From Wes Anderson to Guillermo del Toro: The 10 greatest Alexandre Desplat soundtracks
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How Alexandre Desplat made ‘Godzilla’ terrifying
The charm of the French film composer Alexandre Desplat has often resonated in the films of Wes Anderson, where the two creatives have formed one of the truly great contemporary cinematic relationships. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine skating through the eclectic stop-motion universe of Fantastic Mr. Fox or joining Suzy and Sam on their love-fueled pursuit in Moonrise Kingdom without the twee staccato sounds of Desplat charging your escapade.
Whilst the symbiotic relationship between the two individuals has become Desplat’s most iconic achievement, it’s easy to forget that the exuberant soundtracks of the French composer have found their way onto several eclectic movies over the years, moving from the quiet, subtle score of 2013’s Philomena to the majestic terror of 2014’s Godzilla.
Moving far away from the bizarre soundtrack for Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla movie, which included such artists as Puff Daddy, Jimmy Page, Jamiroquai and Rage Against the Machine, Desplat’s original score took things back to the basics of the classic Japanese movies from Toho. Inspired by the soundtracks of the original Japanese movies, from the then-recent Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II in 1993 all the way back to Ishirō Honda’s 1954 movie Gojira, Desplat created a soundtrack that would be emulated for many years to come.
Accepting the contract after watching director Gareth Edwards’ previous movie, Monsters, Desplat set out to work, with his main goal being to match the majesty of the titular creature in his own soundtrack. Achieving this with aplomb, Desplat’s soundtrack became a homage to the franchise of old that swirled with the character’s cultural significance whilst contextualising it within an entirely new setting.
Describing his soundtrack for the 2014 movie as “non-stop fortissimo, with lots of brass, Japanese drums, and electric violin,” as discussed in an interview with Daily Beast, Desplat wished to create an organic soundtrack that would reflect the careful nuances of the lead cast.
The composer delves deeper into this during a promotional video for the movie, in which he states, “It seemed very important to me that the music would emphasise these character’s broken souls, that’s why we have a huge setup with a string section, first violins, second violins, left, right, so they can do some very strong stereo movements, and I’ve doubled the brass, doubled the horns…even though they’ll be a lot of explosions and things going on, we’ll have a lot of space created by the score”.
Capturing the Japanese influence, Desplat utilises the call of a shakuhachi bamboo flute as well as the intimidating rhythm of taiko drums that each flow in and out of his score, alluding to the film’s roots without being a total replica. In addition, Desplat also pays direct homage to the work of Akira Ifukube, the composer for many of the original Godzilla movies, heard in the flaring brass of the track ‘Godzilla!’, which sounds similar to the shrills of a classic superhero flick.
With a clever, complex soundtrack, Desplat takes inspiration from the Japanese roots of the character to craft something that perfectly reflects the terror, size and significance of such a beast. As many film lovers will recall from the trailer to the original movie, the grandeur that Desplat applies to his score forces fear and respect from the titular titan whenever he’s on screen. There’s no doubt about it, without Desplat, Godzilla wouldn’t be anywhere near as terrifying.
