• Director(s):

    CLAIRVAL-MILHAUD (CECILE)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE, STEINVAL PRODUCTION

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2010

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, VOD, INTERNET

This film invites us to discover Milhaud's life, so as to understand his work better.

Darius Milhaud was without doubt one of the most fertile composers of the 20th Century, leaving behind an extensive artistic legacy of nearly 450 Opuses that stands out as one of the most original in French music of his time.

Before being recognized and accepted, many of his works caused scandal and gave rise to impassioned controversy due to their non-conformism and their pioneering character. He also came to prominence in the 1920s as the leading light in the "Groupe des Six".

His music, and more particularly his lyric works, express his greatest sources of inspiration:
- his attachment to popular roots, such as those of his native Provence, but also those he adopted in his encounters with other cultures, such as Brazilian folklore or jazz.
- his religious faith, marked by the Jewish tradition of the Comtat Venaissin.
- his humanist convictions, expressed in his choice of texts and historical figures that express a will for the progress and liberty of mankind, such as Christopher Columbus, Maximilien or Simon Bolivar.

Aided by his wife's reminiscences and by the artist's own comments, this film looks at the work and life of Darius Milhaud, a man that stood for universality and for dialogue between cultures.