In 1986, despite his good fortune in Hollywood, Georges Delerue would never turn his back to
French cinema. Two years after LE BON PLAISIR, he responded to the film director Francis
Girod's call for DESCENTE AUX ENFERS (DESCENT INTO HELL), a psychological thriller set
under the sun and heat of the Caribbean and dealing with a married couple at the breaking
point - an alcoholic husband (Claude Brasseur) and his 20 years younger wife (Sophie
Marceau) - who will unexpectedly manage to get reunited through tragedies and secrets,
despite the guilt and sorrow involved.
With Girod's support, Georges Delerue didn't choose so much to illustrate the action of the
story than to emphasize the moods of the characters with - most obviously of all - the
spellbiding main theme which constrasts with the setting of Haiti soon after the insurrection.
Georges Delerue then took many unusual paths, so brillantly diversifying his cinematic
interventions both in tone and nature, never reluctant to give them the discreet - yet subtly
significant - form of source music. A seductive piano, a bitter sweet flute and tragic strings
succesively sound on the verge to succumb to passion. As the listening of the score
progresses, a highly coordinated dramatic support unveils itself through a fully assumed
heterogeneous tonality.
MUSIC BOX RECORDS is proud to announce for the first time available on CD the exquisite
selection from the original soundtrack LP DESCENTE AUX ENFERS, displaying nearly 37
minutes of the score for which Georges Delerue's fans have been longing for so many years.
And to top it all, a totally new 9 minutes bonus material found among Delerue's personal
archives was also added. Despite the moderate sound imperfections due to the nature of the
original source, those six new tracks extend the pleasure of rediscovering this major
contribution to French cinema by Georges Delerue.
Limited Edition of 1000 copies.
46 minutes of music, featuring 9 minutes of previously unreleased music.
New sequencing and new sound mastering.
8-page CD booklet with French and English liner notes by Florent Groult.
1. Générique début 3:57
2. Alan et Lola 3:28
3. Bonheur trompe-l’oeil 1:05
4. Le joli jeune homme 1:20
5. Alan 1:59
6. La plage 1:27
7. Le spleen d’Alan 3:27
8. Alan au bar 2:40
9. Baignoire rock 3:26
10. La descente aux enfers d’Alan 1:58
11. Philippe et Lola 1:49
12. Feu dans la nuit 2:32
13. La mort de Kléber 2:01
14. La bouteille à la mer 1:25
15. La confession de Lola / Générique fin 4:19
THE EXTRAS :
16. Arrivée à l’hôtel* 1:23
17. Maîtres chanteurs* 1:50
18. Nocturne* 0:57
19. Flashback métro* 2:08
20. Ma femme douce, ma femme dure* 1:10
21. Le joli jeune homme (version alternative)* 1:18
TOTAL TIME 46:42
* previously unreleased
