Veröffentlichung Music Box Records: LE JUGE & LE TRANSFUGE von Luis Bacalov und DEUX HEURES MOINS LE QUART AVANT JÉSUS-CHRIST von Jean Yanne & Raymond Alessandrini

[Marcus Stöhr]

Music Box Records veröffentlich 2 neue CDs:

A CD is dedicated to Philippe Lefebvre's films: LE JUGE (1984) & LE TRANSFUGE (1985) composed by Luis BACALOV (MBR-014).

A CD is dedicated to DEUX HEURES MOINS LE QUART AVANT JÉSUS-CHRIST (QUARTER TO TWO BEFORE JESUS-CHRIST) (1982), original motion picture soundtrack composed by Jean YANNE & Raymond ALESSANDRINI (MBR-014).

The two CD will be released on June 13th 2012.

Hier noch die Pressemitteilung:

MUSIC BOX RECORDS presents on the same CD two original motion picture soundtracks composed by Academy Award-winner Luis Bacalov (Django, Fellini's City Of Women, The Postman) for Philippe Lefebvre's films : Le Juge (1984) and Le Transfuge (1985).

In the 80's, French cinema provided Luis Bacalov with new opportunities starting with Coup de foudre directed by Diane Kurys, and Bernard Stora’s Le jeune marié, his probable eventual link to Le Juge, then Un amour interdit directed by Jean-Pierre Dougnac.

Based on the real-life assassination of a judge in Marseille in 1981, Le Juge tells the fictionalized story of François Muller played by Jacques Perrin (The Young Girls of Rochefort, Drummer-Crab, Nuovo cinema Paradiso), a determined magistrate who joins forces with a local police inspector Lucien Innocenti (Richard Bohringer). Leading a fearless investigation, they are intent on bringing down the kingpin of Marseille’s drug trade, Antoine Rocca (Daniel Duval).

Le Transfuge is the second Bacalov-Lefebvre collaboration. In this relatively unknown spy film, Bruno Cremer (Sautet's A Simple Story, Sorcerer, Ozon's Under the Sand) portrays the head of a company from Nièvre that does regular business with Communist East Germany and which the Secret Service has pressed into service, playing an active part in the escape to France of an East German agent (Heinz Bennent).

These two scores are presented for the first time in complete versions. This new CD release was digitally restored and mastered by Claudio Fuiano from the master tapes vaulted in EMI Italy. Le Juge features the same content as the original LP issued by General Music France in 1984 but containing some slightly expanded tracks. Two principal aesthetics are emphasized in this score: the classical style with a nervous and incisive writing and some melancholic jazz pieces depicting the relationship/collaboration between Judge Muller and Inspector Innocenti.

Never-before-released on any format, Le Transfuge is a lyrical and melancholic score featuring English horn, oboe and piano solos.

Laurent Perret wrote the liner notes for this brand new album. A passionate film music fan for 30 years, Laurent Perret has conducted interviews of note with various composers for Soundtrack Magazine, written numerous articles on Ennio Morricone for the fanzine MSV, CD liner notes and collaborated with Vladimir Cosma on the second box set released by Abeille Musique.

1959 : Miklós Rózsa’s iconic score for William Wyler’s 1959 epic, Ben-Hur will be the reference for biblical epic music at the same extent as Bernard Herrmann's discordant strings for thriller.

1982 : It was time for a parody tribute thanks to Raymond Alessandrini. The music for Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ (Quarter To Two Before Jesus-Christ) - just like all other aspects of the film - is characterized above all by numerous anachronisms, not lacking a certain impish playfulness, but always undertaken with extreme care. But the most subtle anachronisms of Jean Yanne’s film’s soundtrack are doubtless most evident in the numerous pastiches of scores composed by Miklós Rózsa for the great historical epics of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Former collaborator with Michel Magne (composer for Yanne’s first films), but also studio pianist for Georges Delerue, Lalo Schifrin, Elmer Bernstein, and Alfred Newman, Raymond Alessandrini is above all a composer for the screen. He wrote delightful melodies and themes with grandeur and seriousness for this comic historical epic.

Oscillating without cease between homage (brilliantly executed by the musicians employed in the same period by John Williams for George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy) and humour, these outstanding tracks allude to a music that is itself anachronistic: the explicit allusions to the pop culture of the 1970s and 1980s, to Serge Gainsbourg in his reggae period (Jouez transistors, résonnez cassettes) and to the electronic music composer Giorgio Moroder (Homosexualis discothecus), a pastiche of a baroque piece, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum (Le J.T. avant J.C.) referring to the theme music to the Eurovision.

From the original master tapes, MUSIC BOX RECORDS presents for the first time available on CD the complete score of Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ including the entire RCA LP selection plus several previously unreleased cues, some of which are not even heard anywhere in the film. This definitive edition is presented in full stereo and includes all the music written and recorded by Jean Yanne and Raymond Alessandrini for the film, with a total of 59 minutes of music.

Nicolas Magenham wrote the liner notes. He is a member of the pop band Sans Sebastien (www.sanssebastien.tumblr.com) and has composed scores for many short films. He has also written essays on cinema that are included in Le Dictionnaire du Cinéma Populaire Français and Literary Readings of Billy Wilder.