Jean-Michel Blais receives honourable mention from Cannes Soundtrack

Quebec pianist Jean-Michel Blais has received an honourable mention from Cannes Soundtrack for the music he wrote for Xavier Dolan's Matthias et Maxime, which was premiered at this year's Cannes Festival.

Cannes Soundtrack is not part of the Cannes Festival, but since 2012 it has been recognizing the original scores of the films entered in the annual festival's official competition. This year, at a ceremony held at Cannes Beach, its jury of international journalists awarded the prize for best soundtrack to Alberto Iglesias for his work for Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory. 

The jury also gave an honourable mention to Blais' original music for Dolan's film. Blais received a gold record and gave a performance at the ceremony.

Blais' music for Matthias et Maxime is remarkable for how it was conceived. "Xavier wanted music that was simple, light, fresh, direct, sunny and optimistic," Blais told BFM TV. To achieve this, he composed the music in studio while viewing the daily rushes from the set, with Dolan at his side, reading passages from the screenplay.

Urged by Dolan, Blais used a theme from the second movement of Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 16 as a point of departure for his music for Matthias et Maxime. Dolan had been captivated by Schubert's music, and Blais suggests there are parallels between the life of Schubert and the characters in Dolan's film — "themes of love, seduction, rejection, identity and one's place in society."

Blais and Iglesias were among 11 composers nominated by Cannes Soundtrack this year. The others included James Newton Howard (A Hidden Life) and Nicola Piovani (Il Traditore).

According to La Presse, Blais' original score for Matthias et Maxime will be released in the fall.