The French singer, who composed the soundtrack to Jacques Audiard’s film, will battle it out in Hollywood to compete at the Oscars in March.
“We were in the forest, we will be in front of the ocean.” The singer Camille leaves her cocoon in Périgord to settle with her family in Los Angeles and defend the film’s soundtrack at the Oscars Emilia Perezcomposed with his companion Clément Ducol.
From writing the script to filming and the upcoming release of the film’s soundtrack, Jacques Audiard’s film occupied five years of the life of the couple, who will now wage battle in Hollywood to compete in two musical categories in March .
Chosen to represent France, this musical feature film, awarded the jury prize at Cannes, which attracted nearly a million spectators in France, could also compete for the Oscar for best foreign film.
“It’s a real electoral campaign,” observes Clément Ducol, a 42-year-old multi-instrumentalist, interviewed in Paris by AFP with Camille. “We have to meet voters, have screenings, dinners.”
Radical decision
For family and “ecological” reasons, the couple did not envisage “making 50 round trips in two months” and took the radical decision to settle with their two children in the temple of American “entertainment” .
The transition could seem brutal for Clément Ducol, coming from classical music and composer of several film scores, and Camille, 46 years old, organic singer who has cultivated her singularity since her album The thread (2005). Several years ago, the couple fled urban life and conventions to cultivate their art in the Périgord countryside.
The two musicians, however, see in their American escapade the natural extension of the adventure begun in 2020 during their first residency with Jacques Audiard and his favorite screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, at the beginning of the creation ofEmilia Perez.
“We got to where we are because we did a residency in Périgord. And now we’re going to Los Angeles,” sums up Camille with a touch of humor, who composed the lyrics forEmilia Perez in Spanish – a language she does not speak – and whose singing served as a template for the film’s performers, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña and trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon.
“Little baby”
This filial link with Emilia Perez has a lot to do with their decision to accompany the film in the United States, where its release is scheduled for November 1 at the same time as that, in digital format, of their double album.
“We are very motivated, we worked a lot on this film, we love what it says and we want to do justice to this work,” emphasizes Camille. “It’s our little baby,” adds Clément Ducol.
While the script was only a twenty-page sketch, their music, songs and lyrics followed, almost in real time, the script developments of Audiard and his friend. After a little morning discussion, everyone went back to writing their score, influenced by the others.
“It was enjoyable,” remembers Clément Ducol. “The music was an integral part of the construction of the narrative and was transformed like the main characters who are constantly evolving.”
Mosaic of genres
The filmmaker and his co-writer, accustomed to the long filming time, were this time able to see their story, the very evening it was written, come to life in songs.
“They were jubilant, remembers Clément Ducol. The song is such a concentrate of narration that they happened to say: ‘It’s great, we can remove 20 pages of script, you say everything in this song'”.
“The music does not reflect the film, it was woven at the same time,” summarizes Camille. This time of creation behind closed doors was followed by that of filming, with extended technical teams. “It was the stream that joins the river,” analyzes Camille. “From a team of 4, you go to 150.”
The creation of the double album allowed the tandem to rework in a small group a musical material now enriched with the singing of the actresses, guided by the common thread of Camille’s voice, mixing extracts from the film and transcending styles. “It’s a mosaic of genres,” says Camille, “just like Emilia Perez“.
