Meeting with composer Philippe Sarde, guest of honor at the Festival of Cinema and Film Music of La Baule<

The things of life, the judge and the assassin, Tess, the fire war ... with between 200 and 300 soundtracks of films for major directors, the composer Philippe Sarde is one of the greatest French composers of film music.The 7th Film Festival of Cinema and Film Music of La Baule (June 23 to 27) pays tribute to him with the screening of three of his collaborations with Claude Sautet, Roman Polanski and Jean-Jacques Annaud.

The musician gives a concert that covers his 50 years of career this Saturday, June 26 at the Palais des Congrès Atlantia.We met him around his work and his musical approach for the image.

Franceinfo Culture: You were faithful to filmmakers like Claude Sautet, Pierre Granier-Deferre, Roman Polanski, Yves Boisset, Bertrand Tavernier, Jacques Doillon, and many others, how do you explain this collaborative continuity?

Philippe Sarde: When you meet a man with whom you share part of your sensitivity, you want to continue working with him.I think it was this permanent exchange that I had with them.It’s an exchange that pushes to give the best of yourself.I had the chance to meet extraordinary people: jump, Granier-Deferre, Bertrand Tavernier ... humanly extraordinary personalities.

Do you have composers of the repertoire, or film music, to which you would refer, like Bartok, Ravel, Hermann, Goldsmith ...?

P. S .: Hermann and Goldsmith are fabulous, but we cannot speak in France about film music without mentioning Maurice Jaubert or Georges Delerue, composers I love.These are composers that I listened to but I did not try to do like them.They made me want even more to write for cinema, in this very special niche that is music for the screen.

Have you happened to write a score without seeing the film?

P. S .: Of course.The choice of Alain Corneau's weapons for example.When he came to see me, he told me hesitating between using two double bass or a symphonic orchestra, and he told me the story of his film.I replied that it was not necessary to hesitate, that it was necessary to mix the two, because the subject lent itself wonderfully to the use of the two double bass and the orchestra.At that time, he hadn't turned anything yet.And I recorded the music in England with the London Symphonic Orchestra, Ron Carter and Buster Williams.It was perilous for me, because the double bass is usually written for the bottom of the orchestra and I had to widen my mind to go up at the top of the orchestra.We had to find a work that works.I have a special affection for this music.

How was the meeting with Ron Carter?

P. S .: It was fantastic.He is a very human being, attentive and being able to adapt to any kind of music by bringing his own sensitivity to it, and with an extraordinary sound.You have to think of the interpreter before asking him to join you.As if you adapt to him, so that he enters immediately in your universe.For the La Baule Festival, we could not program such music, because it is a little different from what I composed elsewhere.We chose more emblematic scores.It was necessary to rebuild music a little for them to work, it is like a new visit to these scores.

There is a school of film music in France -it is a French invention elsewhere (Saint -Saëns, the assassination of the Duke of Guise, 1908) -, with Michel Legrand, Maurice Jarre, Alexandre Desplat, you-Mend… what makes this difference?

P. S .: Yes, there is a French school.His style touches deeply because it comes from the rapprochement between the director and the musician.While in America, the composer is further away from the director.It is this narrowness of collaboration that makes the difference in France.In the United States, there are many intermediaries who listen, who judge, it is not the same here.I was lucky to have very strong human and emotional relationships with directors for which I made a lot of films.

Have you composed for foreign directors?

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P. S .: Yes, a lot with Marco Ferreri who is not recognized enough today, when he is totally visionary.I composed for him Lisa, the great food, the last woman, tales of ordinary madness ... films that we could no longer make today.He was someone almost supernatural.

Do you like strange sounds or unexpected instruments such as Ron Carter's double bass in the choice of weapons, the tenant's bugle or a theme and folk instruments in Tess, where do these very atmospheric inspirations come from?

P. S .: This brings a climate, a difference.My problem is not to do "painting" on the film, to illustrate it, to be redundant compared to the image, to copy feelings.You have to create a parallel dialogue.It is found in the composition, but also in instrumentation.These mixes are for me the basis of music that we notice.Without it boring or covers the film.It must strengthen it, without being descriptive of what is on the screen.It must be a parallel path.Directors are afraid of music, because they fear that it tells the same story as theirs.But if you tell a story that is the interior of the director, his feelings, he has less apprehension.He is ready to trust you.It is the feelings that make the mixture.It’s a complementarity.It is necessary that it is above all nothing else than that.

Besides, film music is listened to with another pleasure when listening to it without the images, on a disc, a CD, a recording.It can be enough for itself, even if some are inseparable from the images, and they can spontaneously evoke them.Film music has a clean life.The music of the great food, for example, can be listened to alone, but it is sublimated by the image.What the director is waiting for is that music brings a plus.

Film music opens more and more to women, like Anne Dudley (Elle by Paul Verhoeven)-Prix Sacem-France Musique de la Musique de films 2017, others, what inspires you?

P. S .: It is true that film music has so far been essentially composed by men, but it is exciting that female sensitivity is expressed in this repertoire, with no doubt its differences.

At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, out of 21 films in competition, only four had an original score, what does it reveal to you?

P. S .: There is a trend in certain directors to use music that already exists.What the director does not want is that the musician takes his place.So he composes his own music with what exists in one or more directories.Kubrick does it with the classic, Tarantino with pop culture.Not putting music may also be a choice of staging is another music.But 4 films out of 21 in Cannes competition without partition, it's crazy.

There are more and more film music concerts, three festivals in France, including that of La Baule where you are the guest of honor, do you see late recognition of this repertoire?

P. S .: I think there is the recognition of music that has long been neglected, but also a new attraction for symphonic orchestration by another audience.Different classical music that can be listened to without the images.It had been given to me to play the Fire War in Ciné-Concert.As there are no dialogues in the film - it's almost a silent film - music was almost alone during the concert.The music did not accompany dialogue scenes, the film being very visual, so it was almost a concert of music in itself.The film concert with projection seems to me generally less interesting than the interpretation of music alone.

Are you working on a project currently?

P. S .: Yes, I finalize the composition of a film for Arte, Juliette in her bath, which will pass on television, with André Dussollier and Marisa Berenson, and I have to record it very quickly.It's been a long time since I worked for the small screen.It gave me the stage fright as much to work for cinema.I am also designing a box of my most representative music that I hope to go out at the start of the school year.It’s very important for me.It was necessary to choose from 200 at 300 films, to retain the most striking 100, while favoring the difference.I also do it for my daughters, as she will keep a memory of my palette, from their father's palette.

All the program of the 7th Film Festival and Film Music of La Baule