FMS FEATURE [French Composers in Hollywood

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FMS FEATURE...

April 8, 2009
French Composers in Hollywood
American Cinematheque film series will tribute Jarre, Legrand, Desplat and others by Marilee Bradford

Maurice Jarre

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Some of Hollywood's most esteemed and influential composers have successfully managed careers in both the U.S. and their native France. The American Cinematheque celebrates the best of these scorers with its film series "French Music Composers Go to Hollywood" April 16th through 19th at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, Calif.

The series will feature works by composers Maurice Jarre, Georges Delerue, Alexandre Desplat, Michel Legrand, Michel Colombier, and France's "adopted" Gabriel Yared.

Georges Delerue

Jarre, who passed away on March 28th and is best remembered for his Oscar-winning scores to director David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Passage to India (1986), will be honored on Saturday April 18th with a double feature of Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986), his two collaborations with director Peter Weir.

The prolific Delerue, recipient of an Academy Award for A Little Romance (1979) and five other nominations including Anne of a Thousand Days (1969), The Day of the Dolphin (1973) and Agnes of God (1985), will be tributed with screenings of Francois Truffaut's La femme d'á côté (The Woman Next Door, 1981) and Fred Zinnemann's Julia (1977) on April 16th and 19th, respectively.

Alexandre Desplat

Also on the 16th will be a screening of Sur mes lévres (Read My Lips, 2001) with a score by France's latest contributor to American film music, Alexandre Desplat, whose Oscar-nominated scores for The Queen (2006) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) have made him a Hollywood contender.

Legrand – one of the few film composers in history to become a household name, with crossover careers in jazz, pop, and film musicals – has won numerous Oscars for both scoring and songwriting, exemplified on April 17th with The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), featuring his award-winning song "The Windmills of Your Mind" (with lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman).

Michel Legrand

Sharing the April 17th bill will be director Taylor Hackford's Against All Odds (1984), a highlight in the scoring career of the innovative Colombier, well-respected for his avant garde composing style, which he applied equally in the worlds of film (Purple Rain, 1984; White Nights, 1985), television, concert and dance.

Michel Colombier

Yared, originally from Beirut, Lebanon, began studying music in France at age 19 and has spent the better part of his career working in French film before coming to Hollywood. Among his many well-known scores (The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999; Cold Mountain, 2003) is his Oscar-winning The English Patient (1996), which will be screened on April 19th.

Gabriel Yared

The series is co-presented by the Ile de France Film Commission with the support of The Film Music Society, ASCAP Film & TV Music, and the French Film and TV Department of the French Embassy in Los Angeles. Audience members will have a chance to win a Georges Delerue CD box set courtesy of Colette Delerue and a copy of Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Notebook courtesy of The Film Music Society.

All events begin at 7:30 pm. The Aero is located at 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403. Tickets are available at www.fandango.com or at the box office on the day of each screening. For more information, visit www.americancinematheque.com or call (323) 461-2020.

French Music Composers Go To Hollywood
All evenings begin at 7:30 pm

April 16th
The Woman Next Door (George Delerue)
Read My Lips (Alexandre Desplat)

April 17th
The Thomas Crown Affair (Michel Legrand)
Against All Odds (Michel Colombier)

April 18th
Witness (Maurice Jarre)
The Mosquito Coast (Maurice Jarre)

April 19th
Julia (George Delerue)
The English Patient (Gabriel Yared)