The meeting of Strasbourg's Alex Lutz and Rouen's Vincent Blanchard could be akin to love at first sight. The duo has collaborated from the stage to television until winning, at the same ceremony in 2019, each a César (best actor for the first, best original film music for the second with Romain Greffe, followed by the Lumières prize for best film music) for the film "Guy". Since then, they have been inseparable and have just climbed the steps of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes in May for the premiere of the feature film "Une nuit" with another Rouen woman, Karin Viard, for the closing of the Un Certain Regard selection.
A fusional collaboration
Flashback: Vincent Blanchard is, for fifteen years, the leader of the folk rock band Joad. It was Thomas VDB who provoked the meeting with Alex Lutz's producer, Jean-Marc Dumontet, to compose the music for Audrey Lamy's first show, "Last Before Vegas". "Alex was his director," says Vincent Blanchard. From that moment we exchanged regularly and that for three years. We got along very well and he was happy with Joad's work. Then, solo, he asked me for a piece for the Molières ceremony. In 2015, when it was not going as agreed with the composer chosen by the producers, Alex imposed me at Studio Canal for the film The talent of my friends. A fusional collaboration was born.
"I learned that music should not take the viewer out of the film"
Rouen composer Vincent Blanchard
The Norman composer also worked with Laurent Baffie, Fabrice Éboué and Philippe Lellouche. He is then embarked on the great adventure of Catherine and Liliane and StereoTop on Canal +: "I wrote songs at the rate of four parodies a month. There, we really got to know each other with Alex. We had to be available for each other. And, in 2019, comes the movie Guy! As soon as he tells me about it, it seems extraordinary. He tells me right away that it's a movie where there will be a lot of music and songs, where Alex will play a 74-year-old variety singer. I understand that the involvement will be complete. I didn't want to disappoint. It was almost a Best off of a singer who does not exist. A few years later, I think that if we hadn't done it together, there wouldn't have been Guy right away. Nevertheless, after this film, I did not consider myself a film composer because I was in an exercise that I knew well. The format in three minutes and a half, verse/chorus... The success is at the rendezvous as much with the public as the critics.
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The Rouen Vincent Blanchard will continue his career with documentaries including "Lubrizol, the mayor and the strategy of hope", directed by Fabrice Macaux, then the feature film "President" by Anne Fontaine with Jean Dujardin. But, the cronies can not let go. Vincent Blanchard is engaged on the parody of Alex Lutz for Canal +, "La vengeance au triple gallop": "There, I drooled, but it was saving. I had to write a 1h45 orchestrated soundtrack. It was almost only one piece. I really learned that music shouldn't take the viewer out of the film. It must be in its place, neither too hard, nor too soft, nor too long. »
"One Night" will be released on July 5
And, on July 5, "One Night" will be released, the last collaboration between the two men: "It's a magnificent film that takes place 95% in the Parisian night. He is played by Alex and Karin Viard. It wants to be new wave with a lot of dialogue. A story that highlights the complexity of love. Although this is the first feature film after Guy and the César, I put myself in the continuity of a relationship of trust and fidelity. For music, we were wrong at the beginning and we had to reinvent a sound, an identity. I worked on the rushes mounted without cut. As Alex is a great music lover, he gave me tracks whose atmosphere he liked. I listened, tried to understand and wrote themes. It was an exciting job. A real puzzle so much so that, on the end sequence, we tested fifteen versions of the same piece to conclude with the team that there was no need for music. Now, I would consider it a success when we have hindsight. We are still too much into it. What will the press and the public think? What will he leave behind? Afterwards, we can say that we have done our job, "analyzes Vincent Blanchard.
" READ ALSO Alexandre Desplat : "It happened to me to write film music in two weeks"
"One Night" was unveiled on the Croisette in May, closing the Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The whole team walked the famous red carpet "and it was impressive and fascinating. All together, huge! I can't thank Alex and the producers enough, because they didn't have to invite us. It's a gift. I feel that way. A real consideration. I didn't feel at the end of the chain. A name on a credits, "says the composer with still a few stars in his eyes. Back in his Rouen studio, Vincent Blanchard first decided to take a break with Joad, "to recharge my batteries. A break to learn the piano" and especially to prepare his next project: "Alex called me back! I have to prepare for his next film. An adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu's novel, Connemara. »
