Conjectural map of a mediaeval manor. The method of "strip farming" was in use under the open field system. The brown areas are part of the demesne, the shaded areas part of the glebe. The manor house, residence of the lord and location of the manorial court, can be seen in the mid-southern part of the manor, near the parish church.

A manor in English law is an estate in land to which is incident the right to hold a court termed court baron, that is to say a manorial court. The proper unit of tenure under the feudal system is the fee, on which the manor became established through the process of time, akin to the modern establishment of a "business" upon a freehold site. The manor is nevertheless often described as the basic feudal unit of tenure and is historically connected with the territorial divisions of the mark, parish and township.

Legal theory[link]

The legal theory of the origin of manors refers them to a grant from the crown of a fee from the monarch's allodial lands, as stated in the following extract from Perkins's Treatise on the laws of England:

"The beginning of a manor was when the king gave a thousand acres of land, or greater or lesses parcel of land, unto one of his subjects and his heirs, which tenure is knight service at the least. And the donee did perhaps build a mansion house upon parcel of the same land, and of 20 acres, parcel of that which remained, or of a greater or lesser parcel, before the statute of Quia emptores did enfeoff a stranger to hold of him and his heirs to plough 10 acres of land, parcel of that which remained in his possession, and did enfeoff another of another parcel thereof to go to war with him against the Scots etc., and so by continuance of time made a manor".

It is still as the jurist Sir Joshua Williams terms it, a "fundamental rule" that all lands were originally derived from the crown and that the monarch is lord paramount mediate or immediate of all the land in the realm. A manor then arises when the holder of a parcel so granted or supposed to have been granted by the crown, and who is termed in relation thereto the Lord of the Manor, has in turn granted portions thereof to others who stand to him in the relation of tenants. Of the portion reserved by the lord for his own use, termed the demesne, part was occupied by villeins, with the duty of cultivating the rest for the lord's use. These were originally tenants at will and in a state of semi-serfdom but they became in course of time the copyhold tenants of the later law. It is of the essence of copyhold that it should be regulated by the custom of the manor, as evidenced in the court roll produced by the manorial court. Manors cannot be created at the present day because manorial courts cannot be established with any legal jurisdiction. Scriven stated:^[1]

"Length of time being of the very essence of a manor, such things as receive their perfection by the continuance of time come not within the compass of the king's prerogative"

[edit] Effect of Quia Emptores

The effect of the statute of Quia Emptores (1290) was to make the creation of manors henceforward impossible, inasmuch as it enacted "that upon all sales and feoffments of land the feoffee shall hold the same, not of his immediate feoffor, but of the chief lord of the fee of whom such feoffor himself held it". The statute did not apply to a tenant-in-chief of the king, who might have alienated his land under a license. Accordingly it is assumed that all existing manors are "of a date prior to the statute of Quia Emptores except perhaps some which may have been created by the king's tenants-in-chief with license from the crown".^[2] When a great baron had granted out smaller manors to others, the seignory of the superior baron was frequently termed an honour.

Constituent lands[link]

The manor comprised lands differentiated by legal status and by physical characteristics.

Differentiated by legal status[link]

• Demesne, land retained "in-hand" by the lord, without legal tenant. It was exploited for the lord's own profit using his manorial workforce, being those with no tenancy rights or those whose copyhold tenancies stipulated so many days per month or year to be worked on the demesne.
• Glebe, land reserved for the support of the parish priest.
• Common land, over which certain manorial tenants and other occupants held traditional rights exploitable for their own profit.

Differentiated by physical character[link]

• Arable, ploughed land used to grow corn.
• Waste, economically unproductive land.
• Pasture, grassland used for grazing livestock.
• Meadow, grassland used for haymaking.
• Closes, small enclosed fields created by hedge or stone wall boundaries, used for example to house ewes with their lambs requiring close observation.
• Marsh
• Woodland, an essential fuel resource.
• Furze, a fuel resource used by the lower tenants.
• Fallow, land resting within the cycle of crop rotation agriculture.
• Fishpond, used to breed fish such as carp

Officers[link]

A manor was akin to the modern firm or business or other going concern. It was a productive unit, which required physical capital, in the form of land, buildings, equipment and draught animals such as ploughing oxen and labour in the form of direction, day to day management and a workforce. It was further similar in that its ownership could be transferred, with the necessary "licence to alienate" having been obtained from the overlord, as can the ownership of a modern company. The administration was self-contained and the new lord needed only to collect its net revenues to form his return on investment. The direction was ultimately provided by the manorial court, presided over by the lord's personal steward, whose members included the freehold tenants of the manor. The court itself appointed most of the lower manorial officers, which included the following:

• Bailiff, in charge of supervising the cultivation of the manor.
• Reeve, an overseer.
• Ditch Reeve, responsible for maintaining drainage ditches.

The efficiency, productivity and thus profitability of a manor therefore depended on a mixture of qualities and interaction of location, micro-climate, natural resources, soil type, direction and labour. It was in the interest of all dwellers within the manor, to a greater or lesser degree, that it should be successful.

Jurisdiction[link]

The manorial court had wide legal jurisdiction over the inhabitants of the manor, sometimes with the right to administer capital punishment, if the lord had obtained from the king the right of holding a court leet. Much of the law was specific to a particular manor, as developed by "custom of the manor" and as interpreted by the manorial court. Rights of appeal existed to the hundred court and the county court beyond that over which presided the county's sheriff.

Free manor[link]

A free manor was an autonomous area, outside the jurisdiction, law and administrative control of the surrounding territory.^[3]

Membership[link]

Every person who dwelt in mediaeval England was deemed to exist under the jurisdiction of a manorial court, unless a citizen of a borough or a cleric, or a lord of the manor himself, when he was subject to the primary jurisdiction of the king's court if a tenant-in-chief or of the county court if a mesne lord. It was not permissible for a person to migrate from the manor of his birth except by special arrangement with the authorities. The manor was also the source of a poor man's charitable relief, should he fall into destitution, but such was at the discretion of the manorial court, by custom of each manor. An alien within a manor would not therefore be entitled to any such relief, or indeed protection offered by the power of the lord from crime or violence committed by marauding bands and robbers.

Residents of a manor[link]

• Lord of the manor, often absent, or an absentee, never resident
• Serfs
• Villeins
• Cottars
• Bordars
• Freeholders
• Copyholders

Current legal status[link]

See Lord of the Manor

Overlap with parish[link]

The parish is generally called by the same name as the manor and has clerical jurisdiction over the same geographic territory over which the lord has lay jurisdiction through his manorial court. The parish must have come into existence after the establishment of the manor, following the building of a church by the Lord of the Manor for the use of himself and his tenants, no doubt in consultation with the bishop within whose clerical jurisdiction the manor was situated. The lord then endowed the parish church with some of his landholdings, the revenues from which were used for the support of the priest and the maintenance of the church building. The lord of the manor retained the advowson, that is the right to select and appoint the parish priest, yet the parish was governed by the diocese within which it was situated, which also granted it the tithes to which it was legally entitled, which was a tax of one tenth of the produce of the manor. Outlying parts of a manor over time were exchanged between neighbouring lords, and thus would change from being within the manorial boundaries of the one to the other, but would remain within the original parish's boundaries. Thus over time a manor's lands could grow and shrink and could extend over several different parishes. Where a manor was split into two by the process of subinfeudation, the parish would then cover both manors, unless a new parish were also created.

See also[link]

• Manorialism
• Walter of Henley, 13th.c. writer on agricultural management of a manor.

Sources[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th Edition, Volume 15, pp. 496–497, "Manor". Some text from this source now in the public domain is contained in this article.

Bibliography[link]

• Vinogradoff, Sir P., Growth of the Manor, 1951
• Bennett, H.S., Life on the English Manor, Cambridge, 1937
• Jerrold, D., Introduction to the History of England, 1949 (Source for Everyman's Encyclopaedia, 5th Edition, vol. 8, "Manor")

References[link]

1. ^ Scriven, John, (Serjeant at law), A treatise on copyhold, customary freehold, and ancient demesne tenure: with the jurisdiction of Courts baron and Courts leet; also an appendix, containing rules for holding Customary courts, Courts baron and Courts leet, forms of court rolls, deputations, and copyhold assurances, and extracts from the relative acts of Parliament, 2 vols., 2nd. ed., London, 1823, vol.1, chap. 1
2. ^ Williams, Real Property, chap. 4; See also Scriven, Copyholds, chap 1
3. ^ Across the open field: essays drawn from English landscapes, page 101 Laurie Olin, published 2000, ISBN 978-0-8122-3531-9, accessed 2011-10-17

Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer receiving his star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2010)
Background information
Birth name	Hans Florian Zimmer
Born	(1957-09-12) 12 September 1957 (age 54) Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Genres	Film score, Video game score
Occupations	Film composer, Video game composer, Music producer
Instruments	Piano, Keyboard, MIDI Master Keyboard, Synthesizer, Guitar
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Remote Control Productions
Website	hanszimmer.com

Hans Florian Zimmer, German pronunciation: [hans ˈfloːʁi̯aːn ˈtsɪmɐ]; (born 12 September 1957) is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including award winning film scores for The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003),The Dark Knight (2008), and Inception (2010).

Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. He is the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios, and works with other composers through the company which he founded, Remote Control Productions.^[1]

Zimmer's works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He has received four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph.^[2]

Early life[link]

Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. As a young child, he lived in Königstein-Falkenstein, where he played the piano at home, but had piano lessons only briefly as he disliked the discipline of formal lessons.^[3] He moved to London as a teenager, where he attended Hurtwood House school.^[4] In an interview with the German television station ZDF in 2006, he commented: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend."^[5]

Early career[link]

Zimmer began his career playing keyboards and synthesizers. He worked with The Buggles, a New Wave band formed in 1977 with Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, and Bruce Woolley. Zimmer can be seen briefly in The Buggles' music video for the 1979 song "Video Killed the Radio Star".^[6] After working with The Buggles, he started to work for the Italian group Krisma, a New Wave band formed in 1976 with Maurizio Arcieri and Christina Moser. He was a featured synthesist for Krisma’s third album, Cathode Mamma. He has also worked with the band Helden (with Warren Cann from Ultravox).^[7] Both Zimmer (on keyboards) and Cann (on drums), were invited to be part of the Spanish group Mecano for a live performance in Segovia (Spain) in 1984. Two songs from this concert were included in the "Mecano: En Concierto" album released in 1985 only in Spain. In 1980 Zimmer co-produced a single, "The History Of The World Part 1," with, and for, UK Punk band The Damned, which was also included on their 1980 LP release, "The Black Album," and carried the description of his efforts as "Over-Produced by Hans Zimmer."

While living in London, Zimmer wrote advertising jingles for Air-Edel Associates.^[7] In the 1980s, Zimmer partnered with Stanley Myers, a prolific film composer who wrote the scores for over sixty films. Zimmer and Myers co–founded the London–based Lillie Yard recording studio. Together, Myers and Zimmer worked on fusing the traditional orchestral sound with electronic instruments.^[8] Some of the films on which Zimmer and Myers worked are Moonlighting (1982), Success is the Best Revenge (1984), Insignificance (1985), and My Beautiful Launderette (1985). Zimmer's first solo score was Terminal Exposure for director Nico Mastorakis in 1987, for which he also wrote the songs. Zimmer acted as score producer for the 1987 film The Last Emperor, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.^[7]

One of Zimmer's most durable works from his time in the United Kingdom is the theme song for the television game show Going for Gold, which he composed with Sandy McClelland in 1987. In an interview with the BBC, Zimmer said: "Going For Gold was a lot of fun. It's the sort of stuff you do when you don't have a career yet. God, I just felt so lucky because this thing paid my rent for the longest time."^[9]

Hollywood film scoring[link]

A turning point in Zimmer's career occurred with the 1988 film Rain Man.^[8] Hollywood director Barry Levinson was looking for someone to score Rain Man, and his wife heard the soundtrack CD of the anti-Apartheid drama A World Apart, for which Zimmer had composed the music. Levinson was impressed by Zimmer's work, and hired him to score Rain Man.^[10] In the score, Zimmer uses synthesizers (mostly a Fairlight CMI) mixed with steel drums. Zimmer explained that "It was a road movie, and road movies usually have jangly guitars or a bunch of strings. I kept thinking don't be bigger than the characters. Try to keep it contained. The Raymond character doesn't actually know where he is. The world is so different to him. He might as well be on Mars. So, why don't we just invent our own world music for a world that doesn't really exist?".^[11] Zimmer’s score for Rain Man was nominated for an Academy Award in 1989, and the film won four Academy Awards including Best Picture.^[12]

A year after Rain Man, Zimmer was asked to compose the score for Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy which, like Rain Man, won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Driving Miss Daisy’s instrumentation consisted entirely of synthesizers and samplers, played by Zimmer. According to an interview with Sound On Sound magazine in 2002, the piano sounds heard within the score come from the Roland MKS–20, a rackmount synthesizer. Zimmer joked: "It didn't sound anything like a piano, but it behaved like a piano."^[13]

1991's Thelma & Louise soundtrack by Zimmer featured the trademark slide guitar performance by Pete Haycock on the "Thunderbird" theme in the film. As a teenager, Zimmer was a fan of Haycock, and their collaboration on film scores includes K2 and Drop Zone.^[14]

For the 1992 film The Power of One, Zimmer traveled to Africa in order to use African choirs and drums in the recording of the score. On the strength of this work, Disney Animation Studios approached Zimmer to compose the score for the 1994 film The Lion King. This was to be his first score for an animated film. Zimmer said that he had wanted to go to South Africa to record parts of the soundtrack, but was unable to visit the country as he had a police record there "for doing 'subversive' movies" after his work on The Power of One. Disney studio bosses expressed fears that Zimmer would be killed if he went to South Africa, so the recording of the choirs was organized during a visit by Lebo M.^[15] Zimmer won numerous awards for his work on The Lion King, including an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, and two Grammys. In 1997, the score was adapted into a Broadway musical version which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1998.^[16][17] As of April 2012^[update], the musical version of The Lion King is the highest grossing Broadway show of all time, having grossed $853.8 million.^[18]

	Crimson Tide - "Roll Tide" noicon A clip from the score of the 1995 film Crimson Tide.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Zimmer's score for Crimson Tide (1995) won a Grammy Award for the main theme, which makes heavy use of synthesizers in place of traditional orchestral instruments. For The Thin Red Line (1998), Zimmer said that the director Terrence Malick wanted the music before he started filming, so he recorded six and a half hours of music.^[11] Zimmer's next project was The Prince of Egypt (1998), which was produced by DreamWorks Animation. He introduced Ofra Haza, an Israeli Yemenite singer, to the directors, and they thought she was so beautiful that they designed one of the characters in the film to look like her.^[11]

Work: 2000–present[link]

	Gladiator - "Battle" noicon A clip from the score of the 2000 film Gladiator.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In the 2000s, Zimmer has composed scores for Hollywood blockbuster films including Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down and Hannibal (2001), The Last Samurai (2003), The Da Vinci Code (2006) The Simpsons Movie (2007), Angels and Demons (2009) and Sherlock Holmes (2009). While writing the score for The Last Samurai, Zimmer felt that his knowledge of Japanese music was extremely limited. He began doing extensive research, but the more he studied, the less he felt he knew. Finally, Zimmer took what he had written to Japan for feedback and was shocked when he was asked how he knew so much about Japanese music.^[11]

During the scoring of The Last Samurai in early 2003, Zimmer was approached by the producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with whom he had worked previously on Crimson Tide, The Rock and Pearl Harbor. Bruckheimer had finished shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but was unhappy with the music composed for the film by Alan Silvestri and wanted a replacement score.^[19] Bruckheimer wanted Zimmer to rescore the film, but due to his commitments on The Last Samurai, the task of composing and supervising music for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was given to Klaus Badelt, one of Zimmer's colleagues at Media Ventures. Zimmer provided some themes that were used in the film, although he is not credited on screen.^[20][21] Zimmer was hired as the composer for the three subsequent films in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), collaborating with Rodrigo y Gabriela.^[22]

For the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, "The Daily Variety" reported that Zimmer purchased an out-of-tune piano for 200 dollars and used it throughout the scoring process because of its "quirkiness".^[23]

Hans Zimmer in 2008

Zimmer is also noted for his work on the scores of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), on which he collaborated with James Newton Howard.^[9] The scores for these films were disqualified from receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score due to too many composers being listed on the cue sheet.^[24] Zimmer succeeded in reversing the decision not to nominate The Dark Knight in December 2008, arguing that the process of creating a modern film score was collaborative, and that it was important to credit a range of people who had played a part in its production.^[25] Zimmer explained his approach to scoring with other musicians in an interview with Soundtrack.net in 2006:

	Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard - "Now We Are Free" noicon A clip from the score of the 2000 film Gladiator.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

"Originally I had this idea that it should be possible to create some kind of community around this kind of work, and I think by muddying the titles - not having "you are the composer, you are the arranger, you are the orchestrator" - it just sort of helped us to work more collaboratively. It wasn't that important to me that I had "score by Hans Zimmer" and took sole credit on these things. It's like Gladiator: I gave Lisa Gerrard the co-credit because, even though she didn't write the main theme, her presence and contributions were very influential. She was more than just a soloist, and this is why I have such a problem with specific credits."^[26]

Zimmer is also composing the score for The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The film is scheduled for release in July 2012.^[27]

Zimmer works with other composers through his company Remote Control Productions, formerly known as Media Ventures. His studio in Santa Monica, California has an extensive range of computer equipment and keyboards, allowing demo versions of film scores to be created quickly.^[28] His colleagues at the studio have included Harry Gregson-Williams, James Dooley, Geoff Zanelli, Henning Lohner, Steve Jablonsky, Mark Mancina, John Van Tongeren, John Powell and Thomas J. Bergersen.

In October 2000, Zimmer performed live in concert for the first time with an orchestra and choir at the 27th Annual Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent.^[29] He has received a range of honors and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in film Composition from the National Board of Review, the Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement, and BMI's Richard Kirk Award for lifetime achievement in 1996. Recent work includes the Spanish language film Casi Divas,^[30] Sherlock Holmes, The Burning Plain (2009), and Inception (2010). He composed the theme for the television boxing series The Contender, and worked with Lorne Balfe on the music for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was his first video game project.^[31] Zimmer also collaborated with composers Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu to create the score for the video game Crysis 2.^[32]

In December 2010, Zimmer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He dedicated the award to his publicist and long term friend Ronni Chasen, who was shot dead in Beverly Hills the previous month.^[33]

Zimmer composed and produced the music for the 84th Academy Awards with Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes.^[34]

Zimmer lives in Los Angeles with his wife Suzanne, and has four children.^[35][36]

Discography and awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Book: Hans Zimmer
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hans Zimmer

• Official website
• Hans Zimmer at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Hans Zimmer in Film Score Monthly
• Interview with Hans Zimmer about Sherlock Holmes from C Music TV
• Focus.De

v t e Hans Zimmer Soundtracks Angels and Demons  · Driving Miss Daisy  · Batman Begins  · Beyond Rangoon  · Black Hawk Down  · The Da Vinci Code  · The Dark Knight  · Gladiator  · Inception · Kung Fu Panda  · Kung Fu Panda 2  · The Lion King  · Madagascar  · Mission: Impossible II  · Pearl Harbor  · Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End  · Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl  · Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest  · Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides  · Pirates of the Caribbean: Soundtrack Treasures Collection · Rango  · Sherlock Holmes  · The Thin Red Line Songs "Hoist the Colours" Related articles Discography · Remote Control Productions Book:Hans Zimmer  · Category:Hans Zimmer

Shaun Majumder
Born	(1972-01-29) January 29, 1972 (age 40) Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Shaun Majumder (born January 29, 1972) is a Canadian comedian and actor.

Life and career[link]

Majumder was born in Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador to a European descended mother from Newfoundland and a Bengali Hindu Indian father. He started his entertainment career as an announcer for the YTV game show CLIPS, and soon was hosting the network's popular morning kids show Brain Wash, where he was known as Ed Brainbin. He also hosted the "Slime Tour" segments on the popular game show Uh Oh!. Eventually he joined This Hour Has 22 Minutes in 2003, and also hosted 15 episodes of the Just for Laughs specials on television and participated in the Comedy festivals in Montreal. He was also a star of Cedric the Entertainer Presents, aired in the United States on the Fox network, and appeared in an NFB documentary on aspiring Canadian comics, The Next Big Thing.^[1]

Majumder has also starred in the CBC comedy pilot Hatching, Matching and Dispatching and the short film Plain Brown Rapper, as well as playing Kumar's brother in the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.

Majumder often plays an alter ego called Raj Binder. Binder is an awkward, nervous and usually sweaty Indian reporter with a strong accent. Binder first appeared in a sketch from a comedy showcase with some former YTV costars called The Bobroom, and also appeared on Just For Laughs and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Majumder caused some minor controversy when "Raj" posed in the MegaStars group picture during the 2003 Heritage Classic NHL outdoor ice-hockey game.^{[citation needed]}

Majumder made a guest appearance on two episodes of the television series 24, playing Hasan Numair. He also played Dr. Freddy Sahgal in the Fox TV series Unhitched, but the show was cancelled in May 2008.

In 2010 he had a guest starring role as Benny Natchie in Republic of Doyle and starred in Detroit 1-8-7 as Detective Vikram Mahajan.^[2]

In the summer of 2011 Majumder was cast in The Firm in the recurring role of Andrew Palmer, the lawyer at the firm who befriends Josh Lucas' character Mitch McDeere.^[3][4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Shaun Majumder
• Raj Binder's website
• Shaun Majumder at the Internet Movie Database
• MySpace page

Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer. He has received four Academy Award nominations, five BAFTA nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, and two Grammy nominations. Desplat won his first Golden Globe for The Painted Veil in 2006, his first British Academy Film Award in 2011 and his first Grammy Award in 2012 for The King's Speech. Among various projects, Desplat has worked on a variety of Hollywood films including independent and commercial successes like The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, New Moon, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.

Early life[link]

Desplat was born in Paris to a French father and a Greek mother who met at the University of California, Berkeley.^[1] After their marriage, they moved back to France, where Alexandre was born. Alexandre is the younger brother of Vic Desplat. At the age of five, he began playing piano. He also became proficient on trumpet and flute. He studied with Claude Ballif, Iannis Xenakis in France and Jack Hayes in the U.S. Desplat's musical interests were wide, and he was also influenced by South American and African artists and teachers, among whom were Carlinhos Brown and Ray Lema. Desplat swiftly became skilled, both as a performer and a composer.

Career[link]

Desplat has composed extensively for French cinema, Hollywood, and incidental music for over 100 films including Lapse of Memory (1992), Family Express (1992), Regarde Les Hommes Tomber (1994), Les Péchés Mortels (1995), César-nominated Un Héros Très Discret (1996), Une Minute de Silence (1998), Sweet Revenge (1998), Le Château des Singes (1999), Home Sweet Home (2001), Reines d'un Jour (2001), the César-nominated Sur mes lèvres (2002), Rire et Châtiment (2003), Césars-Winning The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), The Queen (2006), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), The Ghost Writer (2010), Daniel Auteuil's remake of La Fille du Puisatier (2011), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).

Desplat has composed individual songs that have been sung in films by such artists as Akhenaton, Kate Beckinsale, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Valérie Lemercier, Miosotis, and Catherine Ringer. He has also written music for the theatre, including pieces performed at the Comédie Française. Desplat has conducted performances of his music played by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Desplat has also given Master Classes at La Sorbonne in Paris and the Royal College of Music in London.

In 2007, he composed the scores for Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass; Zach Helm's directorial debut Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium with American composer Aaron Zigman; and the Ang Lee movie Lust, Caution. Prior to these break-out works, he contributed scores for The Luzhin Defence, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Syriana, Birth, Hostage, Casanova, The Nest and The Painted Veil, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music, and the 2006 World Soundtrack Award. He won the 2007 BMI Film Music Award, 2007 World Soundtrack Award, 2007 European Film Award, and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score for The Queen. He also won the Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Film Music in The Beat that My Heart Skipped. In 2008, Desplat received his second Oscar nomination for David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Desplat received his third Oscar nomination and a BAFTA nomination for Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2010, both of which were won by Michael Giacchino for Up.

Recently, Desplat has composed music for Largo Winch, based on the Belgian comic; Afterwards a French-Canadian psychological thriller film directed by Gilles Bourdos in English; Anne Fontaine's Coco avant Chanel based on the life of designer Coco Chanel; Robert Guédiguian's L'Armée du Crime; Cheri, reuniting him with director Stephen Frears, whom he collaborated with on The Queen; Un Prophète reuniting with director Jacques Audiard; Julie & Julia directed by Nora Ephron; Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson and based on the novel by Roald Dahl; New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz; Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer; Tamara Drewe; The Special Relationship; and The King's Speech which earned Desplat his fourth Oscar nomination.

In early 2011, Desplat began to write the music to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. He reunited with director David Yates, who offered Desplat the opportunity to score the second part after his work on the Part 1 soundtrack "enchanted everyone in the control room".^[2][3] Desplat's soundtrack sequel to the 2008 film Largo Winch was released in 2011 and was well received. Desplat's 2011 projects included The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick (which he actually recorded in early 2010), A Better Life, La Fille du Puisatier, Roman Polanski's Carnage, and George Clooney's The Ides of March.

Desplat started 2012 with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and will continue with scores for The Spider's House, the Florent Emilio Siri-directed biopic Cloclo, and Dreamworks Animation's Rise of the Guardians.

Filmography (English Language)[link]

• The Revengers' Comedies (1998)
• The Luzhin Defence (2000)
• Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
• Birth (2004)
• The Upside of Anger (2005)
• Hostage (2005)
• Casanova (2005)
• Syriana (2005)
• The Alibi (2006)
• Firewall (2006)
• The Queen (2006)
• The Painted Veil (2006)
• Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)
• The Golden Compass (2007)
• Afterwards (2008)
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
• Julie & Julia (2009)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
• The Ghost Writer (2010)
• The Special Relationship (2010)
• Tamara Drewe (2010)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)
• The King's Speech (2010)
• The Tree of Life (2011)
• A Better Life (2011)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)
• The Ides of March (2011)
• Carnage (2011)
• My Week with Marilyn - [Marilyn's Theme] (2011)
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2012)
• The Spider's House (2012)
• Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
• Renoir (2012)
• Rust and Bone (2012)
• Argo (2012)
• Rise of the Guardians (2012)
• The Emperor (2013 film) (2013)
• Zulu (2013)

Filmography (selected – other language(s))[link]

• Une autre femme [France (original title)]
• Tous les chagrins se ressemblent (2002) [French (original title)]
• Paroles d'étoiles (2002) [French (original title)]
• Rire et châtiment [France (original title)]
• Les baisers des autres (2003) [French (original title)]
• Le pacte du silence (2003) [French (original title)]
• Virus au paradis (2003) [French (original title)]
• Eager Bodies (2003) [Les corps impatients – France (original title)]
• Les beaux jours (2003) [French (original title)]
• A Sight for Sore Eyes (2003) [Inquiétudes – France (original title)]
• Le pays des enfants perdus (2004) [French (original title)]
• L'enquête Corse (2004) [French (original title)]
• À boire (2004)[French (original title)]
• Tu vas rire, mais je te quitte (2005) [French (original title)]
• The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) [De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté – France (original title)]
• Une aventure (2005)
• Lies & Alibis (2006) [The Alibi – Netherlands (original title)]
• The Valet (2006) [La doublure – France (original title)]
• Quand j'étais chanteur (2006) [French (original title)]
• Michou d'Auber (2007) [French (original title)]
• Ségo et Sarko sont dans un bateau... (2007) [French (original title)]
• L'Ennemi Intime (2007) – French (original title)
• Lust, Caution (2007) [Se, jie – Chinese (original title)]
• Largo Winch (2008)
• Coco Before Chanel (2009) [Coco avant Chanel – France (original title)]
• A Prophet (2009) [Un prophète – France (original title)]
• The Army of Crime (2009) [L'armée du crime – France (original title)]
• La Fille du Puisatier (2011)
• Largo Winch 2 (2011)
• Cloclo (2012)
• Reality (2012)

Awards and nominations[link]

César Awards[link]

Academy Awards[link]

Golden Globes[link]

BAFTA[link]

Awards[link]

• 2005 Silver Berlin Bear for Best Film Music – The Beat That My Heart Skipped
• 2006 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Music – The Painted Veil and The Queen
• 2007 BMI Film Music Award – The Queen
• 2007 European Film Award for Best Composer – The Queen
• 2007 Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Score – Lust, Caution
• 2007 World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year – The Queen and The Painted Veil
• 2008 Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 BMI Film Music Award – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Coco Before Chanel, Largo Winch and Chéri
• 2010 Étoile d'Or for Best Music (Meilleure musique) – A Prophet, The Army of Crime, Afterwards, Coco Before Chanel and Chéri
• 2010 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Drama Film – The King's Speech
• 2010 IFMCA Award for Film Composer of the Year
• 2010 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film – The Ghost Writer
• 2011 Sammy Film Music Award for Best New Film Score – The King's Speech
• 2011 César Award for Best Music Written for a Film (Meilleure musique écrite pour un film) – The Ghost Writer
• 2011 World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year
• 2011 Étoile d'Or for Film Music Composer for The Ghost Writer
• 2011 San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Score - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

Nominations[link]

• 2004 European Film Award for Best Composer – Girl with a Pearl Earring
• 2005 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score – Birth
• 2006 Étoile d'Or for Best Music (Meilleure musique) – The Beat That My Heart Skipped
• 2006 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score – The Queen
• 2007 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score – Lust, Caution
• 2008 Étoile d'Or for Best Music (Meilleure musique) – L'ennemi intime
• 2008 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2008 Critics Choice Award for Best Composer – Lust, Caution
• 2008 Asian Film Award for Best Composer – Lust, Caution
• 2008 World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year – The Golden Compass
• 2009 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 European Film Award for Best Composer – Coco Before Chanel
• 2009 Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score – Fantastic Mr. Fox (film)
• 2009 Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Score – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 Critic Choice Award for Best Composer – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2009 Saturn Award for Best Music – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• 2010 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score – Fantastic Mr. Fox
• 2010 Satellite Award for Best Original Score – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
• 2010 IFMCA Award for Film Score of the Year – The King's Speech, The Ghost Writer
• 2010 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
• 2010 IFMCA Award for Film Music Composition of the Year – Truth About Ruth from The Ghost Writer
• 2011 Hollywood Music in Media Award for Original Score-Feature Film- The Ides of March
• 2011 World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Film Score of the Year- The King's Speech
• 2011 Satellite Award for Best Original Score – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
• 2011 Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• 2011 San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Score - The Tree of Life (film)
• 2011 San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Score - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• 2011 IFMCA Award for Film Composer of the Year
• 2011 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alexandre Desplat, official website (French) (English)
• Alexandre Desplat, fan website (French) (English)
• Alexandre Desplat at the Internet Movie Database