Alexandre Desplat tried to create a "very organic" score for ‘The Shape of Water’.
The 56-year-old Academy Award winning composer was responsible for writing the incidental music for the latest film by Guillermo Del Toro – which tells the story of an unlikely romance between a mute woman and a mysterious amphibious creature – and his main ambition was to avoid using instrumental tropes from classic monster movies.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz at the premiere of the movie at the BFI London Film Festival at Odeon Cinema in London’s Leicester Square on Tuesday (10.10.17), Desplat said: "I’ve tried to keep the sound of the instruments out of any genre influence or monster movie or electronic or therein.
"I tried to make it very organic. If you listen very carefully it sounds like you’re listening to music like you’re underwater."
The film follows mute, isolated woman Elisa (Sally Hawkins) who works as a janitor in a hidden, government laboratory in 1962 but her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret is the creature known as The Asset (Doug Jones).
As Elisa develops a unique bond with The Asset she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.
Although the film is quite unique in being a sci-fi romance, Desplat claims he does let the genre of a film influence his scores.
He said: "Genre doesn’t really influence my scores. I try not to go too much into genre because it’s been done before, you know. But of course, when the villain does something or there’s a bit of action it’s similar music. But for this movie I did try to be more imaginative.
"Directing music for a film is just like trying to capture the essence and soul of the film and bring it out into the music."
‘The Shape of Water’ also stars Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins and is scheduled for release in December.
Alexandre Desplat wanted organic score for The Shape of Water
