VA - Nouvelle Vague - Les musiques de film, 1957-1962 (2021)

The Nouvelle Vague is the name given to the great avant-garde trend of the late Fifties that redefined the way in which films were written, produced and directed. Up until then in the film world, music, unlike directing and screenwriting, had been considered of secondary importance, but this new cultural revolution gave pride of place to the music that accompanied the images. Take the recording session for “Lift To The Scaffold” for example, which amply illustrated the new role of music: trumpeter Miles Davis improvised over the images of filmmaker Louis Malle, and the resulting aura of the film is now a legend. Yet who remembers the famous song “L’eau à la bouche” that Serge Gainsbourg and Alain Goraguer wrote for the same film? This set produced by Olivier Julien provides a wonderful perspective that features an impressive array of exceptional musicians, from Georges Delerue to Paul Misraki and Michel Legrand, including Art Blakey and Martial Solal, and with Miles Davis, Alain Goraguer & Serge Gainsbourg of course. Patrick FRÉMEAUX