Le chasseur de la nuit - La femme prisonnière (l'imposteur)

In collaboration with EMI Music Publishing France, Music Box Records proudly presents the eighth volume of the collection Great Television Soundtracks dedicated to two original  television soundtracks composed by Serge Franklin in 1993: Le Chasseur de la nuit and La Femme prisonnière (L’Imposteur).

The adaptation of Le Chasseur de la nuit (directed by Jacques Renard) was Jean Renoir’s last project for cinema, but it was only completed in the early 1990s for television. Serge Franklin composed a symphonic score whose distant lyricism delicately underlines the strong and pure love that binds together the two main characters. The score, often dominated by horns, is also tinged with mystery, with the use of bassoons and bass clarinet. 

Composed the same year, the music of Joël Santoni’s La Femme prisonnière, a TV film noir that tells the story of a manhunt in the mountains, has a more typical thriller-like style. The percussive main theme, based on the use of a piano playing in octaves in the low register, a celesta, the bass clarinet and a transverse flute doubled by a xylophone, gives the listener a feeling of suspense and tension. 

Recorded in Prague and conducted by Mario Klemens, the two scores marked the start of Serge Franklin’s fruitful collaborations with Jacques Renard and Joël Santoni and showcases the composer’s multifaceted talent. 

Supervised by Serge Franklin, this present edition has been fully remastered from complete scoring session elements. The 8-page booklet features an essay by Sylvain Pfeffer discussing the series and the scores based on interviews with the composer and director Jacques Renard. The release is limited to 300 units.

Tracklist