enchanting documentary on the composer of Jacques Demy, Jean-Luc Godard, “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “A Summer of 42″…

Tuesday 03rd December 2024 06:13 AM

David Hertzog Dessites' first film, “Once upon a time Michel Legrand” tackles a monument of Music for the screen and who also worked in jazz with Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans, for French singers and more personal compositions.

It is more of a musical biopic than a personal one, even if one does not go without the other, that David Hertzog Dessites invites in Once upon a time, Michel Legrandon screens Wednesday December 4, 2024.

Michel Legrand joined jazz in 1947 after having had his revelation during a concert by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. After spending his classes at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris from 1942 to 1949, becoming a French musician, composer, jazz pianist, singer and arranger naturalized American, Michel Legrand became a leading composer for cinema in the 1960s, both in France and in the United States.

David Hertzog Dessites does not dwell on the person, but on his musical creativity. So he takes as a backdrop the preparation and performance of his concert at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2018. But it is the musician's entire career that is reviewed, and the many artists with whom he has collaborated: Aretha Franklin, Céline Dion, Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, Nana Mouskouri, Stéphane Grappelli, Mireille Mathieu, Claude Nougaro or Natalie Dessay, among others others.

An immense melodist, he leaves to posterity some standards like The Windmills of Your Mind (The Mills of my heart) music from The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968), for which Michel Legrand received the Oscar for best original song in 1969. He will be honored with two others, in 1983 for Yentl (1982) and in 1972 for A summer of 42 (1971).

Archive extracts, interviews, rehearsal and concert scenes nourish Once upon a time, Michel Legrand. The title formula refers to Donkey skin (1970) by Jacques Demy, and identifies the composer as a prince of film music. But his contribution to French and American variety is not ignored, including collaborations with Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini, “monsters” of music for the screen.

The poster for “Once upon a time Michel Legrand” by David Hertzog Dessites (2024). (DULAC DISTRIBUTION)

Genre :Music documentary
Director: David Hertzog Dessites
Pays : France
Duration : 1h49
Sortie : Wednesday December 4, 2024

Synopsis : “Music is life”. Michel Legrand entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 10 and quickly established himself as a gifted talent. Three Oscars and 75 years later, he performed for the first time at the Philharmonie de Paris in front of a captivated audience. From song to cinema, this true virtuoso has never stopped pushing the boundaries of his art, collaborating with legends like Miles Davis, Jacques Demy, Charles Aznavour, Barbra Streisand and Natalie Dessay. His infinite energy makes him one of the most acclaimed composers of the century, whose flamboyant melodies continue to enchant us.