7 minute read
In service of the story
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. Th ough I understand in some genres that I need to be more in synchronisation with the image, my tendency is still to take
Advertisement
Alexandre Desplat
a step back and try to bring the invisible, not what is visible.”
Th is 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-profi le international fi lmmakers, 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.
Desplat winning his fi rst Oscar for 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel
Much has changed in the industry since Desplat’s breakthrough in 2003. Yet he is nonplussed when asked how technological leaps or shift s in audience tastes have aff ected him. “Storytelling is as old as human beings,” he says, “and in 20 years I don’t think storytelling is much diff erent. Th ere might be more superhero movies, but there were moments in history when there were only westerns, or only science-fi ction 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 fi rst Oscar. Or having Stephen Frears call me in 2007 for Th e Queen. Or Terrence Malick for Th e Tree Of Life. Or Roman Polanski for Th e Ghost Writer. Th ere 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 place to be.” n s
Oscars.org Gabriel Yared
Laurent Koffel
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
A
ft er 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 fi lm composers.
“My musical language was, and still is, adapting to each fi lm,” says the 70-year-old recipient of the World Soundtrack Awards’ lifetime achievement award. “I compose according to what I deem fi tting and suitable. I don’t necessarily consider the taste of the audience, at least not consciously. I follow my musical instincts and feeling aft er reading the script and discussing intensively with the director.”
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. “Th e 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
Gabriel Yared
(continued)
Gabriel Yared at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2014
distributor sometimes, unless the director and composer have a very close working relationship. In some way, the process becomes more industrial, as everybody has a say.”
In 2004, Yared spent more than six months on Troy, recording his score with a 100-piece orchestra to the satisfaction of director Wolfgang Petersen and producers. But aft er a test audience said they did not like it, Yared was replaced. “I was upset and confused, as it was the fi rst time it had happened to me,” he says. “I soon found out it was a common matter in Hollywood.”
True collaborator
When it comes to picking projects, Yared’s main criteria is “a mutual understanding and compatibility between me and the director. I write music mostly for the director rather than the fi lm, so when there is harmony on a personal level, our professional collaboration can fl ourish.”
His preference is to begin work before a frame of footage has been shot. “Godard didn’t want to show me any images, he simply told me the story. I soon realised this made sense and attempted to adapt it working with other directors. When I read a script or listen to the story, images appear and dance in my mind.”
Yared’s working relationship with Anthony Minghella was one of the composer’s most rewarding. Th e pair met on a mobile-phone commercial in the early 1990s. “He was sitting there, looking like a little Buddha, and we connected straight away,” recalls Yared. A few years later, Minghella called him about Th e English Patient. “He told me he was eager to work with me but the producer had other candidates in mind. Anthony came to see me, told me the whole story in great detail, and proposed I start writing a main theme.”
Th e English Patient won both men Oscars, and their fruitful collaboration continued with Th e Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain, Breaking And Entering and TV series Th e No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. “Anthony taught me how to appreciate and embrace fi lm and cinema. He allowed me to adapt, be versatile, and explore many diff erent styles.” Indeed, Yared’s versatility has seen him work in all genres, as well as animation, commercials, documentaries and TV. “Th ere’s no artistic diff erences,” he says. “I put all my skills and energy into my music even if writing for a 30-second ad. I love composing for documentaries, particularly those about nature.”
Looking back at his 40 years in the business, Yared feels scores in general have become “less elaborate” because of the rush in which they are created, with composers having to write and record in a matter of weeks, oft en following a prescribed temp track. Yared still writes music the traditional way, “with pen and paper in order to visualise and develop the composition. Technology is extremely useful. However, it should never replace the knowledge of proper music writing. Music has evolved from the 16th to 20th centuries following the same rules of har-
mony, counterpoint and fugue, so there is no reason for me to ignore this writing fi lm music.” A great score, he says, is the perfect combination of fi ve things. Th e fi rst is a strong and memorable theme — “If you imagine music as a body, then the theme is the face”. Next, a unique sound “[like] the balalaikas in Doctor Zhivago, the cithara in Th e Th ird Man”. Th en, an embellishing, appropriate and engaging orchestration and a refi ned fusion of image and story, and fi nally a director who understands the this made sense and attempted to importance of music and gives adapt it working with other it the right space to breathe and directors. When I read a express itself. script or listen to the story, Yared’s relationship with the images appear and dance in World Soundtrack Awards dates back to its inception in 2001 and
Yared’s working rela- he praises its contribution in helptionship with Anthony ing launch the careers of many Minghella was one young composers via its discovery of the composer’s award. And while he admits to being thrilled and delighted with his lifetime award, he adds: “It is important to remain humble and always push forward. I spend a lot of my time reading and play“He was sitting ing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, there, looking Debussy, and this makes me feel I like a little Bud- have a long way to go.” n s
tive Agency. “Anthony taught me how to appreciate and embrace fi lm and cinema. He allowed me to adapt, be versatile, and explore many diff erent styles.” Indeed, Yared’s versatility has seen him work in all genres, as well as animation, commercials, documentaries and TV.
(Left) Ralph Fiennes in The Fiennes in The English Patient, English Patient, an early collaboration collaboration with Anthony with Anthony Minghella
Gabriel Yared
