Bob Dylan, the Rock explosion (61-66)

Bob Dylan is, without a doubt, one of the key figures of music from the second half of the 20th century. In his exceptionally long career, the years between 1961 and 1966 were pivotal. The exhibition retraces the important moments of this period, during which Dylan radically changed his artistic approach and sparked a musical revolution. Created by the Grammy Museum of Los Angeles, "Bob Dylan, Rock explosion" presents, through previously unpublished photos, objects, rare documents and audiovisual archives, the astonishing story of a personal evolution that marked a societal earthquake.

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Django Reinhardt, Paris swing

From October 6th 2012 to January 20th 2013

Born in the back of a caravan  into a family of performers, Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) might have grown up in the slums of the “Zone”, but he belongs to the aristocracy of swing. This “child of the breeze”, as Jean Cocteau liked to describe him, won over not just jazz-loving intellectuals, but also those attending public dances and the very fancy clients of select cabarets, with the magic of his guitar. And his popularity didn’t fade; on the contrary, it seems only to have grown as the craze for gypsy jazz found an echo in contemporary French songwriting and film. Independent and whimsical, revelling in the freedom so dear to his gypsy brothers, Django Reinhardt fascinated his contemporaries in the way his brilliant virtuosity triumphed over his handicap, as if he hadn’t lost two fingers at age 18, when his caravan burned down. While he co-headed the Quintette du Hot Club de France with Stephane Grappelli, Django launched a new kind of jazz - gypsy jazz - and shared the stage with some of the highest creators of the genre: Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington and Benny Carter. His fame reached all the way to the United States, who saw in this gypsy, who spoke not a word of English and lived in a caravan, a symbol of French eccentricity!

From the dances of the rue de Lappe to the Boeuf sur le toit, the nightclubs of Pigalle to the Salle Pleyel, the great movie theatres of the Champs-Elysées to the Cirque Médrano and the Saint-Ouen flea market, Django’s career is a geography of Parisian in itself. In addition to a collection of unpublished documents and the re-creation of the legendary Selmer guitar workshop, the exhibition gives a place to people who have captured the heart and soul of Paris: photographers like Eugène Atget, Brassaï, Émile Savitry, Willy Ronis and Robert Doisneau, as well as writers, painters and sculptors. All of  these works reflect the cultural melting-pot of Django’s music, nourished by cosmopolitan influences and universal in scope.

Music and film: the marriage of the century?

From March 19th to August 18th 2013

Where would the magic of film be, without the emotion of music?
The exhibition Musique et cinéma, le mariage du siècle ?aims to show what takes place when these two arts meet. Designed for all audiences, film-buffs and music lovers alike, the exhibition is a chance to go behind the scenes into the fabrication of the world’s great films, by revealing the role that music played in their development. The relations that bring music and film together are complex, sometimes stormy: economic and commercial criteria play a role, and artistic egos clash. How many works of music have been refused, cut or replaced? There have been as many violent split-ups as famous partnerships between directors and composers! So, music and film: the marriage of the century?

Ever since its invention in 1895, the motion picture has been linked to music. Before “talkies” came along, all films were musical - either accompanied live or pre-recorded. In a few short years, technology allowed music composed after the shoot to be joined onto the soundtrack, separately from sound recorded directly on the shoot. Thus “film music” was born in its currently recognized form. Motion pictures rapidly adopted a differentiation that originally belonged to the theatre, between “orchestra music” and “stage music”. Orchestra music, which in English is called the score (sometimes called “original soundtrack”) contrasts with stage music, which is music that plays a role within the action, and that the characters can hear.

We all remember film music as evocative as Proust’s famous madeleines, that speaks intimately to our ears. For some, it’s the initial harmonica notes composed by Ennio Morricone for Once Upon a Time in the West; for others, it’s the banjo in Deliverance, or the streaking of the violins, imagined by Bernard Hermann for the shower scene in Psycho, or perhaps the frenzied twist danced in Pulp Fiction, or even Le Tourbillon written by Cyrus Bassiak for the music of Jules et Jim, or else the epic Lawrence of Arabia, magnified by Maurice Jarre…

The exhibition recognizes the fun of recognition games.
Using collective themes (laughter, the epic, love, suspense, etc.) and famous filmmaker-composer duos (Prokofiev/Eisenstein, Hitchcock/Hermann, Leone/Morricone, etc.) the exhibition showcases the role played by music at every step of a film’s creation, right from the beginning. Although in most cases music is composed, orchestrated and arranged long after the shoot, after the film has been editing, and is then recorded in front of the projected image, it also plays a role at many other points in the film’s creation. While the screenplay is being written, music can help the director invent or develop the story he or she wants to tell by suggesting an atmosphere or an impression. Music can also be an actual part of the story (musician characters, sequences involving concerts, balls or nightclubs), or it can be the very foundation of the project (musicals, biographies, operas, rock films). Music can be filmed during the shoot (in direct or in playback). It can also help the director define the pace of a scene, or reflect an emotion. Some filmmakers are musicians themselves; some ask composers to provide themes or musical sketches that will influence their directing. During editing, then sound mixing, music basically takes over the rhythm of a film. It becomes a kind of driving force, essential in what Alfred Hitchcock called “directing the viewer”. During this phase, music harmonises not only with the filmed images, but with all the other elements in the soundtrack: dialogue, sound effects and atmospheres.

Ever since talkies have existed, music has lost its role of live accompaniment. But it remains present during the film’s promotion (songs, trailers), and plants itself into the collective memory (music can call up scenes from a film). Film music can also exploit a life independent from film (concerts, soundtrack sales).

Throughout the exhibition, over one hundred film excerpts will be projected in small rooms alongside a wide variety of works. Interviews, sound excerpts, photos, album covers, instruments and film shoot documents are presented together to reveal how music strengthens the evocative power of the 7th art. Interactive units also offer visitors an insightful and educational approach to film music.