established himself as one of Europe’s most versatile and in-demand film composers. “My musical language was, and still is, adapting to each film,” says the 70-year-old recipient of the World Soundtrack Awards’ lifetime achievement award. “I compose according to what I deem fitting and suitable. I don’t necessarily consider the taste of the audience, at least not consciously. I follow my musical instincts and feeling after reading the script and discussing intensively with the director.”
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Oscars.org
Desplat winning his first Oscar for 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel
Laurent Koffel
He elaborates: “In European cinema, the music is not meant to follow what is on screen. It’s meant to follow the psychology of the characters, or where the storyline is taking you. While in the past, American scores very much mimicked what was on screen. So by working on European movies, I have learned another way of doing that. Though I understand in some genres that I need to be more in synchronisation with the image, my tendency is still to take
September 2020 | Screen International | screendaily.com
Yared’s international breakthrough came in 1986 with his jazz-pop fusion for Jean-Jacques Beineix’s arthouse smash Betty Blue — a score that cost around $20,000 to produce. “I only had three musicians, plus myself, and the demos were shared with the actors and the rest of the crew,” Yared recalls. “Everybody knew my music by heart during the shooting and would hum along. It was a real work of love.” Hollywood then came calling, bringing with it increased budgets but also more demands. “I was used to working with a small budget, without a music editor,” he recalls. “The person who would determine whether my music was good or needed reworking was the director. In Hollywood, demos have to be approved not only by the director, but also by the producers and the
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