Georges Delerue
Georges Delerue (March 12, 1925 – March 20, 1992), was a French film composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television.[1] 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 Awards: 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.
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[edit] Biography
Delerue was born in Roubaix. 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.
[edit] Awards and nominations
- Academy Awards
- Best Original Score: 1969: Anne of the Thousand Days: Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1973: The Day of the Dolphin:Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1977: Julia: Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1979: A Little Romance: Won
- Best Original Score: 1985: Agnes of God: Nominated [2]
- César Award
- Best Music Written for a Film: 1979: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez vos mouchoirs): Won
- Best Music Written for a Film: 1980: Love on the Run (L'amour en fuite): Won
- Best Music Written for a Film: 1981: The Last Metro (Le dernier métro): Won
- Genie Award
- Best Original Score: 1991: Black Robe: Won
- Golden Globe Awards:
- Best Original Score: 1969: Anne of the Thousand Days: Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1979: A Little Romance: Nominated
- Best Original Score: 1973: The Day of the Dolphin:Nominated
[edit] See also
- Amour de poche (1957, film)
- L'honorable Stanislas, agent secret (1963, film)
- Pleins feux sur Stanislas (1965, film)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Georges Delerue |
- Georges Delerue Official Web Site
- Georges Delerue at the Internet Movie Database
- Georges Delerue discography at Soundtrackguide.net
- Biography in French (edited 1998)
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