Composers for the Films of Jacques Tati

COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Auvidis Travelling
CATALOGUE NO: K 1504 Q207

Most soundtracks are like amputated limbs – filleted from a film, leaving the human voices and ambient sound behind. Music which seemed moving and evocative in the cinema tends to wither and die when heard out of context; if it was composed in a collaborative spirit, that’s how it should be heard. At last someone has grasped the point.

Composers for the films of Jacques Tati includes tracks from several Monsieur Hulot films, as well as from Tati’s later, more experimental work. Here we have the whole aural paraphernalia of Jour de fête, for example, with dogs, chickens and donkeys adding their voices to those of the countryfolk. A station loudspeaker endlessly repeats an incomprehensible message; we instantly see, in our minds eye, the confusion it causes in the opening scene of Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. The music is just one facet of the film’s rich soundworld.