A virtuoso jazz and classical pianist, an accomplished conductor, and a multiple Oscar-winning composer with more than two hundred film and television scores to his credit, Michel Legrand has left an indelible mark on the cinema. Raised in France during the German occupation, Legrand was part of a generation that embraced American jazz in the immediate period after the war. His very first album, I Love Paris, recorded when Legrand was only twenty-two, became one of the best-selling instrumental albums ever released. By the late 1950s, he became associated with the young filmmakers of the French New Wave, scoring several films for Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy. He went on to work with dozens of major directors, ranging from American expatriates Joseph Losey and Orson Welles to European filmmakers like Andrzej Wajda and Costa-Gavras.

Drawn mainly from the Film Archive’s own collection, this series pays homage to the artistry of this legendary musician, composer, and cineaste.