Georges Delerue
Encyclopedia
Georges Delerue was a French film composer
who composed over 350 scores
for cinema and television. He won numerous important awards including Rome Prize (1949), Emmy Award
(1968 – Our World
), Genie Award
(1986 – Sword Of Gideon), ACE Award (1991 – The Josephine Baker
Story) and Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1979 for A Little Romance
and 4 other Academy Nominations (1969 – Anne of the Thousand Days
, 1973 – The Day of the Dolphin
, 1977 – Julia and 1985 – Agnes of God
).
Le Figaro
(France, 1981) addressed him as "Mozart of Cinema" (Georges Delerue le Mozart des salles obscures). Delerue was the first composer to win 3 consecutive César Award
s: 1979 – Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, 1980 – Love on the Run
and 1981 – The Last Metro
. Georges Delerue was a Commander of Arts and Letters
, one of France's highest honours.
. His career was diverse and he composed frequently for major art house
directors
, most often François Truffaut
(including Jules and Jim
), but also for Jean-Luc Godard
's film Contempt
(Le Mépris), and for Alain Resnais
, Louis Malle
, and Bernardo Bertolucci
, besides working on several Hollywood productions, including Oliver Stone
's Platoon
and Salvador
.
He composed the music for Flemming Flindt
's ballet, Enetime (The Lesson), based on Ionesco's play, La Leçon. During his 42 years career he put his talent to the service of nearly 200 feature movies, 125 short ones, 70 TV films and 35 TV serials. The soundtrack
for war docudrama by Pierre Schoendoerffer
, Diên Biên Phu
(1992), was one of the late notable works.
According to many testimonies he would do and redo some cues to fit the new editing of a sequence without any protestation. He insisted on being allowed to orchestrate and conduct himself in order to polish every detail. Georges Delerue was extraordinarily gifted for melody and at creating surrounding overtones which encapsulated the spirit of the movies on which he collaborated, enhancing them often beyond the expectations of their directors.
Georges Delerue died from a heart attack
in Los Angeles at the age of 67, just after the recording of the last cue for the soundtrack to Rich In Love. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery
in Glendale, California
.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
who composed over 350 scores
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
for cinema and television. He won numerous important awards including Rome Prize (1949), Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
(1968 – Our World
Our World
Our World was the first live, international, satellite television production, which was broadcast on 25 June 1967. Creative artists, including opera singer Maria Callas, The Beatles and painter Pablo Picasso, representing nineteen different nations were invited to perform or appear in separate...
), Genie Award
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
(1986 – Sword Of Gideon), ACE Award (1991 – The Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
Story) and Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1979 for A Little Romance
A Little Romance
A Little Romance is a 1979 romantic comedy film, starring Laurence Olivier and Diane Lane in her film debut. It was directed by George Roy Hill. The screenplay is written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill, based on a novel by Patrick Cauvin...
and 4 other Academy Nominations (1969 – Anne of the Thousand Days
Anne of the Thousand Days
Anne of the Thousand Days is a 1969 costume drama made by Hal Wallis Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The film tells the story of Anne Boleyn...
, 1973 – The Day of the Dolphin
The Day of the Dolphin
The Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 American science-fiction thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Loosely based on the 1967 novel, Un animal doué de raison , by French writer Robert Merle, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry.-Plot:A brilliant and driven scientist,...
, 1977 – Julia and 1985 – Agnes of God
Agnes of God
Agnes of God is a play by John Pielmeier which tells the story of a novice nun who gives birth and insists that the dead child was the result of a virgin conception. A psychiatrist and the mother superior of the convent clash during the resulting investigation...
).
Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
(France, 1981) addressed him as "Mozart of Cinema" (Georges Delerue le Mozart des salles obscures). Delerue was the first composer to win 3 consecutive César Award
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
s: 1979 – Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, 1980 – Love on the Run
Love on the Run (1979 film)
Love on the Run is a 1979 French film directed by François Truffaut. It is Truffaut's fifth and final film about the character Antoine Doinel. A lot of the film is made of a "clip show" of the previous films in the series...
and 1981 – The Last Metro
The Last Metro
The Last Metro is a 1980 film made by Les Films du Carrosse, written and directed by the French filmmaker François Truffaut, and starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu....
. Georges Delerue was a Commander of Arts and Letters
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
, one of France's highest honours.
Biography
Delerue was born in RoubaixRoubaix
Roubaix is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is located between the cities of Lille and Tourcoing.The Gare de Roubaix railway station offers connections to Lille, Tourcoing, Antwerp, Ostend and Paris.-Culture:...
. His career was diverse and he composed frequently for major art house
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
directors
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, most often François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
(including Jules and Jim
Jules and Jim
Jules and Jim is a 1962 French film directed by François Truffaut based on Henri-Pierre Roché's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel and his wife, Helen Grund....
), but also for Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's film Contempt
Contempt (film)
Contempt is a 1963 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on the Italian novel Il disprezzo by Alberto Moravia. It stars Brigitte Bardot.-Plot:...
(Le Mépris), and for Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
, Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
, and Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
, besides working on several Hollywood productions, including Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
's Platoon
Platoon (film)
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth....
and Salvador
Salvador (film)
Salvador is a 1986 war drama film which tells the story of an American journalist in El Salvador covering the Salvadoran civil war. While trying to get footage, he becomes entangled with both leftist guerrillas and the right wing military...
.
He composed the music for Flemming Flindt
Flemming Flindt
Flemming Flindt was a Danish choreographer born in Copenhagen. He studied at the Royal Danish Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet schools, joined the Royal Danish Ballet and was promoted to soloist in 1955...
's ballet, Enetime (The Lesson), based on Ionesco's play, La Leçon. During his 42 years career he put his talent to the service of nearly 200 feature movies, 125 short ones, 70 TV films and 35 TV serials. The soundtrack
Diên Biên Phu (soundtrack)
Điện Biên Phủ Bande Originale du Film is based on the war docudrama by Pierre Schoendoerffer released in theaters on 1992....
for war docudrama by Pierre Schoendoerffer
Pierre Schoendoerffer
Pierre Schoendoerffer is a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician and since 2001 the President of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.-Family:...
, Diên Biên Phu
Dien Bien Phu (film)
Diên Biên Phu is a 1992 film written and directed by French veteran Pierre Schoendoerffer. With its huge budget, all-star cast, and realistic war scenes produced with the cooperation of the French and Vietnamese armies, Dîen Bîen Phu is regarded by many as one of the more important war movies...
(1992), was one of the late notable works.
According to many testimonies he would do and redo some cues to fit the new editing of a sequence without any protestation. He insisted on being allowed to orchestrate and conduct himself in order to polish every detail. Georges Delerue was extraordinarily gifted for melody and at creating surrounding overtones which encapsulated the spirit of the movies on which he collaborated, enhancing them often beyond the expectations of their directors.
Georges Delerue died from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Los Angeles at the age of 67, just after the recording of the last cue for the soundtrack to Rich In Love. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.
Awards and nominations
- Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
- Best Original Score: 1969: Anne of the Thousand DaysAnne of the Thousand DaysAnne of the Thousand Days is a 1969 costume drama made by Hal Wallis Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The film tells the story of Anne Boleyn...
: Nominated - Best Original Score: 1973: The Day of the DolphinThe Day of the DolphinThe Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 American science-fiction thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Loosely based on the 1967 novel, Un animal doué de raison , by French writer Robert Merle, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry.-Plot:A brilliant and driven scientist,...
:Nominated - Best Original Score: 1977: Julia: Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1979: A Little RomanceA Little RomanceA Little Romance is a 1979 romantic comedy film, starring Laurence Olivier and Diane Lane in her film debut. It was directed by George Roy Hill. The screenplay is written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill, based on a novel by Patrick Cauvin...
: Won - Best Original Score: 1985: Agnes of GodAgnes of GodAgnes of God is a play by John Pielmeier which tells the story of a novice nun who gives birth and insists that the dead child was the result of a virgin conception. A psychiatrist and the mother superior of the convent clash during the resulting investigation...
: Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1969: Anne of the Thousand Days
- César AwardCésar AwardThe César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
- Best Music Written for a FilmCésar Award for Best Music Written for a FilmThis is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film . Before 2000, the award was called "César Award for Best Music".-1970s:...
: 1979: Get Out Your HandkerchiefsGet Out Your HandkerchiefsGet Out Your Handkerchiefs is a 1978 French romantic comedy film directed by Bertrand Blier. The film received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards. The film had a total of 1,321,087 admissions in France. -Plot:...
(Préparez vos mouchoirs): Won - Best Music Written for a FilmCésar Award for Best Music Written for a FilmThis is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film . Before 2000, the award was called "César Award for Best Music".-1970s:...
: 1980: Love on the RunLove on the Run (1979 film)Love on the Run is a 1979 French film directed by François Truffaut. It is Truffaut's fifth and final film about the character Antoine Doinel. A lot of the film is made of a "clip show" of the previous films in the series...
(L'amour en fuite): Won - Best Music Written for a FilmCésar Award for Best Music Written for a FilmThis is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film . Before 2000, the award was called "César Award for Best Music".-1970s:...
: 1981: The Last MetroThe Last MetroThe Last Metro is a 1980 film made by Les Films du Carrosse, written and directed by the French filmmaker François Truffaut, and starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu....
(Le dernier métro): Won
- Best Music Written for a Film
- Genie AwardGenie AwardGenie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
- Best Original ScoreGenie Award for Best Achievement in Music – Original ScoreThe Genie Award for Best Achievement in Music - Original Score is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian original score.-1st Genie Awards:* Carl Zittrer, Paul Zaza,Murder By Decree...
: 1991: Black RobeBlack Robe (film)Black Robe is a 1991 film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay was written by Northern Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore, who adapted it from his novel of the same name....
: Won
- Best Original Score
- Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Original ScoreGolden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreThe Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
: 1969: Anne of the Thousand DaysAnne of the Thousand DaysAnne of the Thousand Days is a 1969 costume drama made by Hal Wallis Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The film tells the story of Anne Boleyn...
: Nominated - Best Original ScoreGolden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreThe Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
: 1979: A Little RomanceA Little RomanceA Little Romance is a 1979 romantic comedy film, starring Laurence Olivier and Diane Lane in her film debut. It was directed by George Roy Hill. The screenplay is written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill, based on a novel by Patrick Cauvin...
: Nominated - Best Original ScoreGolden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreThe Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
: 1973: The Day of the DolphinThe Day of the DolphinThe Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 American science-fiction thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Loosely based on the 1967 novel, Un animal doué de raison , by French writer Robert Merle, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry.-Plot:A brilliant and driven scientist,...
:Nominated
- Best Original Score
See also
- Amour de pocheAmour de pocheAmour de poche is a French comedy Fantasy film from 1957, directed by Pierre Kast, written by France Roche, starring Jean Marais. The scenario was based on a novel "Diminishing Draft" of Waldemar Kamempfert...
(1957, film) - L'honorable Stanislas, agent secretL'honorable Stanislas, agent secretL'honorable Stanislas, agent secret is a French comedy film from 1963, directed by Jean-Charles Dudrumet, written by Michel Cousin, starring Jean Marais and Geneviève Page. The film was known under the title "How to Be a Spy Without Even Trying", "The Reluctant Spy" , "Spionaggio senza frontiere"...
(1963, film) - Pleins feux sur StanislasPleins feux sur StanislasPleins feux sur Stanislas is a French comedy thriller film from 1965. It was directed by Jean-Charles Dudrumet, written by Michel Cousin and Jean-Charles Dudrumet, starring Jean Marais...
(1965, film)
External links
- Georges Delerue Official Web Site
- Georges Delerue discography at Soundtrackguide.net
- Biography in French (edited 1998)