4. Children of Paradise

Children of Paradise is one of my favourite of favourite films. My first girlfriend and I – that was the film we would go to see around the corner from where my little studio was and I don’t know, I probably saw that film 30 or 40 times. I just thought it symbolised France, "la vie Boehme" and things like that which, don’t exist anymore.

Also, I have lived quite a bit in France and I’ve done a lot of projects in the last, practically 50 years, in Paris and early on in Bordeaux, in Montpellier and Nice. I do love Frenchness, I must say that. They have a sensuality about sound, which is still very important for me, in my little way of using overtones. Even their organs: I love how they deal with partials, in a French style, which goes back to the Baroque time.

This film was also made under difficult circumstances, right?

At the end of the war in France, Yes. It was made with, how do you say, with "smoke and mirrors"? And so yes, I know that it was an amazing achievement, not only because it’s such a fabulous movie, but it was done under such duress and under the noses of the Nazis!