MUSIC BOX RECORDS

justin boggan wrote
Anyway, the clips sound fantastic.

Christodoulides wrote
Have they won any Oscars?

COMMENT LES SÉDUIRE • LES STRIP-TEASEUSES •
LES COMBINARDS
COMPOSED BY FRANÇOIS DE ROUBAIX

MUSIC BOX RECORDS pays tribute to François de Roubaix with three original motion picture soundtracks composed for Jean-Claude Roy's films: LES STRIP-TEASEUSES (1964), LES COMBINARDS (1965) and COMMENT LES SÉDUIRE (1001 WAYS TO LOVE,1967). Never released to this day under any kind of form, these scores are now available for the very first time on a CD gathering over one hour of music. Mixing jazzy
and bucolic tones, François de Roubaix created catchy tunes sustained by an orchestration as sophisticated and fresh as ever.

From the very beginning of his career, François de Roubaix displayed an obvious talent for melodies. Instinctively, the composer always selected the instrument which most perfectly fit them. Influenced by Django Reinhardt's virtuoso elegance, his practice of jazz made him emerge as a gifted improviser which added a good deal to his inspiration. Obviously his favorite instruments were the guitar and trombone, but he was also particularly fond of the flute and harmonica. Throughout the sixties, he often used an enforcing electric guitar in reference to James Bond's world. The piano was also prevailing in his music. It allowed him to express a large variety of feelings. As he worked very fast, François de Roubaix was able to compose dramatic themes as well as to offer numerous rhythmic variations out of a dance and to capture the essence of a folklore. Whether he worked for a commercial or an institutional short movie or a major feature film, he felt equally involved. He would not deliver less than an outstanding performance, most of the time for a moderate budget. Which appealed to a great number of filmmakers, either friends or admirers, all of them were thrilled by the result. One of them was Jean-Claude Roy who has always been cherishing delighted memories out of his complicity with this always efficient and enthusiastic musician.

These three unreleased movie soundtracks demonstrate that his unique talent for melodies never failed.

Gilles Loison wrote the liner notes for this brand new album. Captivated both by television and cinema since his childhood, he took a very early interest to movie soundtracks. He then became aware of the singular talent of François de Roubaix, at the very moment of his fatal disappearance. In 2006, in collaboration with Laurent Dubois, he published an exhaustive work of 570 pages with abundant illustrations: François de Roubaix, charmeur d'émotions.

LE BON PLAISIR
COMPOSED BY GEORGES DELERUE

LE BON PLAISIR, directed by Francis Girod in 1984 and based on Françoise Giroud's eponymous novel, deals with the efforts of a president of the French Republic (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) informed after a number of years of the existence of a son born from an extramarital relationship with Claire, a former mistress (played by Catherine Deneuve) and using the secret services to cover up any kind of proof likely to
tarnish his reputation.

For this movie, Georges Delerue's music is far more complex than it could appear. The score is elaborated around four different musical tones, rendering the structure of the film plot : the beginning of the story which
establishes a context of power with some pastiches of official musics; the police enquiry concerning the stolen letter naturally characterized by more mysterious themes; scenes of tenderness between Claire and her
son Mike and the president; and then the very intensely dramatic conclusion of the film.

Georges Delerue's score for LE BON PLAISIR is definitely worth numerous listenings, each one more significant than the previous to the perceptive listener who is bound to notice the intuition of a composer implying various layers of understanding.

This CD release has been expanded over the original soundtrack LP by more than 15 minutes.

Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb wrote the booklet for this brand new album. He is an assistant professor in cinema at the University of Metz and the author of several papers about theme music, among which a biography: Georges Delerue, Une Vie (1998) and the collective work Analyser la musique de film (BOD Editions, 2010).

A CD is dedicated to two original motion picture soundtracks composed and conducted by Claude BOLLING (MBR-010): LA GITANE (1986) and LE LÉOPARD (1984)

A CD is an anthology of the most beautiful music written by François DE ROUBAIX for short films produced between 1963 and 1973 (MBR-018).

A CD is dedicated to THE HOUSE ON CARROLL STREET (1988), original motion picture soundtrack composed by Georges DELERUE (MBR-019) / World Premiere Release.