Discover our interview with French composer Guillaume Roussel, who notably wrote the music for the films “Novembre” and “Kompromat” and who is currently working on the two highly anticipated feature films adapted from “The Three Musketeers”.
Guillaume Roussel signs the November soundtrack
When we call Guillaume Roussel last summer, he is live from Los Angeles, where he has been living for several years now. He cut his teeth working for Hans Zimmer, notably on the music of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Fountain of Youth. “An incredible collaboration that allowed me to learn a new way of working” remembers the French composer.
He still works in Hans Zimmer’s studios, where he now has the freedom to work for French films. Since 2014 and The Frenchhe wrote all the music for Cédric Jimenez’s feature films, including that of Novemberin theaters since Wednesday, October 5, which deals with the hunt for the terrorists of November 13.
Guillaume Roussel began to work on the music of November very early on, when reading the script:
I didn’t start composing right away but I thought a lot. When reading, I saw Cédric’s desire for realism, as was the case on BAC Nord. We were on a fairly similar grammar. I composed from the start of filming, he sent me sequences, and I worked.
When Cédric Jimenez told the composer the direction to take, he simply told her that “the scenario could do without music, but that it would paradoxically need it”. Quickly, an idea germinated in his mind:
I absolutely wanted the music to remind us of voices, to bring us back to humanity. For two reasons. The first was that the characters try not to let their emotions pass, to stay focused. I thought the music could help give that emotional roughness that the characters hide. The second reason was that I wanted to pay tribute to the victims that we don’t see in the picture. These voice sounds are symbolic of these anonymous voices that are not represented, on purpose, in the film.
To support the underlying tension present in the film, Guillaume Roussel used electronic sounds, almost industrialwhich blend without imposing themselves in the world of the film:
Cédric absolutely wanted the music to support the investigation and suspense side. He wanted something very electro, bordering on techno, which would allow him to emphasize the stressful side. Especially when you are immersed in the investigation, and not with the terrorists, and you lose sight of the dangerous side. The music is there to support this oppressive feeling.
Kompromat and The Three Musketeers
In 2022, the French composer also signed the music of King, far from the ring road, Totems, colors of fire, Marie Antoinette and Kompromat. For the latter, directed by Jérôme Salle, Guillaume Roussel notably used synthetic sounds very 80’s to illustrate the Russian prison environment:
With Novembre and Kompromat I plunged into a completely different universe from what I’m used to because I come from classical music. I spent months and months choosing synths, and building sounds. It was very interesting. I found myself in a kind of cockpit with wires everywhere, I discovered the modular analogy. I loved working on these films because I experienced a lot of things.
Currently, the composer is working on the music for the two highly anticipated parts of Three Musketeers directed by Martin Bourboulon which will be released in April and December 2023. He is one of the only ones to have been able to discover the first images, which he announces as “epic and lyrical”:
Martin’s ambition is to make a swashbuckling film and also something modern and elegant. It’s the same challenge for music. There is something very orchestral, and we also try to mix with electro. It will be hybrid and epic. We record in London, with big means to do it. I wish French cinema that these films work, we must give more resources to ambitious directors.
