Birth name Eric Serra Name Eric Serra Role Musician | Parents Claude Cerat Years active 1970–present Movies Subway | |
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Born 9 September 1959 (age 64) Saint-Mande, France ( 1959-09-09 ) Occupation(s) Songwriter, record producer, composer, President of EuroVoice European Music Contest Instruments Guitar, percussion, drums Albums Profiles | ||
Eric serra the free side
Éric Serra (born 9 September 1959) is a French musician and composer. He has often worked on films by Luc Besson.
Contents
Eric serra le grand bleu
Biography
Éric Serra's father Claude was a famous French songwriter in the 1950s and '60s, and, as such, Éric was exposed to music and its production at a young age. His mother died when he was just seven years old. In the early 1980s, Serra met director Luc Besson and was asked to score his first film, Le Dernier Combat (1983). Serra has scored all of Besson's directed films to date, except Angel-A (2005) (scored by Anja Garbarek), and several that Besson has written, such as Wasabi.
In 1995, Éric Serra was chosen to compose the score to the James Bond film GoldenEye, and produced a much more modern-sounding avant-garde soundtrack compared to previous Bond films. It met with mixed reviews from film critics. Serra's score is often criticized by Bond fans, and is considered the farthest departure from a traditional Bond score and, by some, as the most inappropriate in the series history. Others find it highly innovative, with the main problem the lack of the Monty Norman/John Barry traditional theme. The producers later hired John Altman to provide the music for the tank chase in St. Petersburg. Serra's original track for that sequence can still be found on the soundtrack as "A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg".
Occasionally, and mainly due to his album released by this name, he is known in credits as RXRA (pronounced like his name, in French). An example is "Little Light of Love" on The Fifth Element soundtrack, which is credited to RXRA.
Serra has been together with Australian model Jodi Luschwitz for 17 years, with whom he has two children: Ashani and Mitivaï.
Other projects
From 1980 to 1988, Éric Serra played bass guitar for French singer Jacques Higelin.
Éric Serra is also a songwriter, notably having written "It's Only Mystery" for the film Subway, "My Lady Blue" for Le Grand Bleu and "Little Light of Love" for The Fifth Element. In 1998, Éric Serra released an album of rock music titled RXRA which resembles the artist's name when pronounced as initial letters in French.
Serra composed the music for the 2008 Las Vegas Criss Angel/Cirque Du Soleil show 'Criss Angel: Believe'.
Onscreen appearances
Serra has spent little time in front of the camera, choosing to work behind the scenes instead. However, on French television he has made a number of appearances performing music, and notably appeared in the Luc Besson film Subway in which he plays 'Enrico the bassist'.
Film scores
Éric Serra has created the scores for the following films:
Songs
The Diva DanceLe Cinquième Élément · 1997
Little Light of LoveLe Cinquième Élément · 1997
It's Only MysterySubway · 1985