THE TOP FILM SCORES BY ALEXANDRE DESPLAT

Alexandre Desplat is without question one of the most prolific composers in contemporary film. The 53-year-old Frenchman has composed for over 100 films since 1985 when he began contributing to small movies in his home country. Desplat composed the dark yet beautiful score for Syriana in 2005, and this remarkable musical feat cemented his place as one of the most in demand composers in the business. To celebrate the home entertainment release of THE IMITATION GAME arriving on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital platforms on 9th March 2015, courtesy of STUDIOCANAL, this feature will take a look at Alexandre Desplat's top film scores.


THE IMITATION GAME (2014)

Desplat had a very limited period of time to compose music reflecting the brilliant mind of Alan Turing. Desplat knew that a big-orchestra approach was out of the question—if not just for time’s sake, it was also too outsized for a story reflecting the unique mind of one man. Realizing that the visuals of the film would never be able to depict the process of Turing’s brain, Desplat decided to make that the focus of his music, paying homage to the godfather of computers by using machines to randomly layer multiple piano tracks over each other. The result is a an extremely atmospheric score to go along with one of the films of the year.

The Tree of Life (2001)

Terrence Malick's controversial masterpiece took nearly thirty years to come to the big screen, and with such a heavy burden of expectation, the film needed an equally bold musical score. Desplat delivered such a score in a typically emphatic fashion. His music is one of the film’s great binding forces, gifting Malick the cohesion that he often has difficulty establishing on his own.

The Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)

Beautifully whimsical, touching and bright, Desplat shows his versatility by creating a score that is clearly out of his comfort zone but no less incredible for Wes Anderson’s critically acclaimed The Fantastic Mr Fox. Desplat produces a resonantly beautiful sense of homecoming that speaks to the titular wild animal’s belief that everything will turn out alright in the end so long as his family survives in one piece


Birth (2004)

Even divorced from the setting of the film for which it was commissioned, Desplat’s score for Birth has the feel of a chilly afternoon somewhere north of 66th St. These pieces are some of the composer's most luxurious work—so garlanded with deep drums and dancing flutes that they genuinely begin to take on the feel of the wealthy characters onscreen. The recurring theme is a touch off-kilter, the perfect disequilibrium for a movie about an affluent Manhattan widow who starts to believe that her dead husband has been reincarnated in the body of a young boy.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Wes Anderson teams up with Desplat time after time due to the almost telepathic connection they have when working on a score for one of Anderson's films. Desplat's natural ability to capture Anderson’s movie worlds in just a couple of notes was critical to the filmmaker’s decision to move into the world of moviemaking where the uniquely quirky ideas he had in his head were finally allowed to be brought to the big screen. The Grand Budapest Hotel's music feels true to the films setting in a historically volatile period, its organ blasts and harpsichord tunes resounding with the call for a great adventure.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

This subtle yet beautiful score – another Oscar nominated piece from Alexandre Desplat – went a long way in providing the audience with the freedom to really experience escapism at its very best. The light and subtle tones used throughout added another layer of mystique and beauty to a film that would change cinema forever.

A Prophet(2009)

A Prophet is the masterpiece from Jacques Audiard, and composing a suitably gritty yet beautiful score was always going to be a near impossible feat. As you would come to expect from Desplat, he scored an elegant selection of music to provide the perfect backdrop to this Academy Award winning film.


THE IMITATION GAME arrives on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital platforms on 9th March 2015, courtesy of STUDIOCANAL

Blu-ray Review - The imitation Game (2014)

Genre:
Thriller
Distributor:
Studio Canal
Rating: 12
Director:
Morten Tyldum
Cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley,  Mark Strong, Matthew Goode
Release: 9th March 2015
Buy:The Imitation Game [Blu-ray]
The Imitation Game, as everyone probably knows at this point, is about Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) who was one of the radical figures in the creation of what we now know as the computer. He was also homosexual, and was convicted by the police as a result. Due to being forced to undertake chemical castration, he later committed suicide. The film was an early front runner for the Academy Awards and ended up being triumphant in the adapted screenplay category.

In The Imitation Game, Benedict Cumberbatch has never been better; he perfectly captures a driven man who has ideas too large for his time. He also manages to capture the paranoia Turing suffers after the war, specifically in the scenes where he is interrogated, which eventually leads to his downfall. Keira Knightley plays Joan Clarke who was one of the code breakers but had to operate in secret because of the sexism of the time. The rest of the cast is full of solid British actors like Mark Strong and Matthew Goode.

The production design is top notch by Maria Djurkovic who also did Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (which also shared some of the same cast). Both have an attention to period detail that is sorely lacking in many films. Oscar Faura shot it and he has been doing beautiful work for a long with films like The Orphanage and The Machinist and this no exception. Finally the director Morten Tyldum solidly puts it all together, even if at times it seems as though it’s begging for an Academy Award.

The film works on many levels; it’s firstly a nail-biting thriller that is gripping from the moment it starts to it’s sad climax, but it also works as a solid war film that shows the behind the scenes of what really won the war. Not only that, but it also works as a depiction of a time when being yourself could lead to prison, or in the case of Turing, even worse. The film is actually surprisingly funny throughout which is surprising given the subject matter, but Turing's interactions with high officials and his team of code breakers are laugh out loud funny as times. The Imitation Game is one of the better British films to be released in 2014, in a year where there were a surprising amount of British films up for the major awards in the US.

The Blu-ray release includes 3 features including 2 on the true history of the story, and finally the more standard making of.


★★★★

Ian Schultz

LIFF 2014 - The Imitation Game (2014)