Interview with film composer Laurent Perez del Mar

Laurent, I am really looking forward to the World Premiere of THE RED TURTLE. The film was released to critically acclaim and commercial success back in 2016. You were awarded for the “Best Original Score for an Animated Film” by the International Film Music Critics Association and nominated for the Lumiere Awards in France. Why did it take seven years to bring your celebrated score to the concert hall?

I had a few offers, but in the end, between the Covid phase and working on films after THE RED SHIELD, I never found the time to take care of a possible film concert.

I have vivid memories of the German premiere of the modern silent film THE ARTIST in concert with composer Ludovic Bource playing the grand piano. Though THE RED TURTLE has no spoken dialogue it is not a silent film. I assume that presenting this live is a bigger challenge? Can you describe the pitfalls? Did you have to adapt your music for this special event?

There are two things that require work, playing the music while being perfectly synchronous with the image of course, but also and above all adapting, transcribing all the parts that I had played myself in my studio for the orchestra. Indeed, I had replaced a large part of the percussion with bamboos, I had recorded myself all the native flutes, the celestas, the harps, the pianos, the charengos…and it is therefore necessary to edit and adapt the scores of all these instruments and make the music "playable" by a conventional orchestra. This is what takes the most time, but fortunately I can count on my collaborator to help me with this task.

Your score is intense with a truly haunting cello leading the string section. But it also has very tender passages, with an almost healing quality. Did you draw on experiences from your medicine studies?

I do not think so, or maybe because of my sensitivity, that I put at the service of patients, and that I put at the service of the listeners of my music, but that is the only common point that I see in it today.

A crucial element of this healing quality is the heavenly voice of soprano Julia Wischniewski. At which stage of the production did she get involved?

Very early. When I met Michael Dudok de Wit at lunch, I wrote the theme for the film the same day, and recorded Julia the same evening so I could send it to Michael. I knew she was the perfect performer for this theme, and that her voice would form an ideal duet with Sarah's cello. She was therefore involved from day one in the creation and recording of this original music.

If a composer incorporates a soprano in his film score, critics always jump to the conclusion “being inspired by Ennio Morricone”. Do critics deal fairly with you and your generation of composers?

I completely assume the extremely enduring legacy of Ennio Morricone in my influences. All artists, no matter which field, study, appreciate, digest the work of their elders. Concerning me, that of Ennio, whom I met several times, at whose table I even had the privilege of dining, and who gave me advice that I think about every day in my work. I love his music, and if sometimes I am told that I am influenced by his genius, well, I take that as a compliment.

I highly recommend the CD respectively digital download. Interestingly you have chosen to present the music on the album out of film order. Why?

Like all musicians, I want people to listen to my music. It so happens that in the order of the film, the music begins very gradually, with pads first, then string effects... and I was afraid that the listener would lose interest in the album and zap before to more thematic, more emotionally charged music.

You have written music for almost forty films. Several animated films but mostly feature films. What are the differences between musically approaching a character embodied by an actor and an animated character?

The difference is not in my opinion on the characters but rather on the genre because the animation does not set any limit related to the "real", we can sometimes write more orchestrated music, with more breath, we can push the sliders of emphasis much further than in live action feature films, where we are often more constrained by reality. (I am obviously not talking about science fiction and other fantastic films).

As a beginner’s guide to your oeuvre, please recommend five films beyond THE RED TURTLE.

It's difficult because I invest myself so much that I'm so attached to each project. I would say Zarafa, Wolfie the Incredible Secret, Tenor, My Son, Antigang La relève.

The Braunschweig International Film Festival has a special relationship with French cinema. I remember meeting the late Antoine Duhamel and Jean-Michel Bernard among others. Where do you locate yourself as a composer in the great French film music tradition? And what is your unique contribution to this tradition?

I find it difficult to define because my influences are multiple. It is true that I really like Delerue's writing for strings, and Francis Lai's sense of melody (who lived on the same hill as me in Nice), whose thematic approach I feel very close to. But above all, I try to find a particular sound for each film, special instruments, diverted from their initial objective, from their geographical location, to combine concept and composition.

Thank you, Laurent, for taking the time to answer our questions. Have fun at the BIFF!

Interview conducted and translated by Clemens Williges