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While the Olympics’ opening ceremony showcased two North American superstars, Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, the closing bash will highlight two iconic French bands, Phoenix and Air, the event’s executive director Thierry Reboul confirmed to Variety in an interview.

Reboul, who produced the blockbuster, controversial opening ceremony show along the Seine and recently filed a police complaint after receiving death threats for it, is now in the final stretch of preparing the closing event alongside artistic director Thomas Jolly.

“We’ve tried to champion French talents from the start even if we had international stars (Celine Dion and Lady Gaga); each time it was promoting a French artist nevertheless,” said Reboul. “We always have in mind to turn the spotlight on our country, of course.” Gaga, who had to pre-tape her performance in anticipation of pouring rain, indeed sang in French and paid tribute to Zizi Jeanmaire’s cabaret-inspired “Mon Truc en Plumes,...

Clockwise from left: Mica Levi (Dimitrios Vellis/Wikimedia Commons), David Byrne (Shutterstock), Jonny Greenwood (Shutterstock), Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Shutterstock)Graphic: The A.V. Club

If you plan to see Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers this weekend, be prepared to be knocked on your ass by its propulsive score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Zita Hanrot and Sami Bouajila in Farid Bentoumi’s toxic Red Soil (Rouge)

During the 2021 UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema there were two virtual live panels. How Music Makes the Film (with composers Jean-Benoît Dunckel of François Ozon’s Summer Of 85; Evgueni Galperine of Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s Gagarine; Nicolas Weil and Sylvain Ohrel of Charlène Favier’s Slalom; Aska Matsumiya (Aska) of Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen, and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch of Sarah Gavron’s Rocks).

Melvil Poupaud and Benjamin Voisin in François Ozon’s cool Summer Of 85 (Eté 85)

The Vive la Résistance panel had directors Farid Bentoumi on his Red Soil (Rouge); Reinaldo Marcus Green on Monsters And Men; Kitty Green on The Assistant, and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, moderated by Maddie Whittle.

At the César Awards on March 12, Filippo Meneghetti’s Oscar-shortlisted Two Of Us (Deux), starring...

Scores on Screen is a column by Clare Nina Norelli on film soundtracks.“I think that we wrote the spirit — the musical spirit — that [Sofia Coppola] had needed for her movie.”–Jean-Benoît Dunckel (Air)1The Virgin Suicides (1999) opens with a blonde teen-aged girl standing in the middle of a suburban street eating a popsicle. She is looking out past the camera, appears simultaneously bored and amused, and is surrounded by the familiar sounds of imminent dusk: birds chirping, the hiss of sprinklers, the bark of a dog, the elongated buzz of crickets, and a child’s shouts. Underneath this chorus of the everyday, a grave electric organ-driven dirge on the soundtrack invests the otherwise commonplace scene with an eerie solemnity. The girl moves off camera and, amidst the golden hues of sunlight flickering through tree branches, we are shown other residents of her neighborhood going about their afternoons, their faces obscured,...

Lithuanian writer-director Alanté Kavaïté's second feature, The Summer of Sangaile, with Julija Steponaityté and Aisté Dirziuté, has premiered at Sundance and will soon screen at the Berlinale. "Awash with ripe, voluptuous summertime imagery and brimming with aborning adolescent female sexuality," finds the Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, but Filmmaker's Sarah Salovaara counters: "Operating under the assumption that mood music plus lengthy gazes plus alternately picturesque and leering camerawork equals romance, Alanté Kavaïté presents a straining film without a cohesive, narrative framework." We're collecting more reviews and we have a clip featuring the soundtrack by Air's Jean-Benoît Dunckel. » - David Hudson...

Lithuanian writer-director Alanté Kavaïté's second feature, The Summer of Sangaile, with Julija Steponaityté and Aisté Dirziuté, has premiered at Sundance and will soon screen at the Berlinale. "Awash with ripe, voluptuous summertime imagery and brimming with aborning adolescent female sexuality," finds the Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, but Filmmaker's Sarah Salovaara counters: "Operating under the assumption that mood music plus lengthy gazes plus alternately picturesque and leering camerawork equals romance, Alanté Kavaïté presents a straining film without a cohesive, narrative framework." We're collecting more reviews and we have a clip featuring the soundtrack by Air's Jean-Benoît Dunckel. » - David Hudson...

The latest slice of broody Scandinavian quality drama, Pioneer, is already touted for a Us remake. Like The Abyss without all the bothersome alien space tubes, it tells of a group of civilian divers who encounter the perils of the deep first-hand when they're sent to help construct a new oil pipeline deep below the surface of the North Sea. To add the requisite atmosphere and mood, French band Air have stepped up to deliver a score that is rich in both. There's no official soundtrack per se, but the band has composed a series of unnamed cues for the film and Empire is happy to be able to share six of them with you right here.Air, of course, have a rich film pedigree. They scored Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and supplied tracks for Lost In Translation and Marie Antoinette, and in 2010 composed a new score for Georges Méliès great silent sci-fi,...

Aside from the sheer terror and unfathomable pain of having to wake up early enough to catch the school bus, I have relatively fond memories of high school and grade school. For the most part, the kids in the latest video from Tomorrow’s World look like they will have fond memories, too. Tomorrow’s World is the side project of Jean Benoit Dunckel and Lou Hayter, better known as members of legendary electronic group Air and New Young Pony Club, respectively. Their most recent video for 'Life on Earth' is a glimpse at a day in the life of school children from the boredom of math class up until the insane running of the bulls that is the final bell. All in all, a pretty low key and typical school experience. The tune is entrancing and melodic. It completes sonically what the video presents to you visually...

Air’s new album requires a little context, so start with the DVD included in the special-edition package of Le Voyage Dans La Lune, which contains Georges Méliès’ complete 15-minute 1902 science-fiction classic A Trip To The Moon, restored from the lone remaining hand-colored print. Air was hired to provide a soundtrack to the restored film, a project that band members Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel knocked out in less than a month. That tight deadline may explain the overall slightness to the music on the Le Voyage Dans La Lune CD, which sounds like a pastiche ...

The electronic duo are back in orbit with a brand new soundtrack to the first science-fiction film ever made

Last year, as Nasa retired its space programme and China announced its intention to put man back on the moon, the cosmic French electronic duo Air were holed up in their Parisian studio plotting their own lunar return. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel first landed with the 1998 hit album Moon Safari, which went platinum in the UK and for a short while seemed to define the musical zeitgeist. Space and travel have been recurring themes in their stylish, sumptuous ambient electronica, from breakthrough single "Sexy Boy", whose video depicted a monkey flying to the moon, to 2004's "Surfing on a Rocket", both great slices of future-pop.

They've also composed elegant soundtracks for Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides, although not all of their six albums have been as stellar.

Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air has said that his band's debut album Moon Safari was popular listening material when people had sex following its release in 1998. The musician quipped to The Quietus that the record was responsible for the conception of every child that year. Dunckel said: "It was a catalyst. It just helped. But it's true, I'm sure of it, because it's non-aggressive music and it was really fashionable. "I remember when it came out in London I was shocked by the response it got. It was almost scary... Because we did 'Sexy Boy' the relationship (more)...