Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat is one of the most coveted film composers in the world today. Desplat is noted for his collaborations with some of the world’s top filmmakers: Wes Anderson, George Clooney, Stephen Daldry, David Fincher, Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper, Ang Lee, Terrence Malick, Roman Polanski and Angelina Jolie garnering eight Academy Award nominations.

Desplat first captivated American ears with The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Birth. The Golden Globe and Oscar winner has since scored a range of incredible films, eight of which have been Oscar-nominated: The Queen, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The King’s Speech, Argo, Philomena, The Imitation Game and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel which won the 2015 Oscar for Best Score.

Desplat’s recent work includes Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, his second collaboration with Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), The Danish Girl, Illumination Entertainment’s recent box office smash hit, The Secret Life Of Pets, Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep, and Touchstone’s The Light Between Oceans starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Coming up next for Desplat is Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut American Pastoral starring Jennifer Connelly, Ewan McGregor and Dakota Fanning, and director Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Born to a Greek mother and French father, Desplat grew up in France with a budding love for Hollywood film music, and broke into the French film industry in the 1980s. With a penchant for lyricism, elegant orchestrations, and precise dramatization, Desplat has quickly joined the pantheon of all-time greats. “I was in a car with a friend who had offered me a double vinyl of Star Wars,” Desplat remembers. “It might have been ’78. He gave me this record, and I remember having said to him, “Hmm. ‘Music composed and conducted by John Williams.’ That’s what I want to do.” And that’s what I’m doing.”

Photo: Brigitte Lacombe