Movies

Stepping in the footprints of a T. rex, Alexandre Desplat picks up the baton for ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’

BBG News

A vast, looming presence hangs over the characters in “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” a shadow that has long pursued composer Alexandre Desplat since his teenage years in Paris.

That shadow? The music of John Williams.

On a Zoom call from London, Desplat, aged 63, praises him as an extraordinary figure whom we all admire. He adds that there’s simply no one else like him when it comes to continuing the legacy of “Frankenstein,” which he is currently working on for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film.

Similar to Williams, Desplat has become a seasoned (yet artistically appealing) professional, boasting hundreds of films in his portfolio. This year alone, he’s already finished three soundtracks – for the Palme d’Or contender “Eagles of the Republic”, Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” and the latest “Jurassic World” film.

On July 15, he’ll be debuting as a conductor in North America for the first time, leading a comprehensive retrospective of his film composing career at the Hollywood Bowl. This is a well-deserved and long-awaited recognition of his 20-year tenure as a top-tier composer in the United States.

In the early 2000s, when Desplat started composing scores for Hollywood films, his music was akin to a refreshing gust of French wind – sophisticated, controlled, melodious, and uniquely his own. A notable group of directors, including Terrence Malick, Ang Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, David Fincher, Jonathan Glazer, Greta Gerwig, eagerly sought him out, much like one would curate a significant collection from the Criterion Collection.

As a dedicated movie enthusiast, Anderson’s my go-to partner. He was the one who brought me on board for “Fantastic Mr. Fox” back in 2007, and he played a significant role in Alexandre Desplat’s first Oscar win with “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” (He’s been nominated eleven times!) Our seventh collaboration unfolded in “The Phoenician Scheme.

In 2014, when I embarked on my journey as a film composer, my role models were clearly in view – naturally Hitchcock and Herrmann, David Lean and Maurice Jarre, François Truffaut and Georges Delerue. These collaborations between directors and composers were powerful, demonstrating the crucial significance of the bond between them for both parties. This relationship not only benefits the movie, but it also aids composers in refining their unique styles by working on multiple films with the same director.

In a town where mass-produced music was commonly found, his compositions stood out like exquisite French cuisine, despite his upbringing on an American diet of movies and their famous scores. The young Desplat was deeply captivated by U.S. culture – immersing himself in jazz, baseball, and the Oscars – and it was after hearing “Star Wars” in 1977 that he developed a passion for scoring films. On the cover of that legendary black album were the words “Composed and Conducted by John Williams.

“That,” Desplat told his friend at the time, “is what I want to do.”

It’s quite ironic and amusing that the composer, who enchanted viewers two decades ago with a graceful, waltzing melody for Scarlett Johansson’s prestigious film “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” is now marketing a thundering, monstrous score for a giant-sized blockbuster movie featuring Johansson and CGI dinosaurs. Moreover, this composer is also venturing to manipulate the musical genes of John Williams’ revered compositions.

In a past instance, Desplat wasn’t encountering the colossal footsteps of his hero for the first time with “Jurassic World: Rebirth”. Previously, he had worked on the last two movies in the “Harry Potter” series and was the initial composer for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”. He parted ways with the latter project when Tony Gilroy replaced original director Gareth Edwards, before even penning a single note.

Desplat elaborated that he stayed involved up until the shift in leadership and alterations in the project’s direction. As time went by, he felt compelled to depart because he wished to collaborate with Luc Besson on ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,’ which was released in 2017.

In “Rebirth,” Desplat’s tributes to Williams are more soft and suggestive, rather than loud and clear, although there are definite nods to the iconic theme and hymn from Spielberg’s 1993 Jurassic Park. More covert homages can be found in his use of solo piano and ethereal choir, as well as the opening three notes of his motif for Johansson’s team, which bears a striking resemblance to Williams’ “Jurassic” hymn.

“So there’s a connection,” Desplat says. “I take the baton and I move away from it.”

He created fresh themes to express awe, excitement, and peril. Just as the initial one, his music is like a thrilling roller coaster journey, offering unexpected twists, humor, and age-appropriate suspense, interspersed with brief instances of emotional introspection and release.

Mostly, Edwards kept pushing him for more hummable motifs.

Desplat recalls a moment when he considered returning to something more abstract, like a French film. However, he was encouraged to revisit the style of John Williams, focusing on creating memorable and catchy motifs by composing great themes.

Desplat expresses concern that the craft may be dying out in Hollywood. ‘I rarely come across it in the films I watch,’ he notes. ‘It’s a subtle, textural backdrop – the simplest aspect to produce.’

In his college years, he frequently played the soundtrack from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” repeatedly. As his own composing career progressed, he carefully studied John Williams’ more intimate chamber scores such as “The Accidental Tourist” and “Presumed Innocent,” along with blockbusters like “Jurassic Park.” The music itself became ingrained in him, but more importantly, he learned the importance of scoring all types of films, regardless of their size. Williams’ work also showed him that he could create something refined, classical, yet subtly infused with elements of jazz in the chords or melody development.

Every time someone talks disrespectfully about Williams, Desplat feels compelled to defend him. With a hint of jest, he admits, “I feel like I’d love to give them a good punch.

In 2010, Desplat shared with me that he’s considered the leading figure in American film music. He’s the top dog, so to speak. He’s the last of the great American movie composers. That sums it up. He set a standard, and it takes courage and strength to attempt to surpass him, but with modesty and ambition. It’s like a challenge, if you will.

In 2007, when Desplat earned his first Academy Award nomination for “The Queen”, it was Maurice Jarre, the composer behind “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago”, who phoned from Los Angeles to offer his congratulations.

Over time, Desplat had crossed paths with the French legend multiple instances, among them an initial offer to collaborate during the 1990 film’s mixing session titled “After Dark, My Sweet”. Shockingly, when Desplat witnessed director James Foley dismantling Jarre’s melody and other musical components on the mixer, all that remained was a basic electronic beat.

The budding musician voiced his disappointment, to which Jarre replied coolly, “It’s his movie. I must learn to deal with that fact.

Desplat shares that he picked up this lesson quite early, something he’s never forgotten since then as it remains relevant,” he chuckles.

As a young man, he was affectionately welcomed by Georges Delerue, the renowned composer of the French New Wave films such as “Jules and Jim” and “Contempt”. “They were so kind,” Desplat reminisces, “such gentle souls, both of them.” (Michel Legrand? That’s a different story, Desplat claims: “He spoke unkindly about me in his writings.”)

All of them share a common trait, aside from their talent for creating enchanting music, which is their daring transatlantic journey from the French film industry to the pinnacle of Hollywood. Jarre departed Paris in the early 1960s following the monumental success of “Lawrence”, and never looked back, establishing fruitful collaborations with directors such as Peter Weir and Adrian Lyne. Delerue moved from Paris to the Hollywood Hills after winning his first Oscar in 1980 and went on to achieve successes like “Steel Magnolias” and “Beaches”.

Desplat began his professional career in France back in 1985, composing approximately 50 scores prior to “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” which marked his entry into Hollywood’s spotlight as an English-language film. He still works on French movies, interspersed between summer blockbusters and independent American films.

According to him, his aspiration was always to compose music for symphonic scores. However, for quite some time, this opportunity didn’t materialize in French cinema because the films or producers didn’t provide it. Consequently, he had to figure out how to create a grand sound using minimal musicians.

He thrives on the independence that comes with a high-budget production, where he can simply be told, “Go ahead, create as you wish.” In such projects, if the director desires an orchestra with 95 musicians, it’s all possible without any questions. They just arrange the studio, book the musicians, and let him record.

Despite the constraints he faced during training, Desplat’s limitations actually fostered some of his most potent qualities: ingenuity, adaptability, swiftness. Being self-reliant in orchestration has left an undeniable mark on his music. Moreover, composing for modest, sometimes non-traditional groups lends a clear, uncluttered tone to his work, contrasting the common blanket of muddiness.

He’s rather reserved about discussing his 100-minute score for “Frankenstein,” a production he recently recorded with an enormous orchestra and choir at Abbey Road and AIR Studios, set to release on Netflix in November. Desplat suggests that the reason he takes on so many films is due to him being more leisurely by nature.

It seems to me that those who work extensively might be perceived as lazy, given that they work so much only because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t work at all.

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2025-07-02 00:01

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