PRODUCTION EMILIA PÉREZ
Pierre-Marie Dru, executive music producer and music supervisor on Emilia Pérez, talks getting the Cannes Jury Prize -winning movie musical across the finish line
WORDS Katie Kasperson IMAGES WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS / PATHÉ FILMS / FRANCE 2 CINÉMA
W inning the Soundtrack Award, Best Actress and Jury Prize at Cannes last May, Emilia Pérez – written and directed by Jacques Audiard – is a movie musical that rests neatly between crime thriller and comedy. Detailing the fictional story of a cartel leader as he transitions to being a woman, the film features 16 original musical numbers plus a score, composed by Camille and Clément Ducol and supervised by Pierre-Marie Dru. SETTING THE STAGE This being Audiard’s first musical, Dru played an essential role in getting the film off the ground, guiding the writer-
director through each step, which he describes as ‘working backwards’. “It’s like you’re working on post-production before production. When you’re doing a musical, you need playbacks – you must be very precise on-set,” Dru shares. Emilia Pérez was an iterative process, to say the least; though the cast and crew started with a plan to lip-sync, Audiard favoured singing live, which required a new team altogether. “The final product is a mix of the playback, the live sequences and the post-sync,” explains Dru, with the live recordings giving the cast a little more freedom and allowing them to deliver an uninterrupted performance. The ensemble cast – which includes Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía
HITTING THE HIGH NOTES Karla Sofía Gascón (left) and Adriana Paz (right); Gascón has received significant acclaim for her role
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