The La Baule Festival is a cultural event that celebrates the meeting between the cinema and film music. Held annually in the seaside resort of La Baule, this festival offers a rich and diverse program: screenings of feature films, short films, musical documentaries, film premieres and classic films, as well as themed evenings and master classes bringing together professionals and enthusiasts of the 7th art.

In addition to the screenings, the festival celebrates film music through unique concerts - this year, Lambert Wilson will pay tribute to the great songs of French cinema - meetings, exhibitions and other events that explore the deep links that unite image and sound. As part of the French Touch partnership with the Festival, some members of the Bpifrance Excellence Club were able to attend the opening evening in the presence of the jury, Diane Kurys, director of the film being shown I who loved you and the Festival team. We spoke with the event's co-founder, Christophe Barratier, a French director, screenwriter, and producer renowned for his work in contemporary cinema (The Chorus in 2004, Faubourg 36 in 2007, The New War of the Buttons in 2011, etc.)

The French Touch: This is the 11th edition of the La Baule Festival. What can festival-goers expect?

Christophe Barratier: First of all, I think it is necessary to recall what we mean by "film music festival." Because, like most film festivals, we present unreleased films, which have not yet been released, and are therefore unknown to the public. Our criterion for focusing on film music is that we select works whose soundtrack was composed at least 50% specifically for the film, and is therefore not made up solely of covers or synchronizations.

New for festival-goers this year is the Saturday evening, which we usually dedicate to a composer, and which will be given this time by our guest of honor, the actor, director and singer Lambert Wilson. He will be accompanied by three instrumentalists, and will perform the greatest songs of French cinema, to celebrate the 130 years of cinema. We also dedicated an exhibition to Brigitte Bardot, on the occasion of her 90th birthday, which is more than a photo gallery because it also brings together objects and accessories that belonged to her, and which had never been presented before.

The La Baule Film & Music Festival relies entirely on a team of volunteers and enthusiasts, unpretentious but with high standards. We have always made it possible for everyone to attend. It is not reserved for professionals or a filmmaking elite; it is a popular festival, where you can bring your family, where you can meet the talents and personalities present, and this will continue this year.

Opening ceremony of the 11th La Baule Film & Film Music Festival

FT: Does this meeting also aim to break down barriers, to bring together those who make cinema and film music?

CC: Yes, and I guarantee it! My father, Jacques-Henri Barratier, was Jacques Demy's assistant on musical films. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) et Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. I was in a way born with the cinema of Jacques Demy, I even have a photo at two years old in the arms of Gene Kelly when he played in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, in which my uncle, Jacques Perrin, also played. So film music has always been part of my life, I never even asked myself the question!

It must be remembered that from its birth in 1895, cinema was silent, not silent, it never has been! The first films, three-minute works that were shown at fairs, were already accompanied by music. And not just a piano: a small orchestra, two or three musicians, who improvised according to the images and gave them meaning. Proof that in cinema, when words are absent, it is the music that takes over. And this is still true today, with films that include long silent shots, and where it is the music that allows the characters' inner stories to be told and the drama to develop.

We can also remember that before DVDs, digital and the possibility of rewatching films at home at will, the only way to relive the emotions of a film that we had seen was records! As a child, I would listen to soundtracks composed by Ennio Morricone or John Williams. And then there are composers who have signed soundtracks that sometimes become better known than the film itself, I am thinking of the film's music Forbidden Games (1952) of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) composed by Maurice Jarre, orOnce upon a Time in the West (1968) composed by Ennio Morricone: even those who have not seen the film can know which one it is.

So I fight a lot in favor of film music, and especially for original music. I'm not saying that we should systematically reject it, sometimes it's a good thing, but I don't believe, on the other hand, that we should always make film music by having the approach of exposing our "favorite playlist", in the manner of what was brought by Quentin Tarantino and has been widely taken up in France. I'm not saying that it's a lazy approach. But I've always considered that music and a film should unite, sometimes even to avoid too many words, and that for that we must call on the composer, a profession that I consider intrinsic to cinema. This is all the more true since the profession of film music composer is very specific, and it is not accessible to all musicians.

American actor, singer and dancer Gene Kelly (1912 - 1996) filming his latest movie 'Les Demoiselles de Rochefort' ('The Young Ladies of Rochefort') in Rochefort, France, 14th June 1966. (Photo by Reg Lancaster/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

FT: How does this translate?

CC: I think more and more people are making music, but fewer and fewer are writing it down. Because machines are taking over, and music is becoming uninterpretable by anyone but the person who made it.

Many people are capable of creating a very beautiful theme on the piano and calling on an arranger to amplify or adapt it. But what is very difficult in film music is to intervene on passages, the clips, where precisely no theme is developed, but to which one must still give a nuance. For example: a character leaves unhappy, the other watches him leave, and the musician has only fifteen seconds to emphasize the emotion. These fifteen seconds are the most difficult because the musician does not have time to develop, he has to bring something, and that is consistent with the general orchestration of the film. I work with composers such as Bruno Coulais or Philippe Rombi, who have this sense. I do not make it a fight but I believe that in our profession, it is necessary to remember that we create things born from feelings that we felt during childhood, and my collection of film music was so sacred that I wish to continue to support this profession. Especially since the French have always been very good in this area, with eight French composers winning Oscars to date.

Maurice Jarre, the French composer seen here in Berlin in 1996, won three Academy Awards for Best Original Film Score during his career: in 1962 for Lawrence of Arabia, in 1965 for Doctor Zhivago, and in 1985 for The Road to India. (Photo by Alexander Stingl/United Archives via Getty Images)

FT: You say that machines are taking up more space, what technologies are you thinking of in particular?

CC: Philippe Rombi, who is a classically trained composer and therefore knows how to write for orchestra perfectly, uses mock-ups via software to communicate with producers and give them an idea of ​​the final instrumentation. For example, he will create a piano theme and use samples of Hans Zimmer by taking, in different acoustics, several cello sounds. This, thanks to the software, gives the impression of an orchestra. It is of such quality, with dazzling progress every month, that the producer might ask himself: "what's the point of recording with an orchestra?" But I am absolutely in favor of this type of machine, because it allows you to realize what the final result will be. I think you have to use them, be careful, accompany them, but that talent, style, and personality will always win, regardless of the style of the artificial agent used.

FT: The poster for the La Baule Film & Film Music Festival also suggests transmission between generations. Is it your goal to transmit a passion for film music and cinema in general?

CC: Yes, we are working in this direction. We systematically organize a session for schoolchildren, with a film intended for a young audience where the composer comes to explain his creative process. This always inspires a lot of curiosity, and it is reassuring to see that there is a movement in this direction: for about twenty years, conservatories have integrated classes specifically dedicated to music for film. And every year at the Festival de la Baule, we bring together graduates from conservatories all over France, and ask them to create music for the same film. On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of cinema, we asked them to work on the version of The sprinkler watered, by Georges Méliès (1896), the original of which is signed by the Lumière brothers (1895), and we have some fantastic results, which we are going to present. This also reassures me about the sustainability of this profession.

Find the full program on the La Baule Film & Film Music Festival website