"It's always a pleasure to be in the area": The composer of Le Grand Bleu, Eric Serra, passing through Mandelieu, announces a new opus on the theme of space

Around his neck, a chain adorned with a silver pendant, depicting angel wings: "Each one symbolizes one of my daughters, Ashani and Mitivaï," smiles the composer with a global aura. He became a professional guitarist at the age of 17, then musical director and bassist for Jacques Higelin three years later.

And who since the resounding and unexpected success of Luc Besson's The Big Blue in 1988, has continued to ride this gigantic wave of love felt by both the public and critics for his soundtracks: from Subway to The Fifth Element, via Léon , Arthur and the Minimoys and Lucy.

At home in the Mediterranean

Sitting at a table, in front of a freshly squeezed orange, on the terrace of the Casa Rose hotel in Mandelieu-la-Napoule – where he was preparing to perform this Thursday with his band, the RXRA Group, as part of the festival Les Nuits Robinson, before participating the next day in Jazz à Toulon 2025 –, Eric Serra exults: "It's always a pleasure to be in the area. I'm not exactly from the Côte d'Azur, since I lived between Narbonne and Perpignan, from the age of 5 to 15, but it was still the Mediterranean Coast. And because of my origins, being half Italian, half Spanish, I feel more at home here than on the shores of the Atlantic."

At the mere mention of Mare Nostrum , other memories resurface: " With Luc Besson and Jean Reno, three years before the release of The Big Blue , we crisscrossed the Mediterranean for an entire summer to prepare the film. We left Cannes on a small boat with a skipper, since at the time we didn't have a license. We sailed around Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, all of Italy, and Greece. And every morning, Luc got up very early to write yet another version of The Big Blue , before we all did freediving training together."

Because fascinated by the approach to this discipline of the real Jacques Mayol (who was initially to be played by Christophe Lambert, before the choice finally fell on Jean-Marc Barr), Eric Serra goes so far as to participate in these underwater sequences, and even lasts two and a half minutes underwater! A more than respectable score for an amateur. "This total immersion gave me a lot of inspiration for the film's music," he confirms. Emotions that definitively sealed his links with The Big Blue .

A new album on space at the end of the year

But while he acknowledges being sensitive to the fate of the oceans, which was widely discussed at the recent Nice Summit, this musical journey maker is also looking to the stars: "I'm currently finishing an album that should be released at the end of the year, whose theme has nothing to do with the sea, since this time it's about space. Even if the two ultimately come together. I discussed it a lot with astronauts while working on this project, and they all agreed on these two points: seen from up there, the notion of borders loses its meaning. And on the other hand, the damage, on the environmental side, is even more perceptible. It's a subject as important as it is serious. For humanity even more than for the planet, which will recover. But few are those who act, unfortunately."

Dédé Ceccarelli, Jean-Marc Jafet and the others

While he appreciates our region from Nice to Saint-Tropez, where he enjoys playing night owls at the Caves du Roy as much as the less bling bling side of the Cité des Lices, Eric Serra has also forged ties with some big names on the Côte d'Azur scene: "I know André Ceccarelli well, his brother too, Jean-Paul, as well as Jean-Marc Jafet, and Yoan Serra. Because most of them are from the same generation as me and we all hung out in the same jazz clubs in Paris in the 80s and 90s. Like the Sunset, the most legendary club in the country, where I played jazz fusion with my quartet. Every night there was a jam session, I even spent a night there performing with Jaco Pastorius... And all these artists from Nice were indeed great musicians! In Toulon, we found more brass players. 80% of the brass players in pop and variety came from Toulon. There was also Eric Mula, who was originally from Saint-Raphaël." His eyes shining as he recalls these memories, Eric Serra is thinking more and more about settling in the South. And he continues his recovery, he who was tested by a nasty crab in 2022, by sharing with the public and talents from here and elsewhere. Driven by an intact passion, at 65 years old.

Nominated six times for the César Awards between 1986 and 2000, and winner of the César for Best Film Music for The Big Blue in 1989, Eric Serra, by his own admission, became a film composer by chance, as he was originally destined for a career as an instrumentalist! To understand what "the Serra touch" is, we gave him a real Cornelian choice to present here his three favorite soundtracks.

1. "Leon" (1994)

"I rarely listen to my music, but when I do, the one that impresses me the most is the soundtrack to Léon . It's so emotionally charged that it moves me! And it's the only one that does that to me. Which doesn't mean I don't like the others, but they remind me more of the amount of work, while this one touches me in a very special way."

2. "The Big Blue" (1988)

"This film changed my life so much! So this music obviously represents something special. What's more, when we put it into a concert performance, I rediscovered how much fun it is to play and how incredibly pleasant it is. Just like the film, which leaves you with a smile and a feeling of well-being."

3. "The Fifth Element" (1997)

"This soundtrack is linked to a beautiful story with the singer Inva Mula, who was the new recruit of the former agent of Maria Callas and Karajan. Luc Besson had asked me to write a piece, The Diva Dance , as an extension of the title Il Dolce Suono by Gaetano Donizetti. We first recorded the classical part in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Inva then came to my studio and, as soon as she arrived, grabbed the score and started humming. With a beautiful timbre, a precision and a perfection that made my hair stand on end! I still wanted to warn her about the fact that I had deliberately inserted things that were impossible to sing, the diva being an alien in the film. I estimated the possible part to sing at 60% of the score. Against all expectations, she managed to interpret 80% of it, I couldn't believe it! And she loved it this experience, which also turned out to be an incredible opportunity for her to diversify."

The bonus

"The soundtrack of Arthur and the Invisibles , which was for me an accomplishment in symphonic writing."