ALEXANDRE DESPLAT

There are very few things I want to ask any composer. Is that odd?

What's so weird about FOX? People make things like GRINDHOUSE, THE GOOD GERMAN, deliberately retro live action films. Wes Anderson has made a deliberately retro animation film.

Just because other people make weird films doesn't make this film any less weird. Not only does it look shit, but it looks creepy.

What's next?! People criticising clay-mation because computer-based animation has made it redundant? Or anime because the representation isn't natural enough?
It just looks like a kids stop motion animation from the 80s.

There's a bit of a thing going on in the press at the moment about how the crew, who normally don't have to work with auteurs in doing their stop motion work, were very resistant to going back in time to more labour-intensive, artificial methods.

I'm not saying it's going to work for anyone. As we know, kids will watch anything that has a point (and it may not have one), and adults don't tend to like Wes Anderson films, so it could have a fairly narrow future ahead of it. Much as I like LIFE AQUATIC, it does seems like he may have squandered his opportunity to have a big friendly hit by making it too idiosyncratic.

@ all of the above comments:

Coraline.

Inquiétudes
Toni
Les péchés mortels
La femme du cosmonaute
Le château des singes
Les portes de la gloire

More questions?

Perhaps something about Golden Compass. If he built the score with the idea that there would be sequels. How he developed the theming, etc?

He will say that there was a theme for Lee Scoresby, which he planned to develop in the sequel. I assume it's a development of the little flute thing that appears whenever he does.

One thing I'd ask about GOLDEN COMPASS, is how the score originally ended. The original closing scenes of the film involved Daniel Craig's character opening up a doorway to another universe, with Lyra and Pan following after him. There was also a very dramatic final scene between Craig and Kidman. If this was scored, how was it scored, and was it disappointing to have that work thrown away when it was ultimately decided not to have the sequels?

Also, how would Lyra's theme have matured by the time - at the end of the trilogy - she realises she's not a child anymore. Would her theme have become intertwined with Will's (a character who is introduced in the second book)?

Please ask him if he does get any sleep these days?
What type of film he hasn't done yet that he would like to tackle? Science fiction movies or westerns interest him?

Word. Was so stunned by the experience!

Exactly! I'm astonished that people think it looks "shitty" or whatever, as if puppet films and animation should only be in ONE particular style?! Talk about lack of imagination and openness towards more original approaches. And yes, it DOES look retro. As I previously mentioned, I'm pretty sure they had an eye or two on Ivo Caprino's pioneering work when they made this. I'm looking forward to it very much.

Yes!

Actually, while I think what Pixar has done is wonderful, it's had a terrible effect on animated films more generally, because everyone else has tried to copy them, but has failed to realise that what makes Pixar films good isn't the fact that they are computer-animated (the medium is irrelevant) but that they have good scripts and are made with love. All the Dreamworks (and subsequently other studios') imitations seem to have been done under the mindset that just because it's CGI, everyone will love it.

I'm delighted to see Disney return to hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog (they should never have moved away) and I get the impression that a lot of love has gone into creating it.

There's a room for all styles!

Some retro things look good, some retro things don't. It depends on what is being revisited, not the fact that it's revisited in the first place. I liked the look of The Good German because I think there's a certain charm to an old looking live-action film. I don't like the look of Fantastic Mr. Fox because I think it looks cheap and creepy. Again, it's not the retro thing I'm against... it's the fact that it looks horrible. I can't explain it more simply than that. No amount of comparisons or arguing implications is going to change my mind about it!