In this collection of interviews "Keeping in Touch", French filmmakers and actors currently in lockdown due to COVID-19 answer the questions of international journalists for whom French cinema remains a far-reaching voice and vision.
For this new interview, UniFrance has put composer Alexandre Desplat and the Brazilian journalist Rodrigo Fonseca (c7nema, O Estado de Sao Paulo).
Rodrigo Fonseca : What is the importance of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) formation and which Brazilian artists more and better created a unique sound?
Alexandre Desplat: MPB has been very present in my musical education since the age of 13. I sang in the choir of my neighborhood. Our conductors, Mexicans, made us sing the classical composers of choral singing, like Jehan Tabourot or Guillaume de Machaut, but we also sang "La Bamba" and "Desafinado". It was at that time that I bought my first vinyl bossa nova: a record titled "Braziliana", which included recordings of João Gilberto, Tom Jobim and Luiz Bonfá. The passion for this music - sophisticated harmonic and rhythmically and with a different balance - infected me and, at 17 years, I joined a bossanovista group in which we played all the wonderful songs. I bought all the Vinis I could buy. I brought Mauricio Einhorn to Paris in 2000 to record with me the music of a film by Philippe De Broca, the director of That Man from Rio. I would have liked to have been in Rio between 1960 and 1970.
What is the melodic line we can expect from the soundtrack of Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch?
Each score written for Wes is an expedition to the new, a discovery. First, we look for how the music of each film should "sound". And instrument assembly is as important as melody. For The French Dispatch, we didn’t follow any rule. With this, you will discover, again, completely unexpected instrument choices. Just as our way of spreading the music around the movie is unexpected.
You have been president of the Jury in Venice, you worked as an actor... Is directing a movie part of your plans?
Directing a film is another adventure... It’s something I would have done a long time ago if I thought I could. But a composer’s job is... to compose. It’s the music that makes me vibrate. It’s the music that makes me work 18 hours a day. Cinema evolves with society and film music must also evolve. But evolution can never mean impoverishment.
What musician/singer do you suggest to the public in this quarantine?
I live in Paris, in the area Le Marais, and I always hope to find Chico Buarque around the corner, because I know he has an apartment there. But I haven’t had that luck yet.
What would your suggestion of a film for this quarantine?
Amarcord by Federico Fellini and the poetic music by Nino Rota.
