George Delerue (1925-1992) - composing partner for Truffaut:

George Delerue is a composer who gained a vast amount of film composing experience over several decades. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Darius Milhaud and went on to score for French television programmes and documentary films before making the transition to cinema music. Relatively early in his career he established a partnership with director Francois Truffaut starting with "Shoot the Pianist" and "Jules et Jim", but continuing over an extended period. Similarly he worked several times with the director Philippe de Broca, with Gérard Oury on "Le Corniaud" (The Sucker) and "Le Cerveau" (The Brain) and with Jean-Luc Godard. Although the composer's prior experience was widely-based stylistically, from ballets and operas to those documentaries, many (though not all) of his early films were either comedies or satirical in nature, and Delerue's music of the period reflected this with a light touch and a whimsical tone - the French equivalent of the music of Nino Rota for Italian director Fellini. Nevertheles the world-wide reputation earned by these directors resulted in their films being dubbed into English and contributed to establishing the name of Georges Delerue among film-makers.

Delerue then worked on a number of Hollywood productions, winning an oscar for "A Little Romance" and gaining nominations for "Ann of a Thousand Days", "The Day of the Dolphin", "Julia" and "Agnes of God". His music of the period became less European but retained its warm lyrical nature. His work in Hollywood tended to be for Romantic and Sentimental dramas, so those few films which show a darker more complex side seem surprising in contrast. As has happened with many other film composers, there are at least two instances where Delerue's music for a film was either largely or completely replaced and, perhaps coincidentally, they are not typical of the composer's romantic output. With "Platoon", Oliver Stone had used Barber's "Adagio for Strings" as his temporary or "temp track" and commissioned Delerue to compose music in this style. In the end Stone kept Barber's moving music and this rather overshadowed the remaining parts of Delerue's score. However the composer's original music was recorded and has been released on CD together with another of Delerue's wartime scores from 1986, "Salvador" - see links below. In the case of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" Delerue's music was completely replaced by an alternative from James Horner.

Films by George Delerue:

• Viva Maria - the movie with Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau stripping while singing "Marie, Marie"
• The Sucker (Le Corniaud) - for Gérard Oury
• The Brain (Le Cerveau) - with much music in the swinging pop styles of the day
• King of Hearts (Le Roi de coeur) - for Philippe de Broca
• Contempt (Le Mépris) - for Jean-Luc Godard and also staring Bardot
• Black Robe - gently restrained religious music
• Jules et Jim - whimsical
• Shoot the Pianist (Tirez sur le Pianiste) - Delerue himself plays the honky-tonk sounding piano on the soundtrack, although it is a young Charles Aznavour as the pianist on screen
• Anne of a Thousand Days - first of several oscar nominations for this story of Anne Boleyn
• A Man for All Seasons - Delerue's second film with Henry the Eighth
• Love on the Run - for Truffaut
• Women in Love - the Ken Russell film based on the novel by D. H. Lawrence
• The Day of the Dolphin
• Day of the Jackal
• A Little Romance - winning a Best Score oscar, with heavily classically-influenced music plus popular and jazz tracks
• Day for Night
• Platoon - Delerue's original music is somewhat overshadowed by the towering presence of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", and only gets a small representation on the soundtrack album
• Silkwood
• Maid to Order - has a classical sounding theme in the style of Mozart
• Crimes of the Heart - has a main theme played on saxophone
• A Walk with Love and Death
• Salvador - set during the 1980 El Salvador military dictatorship, the music for the war-time action is like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with added drums, but there is also a lighter but significant guitar theme
• Agnes of God - this choral score with a religious sound was also oscar nominated
• Confidentially Yours - French title "Vivement Dimanche", a later film with Truffaut
• The Last Metro
• Something Wicked This Way Comes - rejected and replaced by a score from James Horner
• Beaches
• The Woman Next Door
• Steel Magnolias - also oscar nominated, despite a number of popular tracks occupying space on the soundtrack and giving it a "southern" vibe
• Amelie - the film's main composer is Yann Tiersen yet there is are small snatches of Delerue's "Jules et Jim" and Barber's "Adagio for Strings"

Television work by George Delerue:

• Paul Gaugin - mini-series about the French impressionist artist

Recommendations:

There are a number of soundtrack albums available of music by Georges Delerue and if you want to gain an insight into his music, the following recommendations are a good place to start. There are other albums with Delerue collections but they can be hard to find.

• A Little Romance - his oscar-winning score available from www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk
• Platoon/Salvador - including much previously unreleased music, from www.amazon.com
• Truffaut & Delerue on the screen - an insight into the success of this partnership at www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk, with music from "Confidentially Yours", "A Beautiful Girl Like Me", "Day for Night", "The Last Metro" and "The Woman Next Door"

For a more detailed biography, filmography and catalogue of works see the official Georges Delerue site at www.georges-delerue.com (in French and English).