Bruno Coulais

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Bruno Coulais (born 13 January 1954) is a French composer, most widely known for his music on film soundtracks. Coulais was born in Paris; his father is from Vendée and his mother is an Iraqi Jew.

[edit] Biography

Bruno Coulais, July 2006.

Coulais began his musical education on the violin and piano, aiming to become a composer of contemporary classical music. However, a series of acquaintances gradually re-oriented him towards film music. Coulais was particularly influenced by director François Reichenbach, who asked him in 1977 to write the soundtrack to his new documentary Mexico Magico. The first full-length production he composed the score for was the 1986 film La femme secrète by Sébastien Grall. Until the end of the 1990s, he remained low-profile, composing mainly for television. His name can often be found from TV films by Gérard Marx and Laurent Heynemann. He also composed the soundtracks for Christine Pascal's 1992 film Le petit prince a dit, and Agnès Merlet's Le fils du requin in 1993.

In 1994, he met the television producer Josée Dayan, who let him write a theme for the TV series La rivière Esperance, aired on the France 2 network in autumn 1995. He worked with Dayan again with other major productions such as Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Balzac, and Les nuiteux.

The largest turning point of his career came in 1996, when he worked with directors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou of the documentary Microcosmos. This single film, which gave a great significance to the music in it, was a great success and made Coulais one of the most wanted composers of French film music. In 1997, he won the César award for the best musical score in a film, as well as a Victoire de la Musique. His reputation was confirmed by the soundtracks to Himalaya (1999) and Les rivières pourpres (2000), and after that Bruno Coulais's name was to be found on most new French blockbusters, such as Belphégor and Vidocq.

After producing the soundtrack to Winged Migration in 2001, Coulais announced that he wanted to significantly reduce his contributions to film music, and instead concentrate on other projects, such as the creation of an opera for children, and collaborations with Akhenaton, Akhenaton's group IAM and the Corsican group A Filetta, with whom he had worked since he had made the soundtrack for Jacques Weber's film Don Juan in 1998.

In 2002, his name was found on the ending credits of the animation L'enfant qui voulait être un ours, and in 2004, on Frédéric Schoendoerffer's Agents secrets. The same year, he wrote the soundtrack to the film Les choristes by Christophe Baratier, which subsequently became an international hit. The music for this film received as great praise as the film itself, and it won Coulais his third César award. Since then, Coulais's collaborations in cinema seem to be limited to works by directors with whom he already shares some history, in particular Jacques Perrin, Frédéric Schoendoerffer, and James Huth.

Bruno Coulais's musical style may vary significantly between different projects, but there are some constant factors visible: his taste for opera and for human voice (in particular that of children), for a search for original sonority, for world music and mixing different musical cultures, and finally, a certain tendency to give preference to the ambience created by lighting rather than the film's narration.

[edit] Filmography

La femme secrète, 1986, directed by Sebastien Grall
Qui trop embrasse, 1986, directed by Jacques Davila
Zanzibar, 1988, directed by Christine Pascal
La campagne de Cicéron, 1990, directed by Jacques Davila
Le jour des rois, 1991, directed by Marie-Claude Treilhou
Le fils du requin, 1992, directed by Agnes Merlet
Le retour de Casanova, 1992, directed by Edouard Niermans
Les équilibristes, 1992, directed by Nico Papatakis
Le petit prince a dit, 1992, directed by Christine Pascal
Vieille canaille, 1992, directed by Gérard Jourd'hui
Waati, 1994, directed by Souleymane Cissé
Adultère mode d'emploi, 1995, directed by Christine Pascal
Microcosmos, le peuple de l'herbe, 1995, directed by Claude Nuridsany
La famille Sapajou (television), 1997, directed by Elisabeth Rappeneau
Don Juan, 1997, directed by Jacques Weber
Déjà mort, 1997, directed by Olivier Dahan
Préférence, 1997, directed by Gregoire Delacourt
Gaetan et Rachel en toute innocence, 1997, directed by Suzy Cohen
Belle maman, 1998, directed by Gabriel Aghion
Serial Lover, 1998, directed by James Huth
Balzac (television series), 1999, directed by Josée Dayan
Épouse-moi, 1999, directed by Harriet Marin
La débandade, 1999, directed by Claude Berri
Scènes de crimes, 1999, directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer
Le libertin, 1999, directed by Gabriel Aghion
Un dérangement considérable, 1999, directed by Bernard Stora
Zaide, un petit air de vengeance, 1999, directed by Josée Dayan
Comme un aimant (The Magnet), 2000, directed by Kamel Saleh and Akhenaton
Les rivières pourpres (The Crimson Rivers), 2000, directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
Harrison's Flowers, 2000, directed by Elie Chouraqui
Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre, 2000, directed by Jean-Paul Salomé
De l'amour, 2000, directed by Jean-Francois Richet
Un aller simple, 2000, directed by Laurent Heynemann
Vidocq, 2000, directed by Pitof
Origine océan quatre milliards d'annees sous les mers, 2001, directed by Gérald Calderon
L'enfant qui voulait être un ours, 2001, directed by Jannick Astrup
Le Peule migrateur (Winged Migration), 2001, produced by Jacques Perrin
Genesis, 2002, directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou
Les choristes, 2003, directed by Christophe Barratier
Agents secrets , 2003, directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer
Je préfère qu'on reste amis..., 2004, directed by Eric Toledano
Brice de Nice, 2004, directed by James Huth
Milady (television), 2004, directed by Josée Dayan
Sometimes in April (television), 2005, directed by Raoul Peck
Les rois maudits (television miniseries), 2005, directed by Josée Dayan
Gaspard le bandit (television), 2006, directed by Benoît Jacquot
La planète blanche, 2006, directed by Thierry Piantanida and Thierry Ragobert