At Cannes, Guillermo Del Toro And Alexandre Desplat Discuss Their Partnership And Tease Upcoming ‘Frankenstein’ Movie

Guillermo del Toro and Alexandre Desplat gave a masterclass this Sunday, May 18th at the Cannes Film Festival.

During the event called ‘’Lesson of Music’’, the two prestigious guests dived into their relationship, which started with Del Toro’s 2017 movie The Shape of Water, which won Desplat a second Oscar for his score, two years after his first win for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

In 2022, Del Toro and the French composer once again teamed up for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which also won an Oscar for best animated film in 2023.

The first part of the lesson focused on Desplat’s career, with an in-depth analysis of his score for the opening of Birth, directed by Jonathan Glazer. It was also the occasion for the composer to explain the origins of his love and passion for films scores. Desplat mentioned that the New Hollywood, Spielberg or Scorsese were his idols as a teenager.

He said, “I bought CDs, I listened to everything I could, I bought vinyls, I got some Japanese imports. I realized that everything was possible with cinema, just by listening to this music. Music brings another dimension, a new act, a new space, it can be beautiful.”

On his creative process, Desplat said, “A score starts at the beginning of the film, it lasts until the end, in a chronological order that accompanies the film.”

He added: “My music is more interested in characters than actions or images. Actors claim a role and will close that chapter at the end of the film, a composer is only invited into that theatre. So I use the same tools, musical, emotional tools, sometimes they are built up from childhood, and I share that with the film and the filmmaker.”

Desplat was then joined on stage by Guillermo del Toro, who was welcomed by a rapturous standing ovation. Del Toro also shared his passion for film scores and revealed the first ones he bought as a young man.

He said, “The first record I bought was Jaws and then The Godfather. 90% of the music I listen to, is just film scores. When I paint models on Sundays, I listen to scores. I love illustration and movie music for the same reason.”

He added: “The melting of these artists, Spielberg and John Williams, I mean Spielberg has a huge DNA of music from his mother. I think he films like a composer and John Williams composes like a director.”

The two artists then dived into their work habits and process. The director revealed that to him, the very first music note is the camera, and when he finishes filming, he moves on to editing the film without any sound.

“When we are in the same room together, there’s no frontier, it’s a real exchange of artistic ideas, it’s my role to be able to hear and respond. Disagreement is the best part of it, when two people agree, one should leave,” Del Toro joked.

The filmmaker also shared that Desplat’s music is always in sync with the emotions he is trying to convey with his films. He said, “That’s what I value with Alexandre, a state of grave for me, emotionally, is important. I’m Mexican so I’m really emotional, until I cried in the studio, we don’t rest. Emotion is the new punk, it’s something people don’t risk, and we risk it.”

Desplat said, “The color, the light, the voice of the actor, helps me with the first key.”

He also explained that the way he works on his score is by imagining what his music can tell about the characters. He mentioned his score for Philomena, in which Judi Dench is accompanied by a simple, gentle theme that can be played with only one hand on the piano, as a way to reflect the simplicity of the character and the fact that she has worked in the covent’s laundry, with her hands, for years.

Desplat said on del Toro, “I’ve learned his passion for music, when we work together, we have references we can go too. He has an open mind, he’s open to everything, if I say something and it’s good, he’s open to changes.”

He added: “I need to feel that the director has confidence in me, otherwise it’s painful.”

The two artists are currently working on the very anticipated Frankenstein, which is set for a release later this year. Del Toro said, “Alexandre is not a composer, he’s a filmmaker. We were watching a scene in Frankenstein, he said, ‘I like the glove’, I said ‘Yes!’ You’ll see why… But he notices everything, you see the opening of Birth, and I think Jonathan Glazer is as close as we are to a Kubrick alive, the height of the camera and the width of the lens, allow him to bring that score.”

On his Frankenstein, he added: “Someone said, ‘Is it scary?’ and for the first time, I considered that. It’s an emotional story for me. It’s as personal as anything, I’m asking a question about being a father, being a son, I’m not doing a horror movie, ever. So it’s the same thing for the music, we’re trying to find the emotion in what I consider to be an incredibly emotional movie.”

Desplat also said, “Guillermo’s cinema is very lyrical, my music too, so it will be lyrical and emotional, I’m not trying to write horrific music.”