Maurice Jarre, famous for his compositions for cinema and father of Jean Michel Jarre, passed away in Los Angeles last March 29, aged 84.
Winner of three Oscars (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India) and lots of other awards (the last of them, the Berlin’s Festival Golden Bear last February), composed the music of more than 15o films and worked with the finest directors of the history of cinema, like Alfred Hitchcock, Clint Eastwood, John Houston, David Lean, etc…
The relation with his son Jean Michel was not easy because the split of Maurice and France Pejot, Jean Michel’s mother, and the departure of Maurice to America to work on Hollywood. But, the relation of Maurice and Jean Michel became more and more closer on recent years: A proof of this is the special composition which Maurice gave to Jean Michel as a gift in his wedding with Anne Parillaud in 2005; and Jean Michel was seated on the first row of the Lyon Auditorium on the concert that celebrated the 50 years of Maurice‘s career. The very last proof of this closer relationship was that Aero Productions, production agency of Jean Michel Jarre, gave the news about Maurice Jarre‘s die to the media.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy talked about Maurice Jarre saying that “his work was majestic and generous, classic and popular”, and transmitted his sorrow to Jean Michel Jarre “to whom could transmit his passion for music”.
Rest in peace, monsieur Maurice Jarre.