Michel Legrand: A Life in Music and Film

A towering figure in music and film, Michel Legrand created some of the most creative and innovative film scores of the second half of the 20th century. The music of his most most successful collaborations -- masterpieces for films such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of ’42, and Yentl -- is particularly memorable. As these scores and the stories behind their creation are, they represent one part of Legrand’s genius. Over a career that spanned seven decades, Legrand composed the scores for 160 films, winning Oscars and Grammys along the way. Many of his songs have become standards covered by artists as diverse as Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, Rufus Wainwright, and Sting. A prolific and highly versatile composer, Legrand worked with virtually every legendary figure in popular music and film from Maurice Chevalier to Barbra Streisand and from Orson Welles to Jean-Luc Godard. Still active in his late 80s, Legrand composed the score for Orson Welles’s posthumously released movie, The Other Side of the Wind (2018).

Just prior to his death at the age of 87, Legrand sat down with his longtime collaborator Stéphane Lerouge to recount, all the while intermingling present and past, many of the significant and memorable episodes from his life. He speaks of his triumphs but doesn’t shy away from revealing rejections, fiascos, missed opportunities, creative insecurities and a nervous breakdown he experienced in Los Angeles at the height of his success. Throughout, he pays homage to the roles played by numerous artists he encountered on both sides of the Atlantic--jazz musicians, singers and lyricists, film directors and music composers, many of whom became his lifelong friends. Translated by Sam Taylor, this book shares Legrand’s stories as told to Lerouge to English readers for the first time.

French film music specialist and historian, Stéphane Lerouge has conceived and produced the soundtrack series Ecoutez le cinéma ! (Listen to Films!) for Universal Music France, since 2000. The series includes rare and classic scores by Georges Delerue, Maurice Jarre, Antoine Duhamel, Lalo Schifrin, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Quincy Jones, Howard Shore, John Williams and Michel Legrand. Stéphane Lerouge also hosts film music talks and lectures in European festivals and institutions (Festival de Cannes, Mostra di Venezia, Cinémathèque Française, Festival Lumière). In 2016, he worked on the music segments of Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary My Journey Through French Cinema.

Sam Taylor is a literary translator and novelist. His five novels have reached an international audience, and his award-winning translations include works by Laurent Binet, Leïla Slimani and Marcel Proust. Born in England, Sam was a writer and editor at The Observer for eight years before spending a decade in France. He now lives in the United States with his family.