French composer Alexandre Desplat is the restless artist beyond the scores of numerous cherished films. The multitude of acclaimed productions which were sided by a Desplat musical creation consequently brought the composer no less than six Oscar nominations. This year alone features his presence in the development of six different movies, with themes, genres or directors varying greatly from fiction to war inspired, from Wes Anderson to the newly-acclaimed female director Angelina Jolie or Morten Tyldum, all projects creating a fast-paced, monumental, documented and down-at-heart ‘’musical game’’, which is no trifle or ‘’imitation’’.
Two of his major projects for this year are the highly expected The Unbroken (based on the life of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini and directed by Angelina Jolie) and The Imitation Game, also based on the life of a prominent figure, Alan Turing, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. In an exclusive interview given to Collider, the French composer confessed about the experience gained while creating the music for Morten Tyldum’s movie and focused on the time-limit offered in order to deliver the sound.
I mentioned these particular movies out of the six because they are related in terms of timing and the composer’s participation to Unbroken decided the coordinates for his level of involvement in The Imitation Game. In Alexandre Desplat’s words, the project was an ‘’unpredictable situation’’ (as he was at that time scheduled for Unbroken) and furthermore confessed that he ‘’had (only) three weeks before the film would start’’. The musical themes he created had to be to in accordance with the complex structure of the movie, which consists of ‘’many flashbacks and flashforwards’’ and thus was highlighted Desplat’s obsession for ‘’continuity’’ in terms of soundtracks and his striving to achieve almost always a unitary piece, creating a strong liaison between the debut and the finale of the movie. The French musician labelled the work for The Imitation Game as challenging and concluded that having to score a film in only three weeks offered him the advantage of the already established pace, because music is ‘’precise’’, it focuses on details, on final touches which must be added to an already steady ground.
Desplat considered the element of war in The Imitation Game to be a ‘’red herring’’, as the part which played the utmost importance was the story of Alan Turing, his drama as a genius dreaming to deliver the ‘’invention of the century’’. This being the case, the composer focused on the relationship between Alan and the other characters in the movie, on the more intimate side of music, thus choosing a small orchestra (with the exception of a few scenes).
Asked to mention his favorite scene or experience while creating the score for Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, Alexandre Desplat confessed that he was enthralled by the movie as an overall artistic piece and that he personally related to the story and the conveyed feelings: ‘‘With this one, I’m crazy about all of it and I fell in love with the film. I want to be in the film, like an actor would be in the film. I want to be inside the story. I want to jump into it. That’s how I feel and this film offers that. It’s very exciting’’.