Background
Georges Delerue was born on 12 March 1925 in Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.
Georges Delerue was born on 12 March 1925 in Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.
He studied with Darius Milhaud, and worked for theatre and TV (including the Comédie Française and the Théâtre Nationale Populaire) as well as films: Un Amour de Poche (57, Pierre Kast); a short film, Les Marines (57, François Reichenbach); La Premiere Nuit (58, Georges Franju); L’Opéra-Mouffe (58, Agnès Varda); just the waltz for Hiroshima Mon Amour (59, Alain Resnais); Le Farceur (60, Philippe de Broca); getting the style immediately for Shoot the Piano Player (60, Truffaut); L’Amant de Cinq Jours (61, de Broca); Une Aussi Longue Absence (61, Henri Colpi); Iules et Jim (62. Truffaut); Cartouche (62, de Broca); Le Mépris (63. Jean-Luc Godard); La Peau Douce (64, Truffaut); The Pumpkin Eater (64, Jack Clayton); That Man from Rio (64, de Broca); Viva Maria (65, Louis Malle); King of Hearts (66, de Broca); A Man for All Seasons (66, Zinnemann).
He was international by now': Our Mother’s House (67, Clayton); Le Diable par la Queue (69, de Broca); Women in Love (69, Ken Russell); A Walk with Love and Death (69, John Huston); perhaps his greatest score for The Conformist (71, Bernardo Bertolucci); Two English Girls (71, Truffaut); The Day of the Jackal (73. Zinnemann); Day for Night (73, Truffaut); Calmos (76, Bertrand Blier); Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (78, Blier); Love on the Run (79, Truffaut); The Woman Next Door (81, Truffaut).
He wrote scores for True Confessions (81, Ulu Grosbard); Rich and Famous (81, George Cukor); A Little Sex (82, Bruce Paltrow); Man, Woman and Child (83, Dick Richards); Confidentially Yours (83, Truffaut); Silkwood (83, Nichols); Salvador (86, Oliver Stone); Platoon (86, Stone); Crimes of the Heart (86, Bruce Beresford); A Man in Ltwe (87, Diane Kurys); The Lonely Passion of Judith Heanie (87, Clayton); Biloxi Blues (88, Nichols); A Summer Story (88, Piers Haggard); Memories of Me (88, Henrv Winkler); Beaches (88, Garry Marshall); Heartbreak Hotel (88, Chris Columbus); Steel Magnolias (90, Herbert Ross); Joe Versus the Volcano (90, John Patrick Shanley); Black Rose (91, Beresford); Rich in Love (92, Beresford); Man Trouble (92. Bob Rafelson).
His music was naturally quiet, wistful, and atmospheric, and he had a knack for small chanson-like themes that grew over the course of a film. Those base motives were especially vital to his work for François Truffaut. But in his early years, it is remarkable how many fine films Delerue worked on.