French-Armenian composer Georges Garvarentz was a prolific author of music for films and musical collaborator of Charles Aznavour. He was born Diran Garvarentz on April 1, 1932, in Athens, Greece, to a family of Armenian immigrants. Garvarentz composed over 150 film scores. In 1989 he has received a Gemini award for the Best Original Music Score.

Jean-Claude Petit is now one of France's leading film composers, alongside Gabriel Yared. In just over a decade, he has forged a solid reputation, especially since his superb work on Manon des Sources and Jean de Florette in 1986 and Cyrano de Bergerac in 1990. Since this interview took place, Jean-Claude Petit has signed the score for ZEBRE, the film directed by the late Jean Poiret. Even if some of the films he has collaborated on have not been great successes...

The French master of movie music picked up nine Oscar nominations, and won three – all for his collaborations with legendary British director David Lean. But there were also accomplished soundtracks for such box-office hits as ‘Witness’ and ‘Ghost’. He was also the father of the electronic music composer, Jean Michel Jarre. He’s pictured here winning a lifetime achievement at the Berlinale in February 2009.

He might not have been a household name outside of his native France, but French composer and jazz pianist Michel Legrand helped define the 60s with his composition “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” which won an Oscar after it was featured in the 1968 crime movie The Thomas Crown Affair. Legrand’s prolific work rate and prodigious talent, however, ensured that he left behind a vast amount of music to discover following his death in 2019, just a month shy of his 87th birthday.

Philippe Sarde is considered among the most versatile and talented French film composers of his generation, Sarde has scored over two hundred films, film shorts, and television mini-series. He received an Academy Award nomination for Tess , and twelve César Award nominations, winning for Barocco . In 1993, Sarde received the Joseph Plateau Music Award.

Pierre Jansen renounced in 1960 the achievements of the avant-garde and devoted himself to film music. He collaborated with Claude Chabrol of whom he became the official composer. About Pierre Jansen, the director of the French New Wave said: "I met a brother in music." while the latter described his meeting with Chabrol as "decisive and unexpected.". He then worked with Claude Goretta, Francis Girod and Pierre Schoendoerffer.