The music to the 2021 anthology comedy drama film The French Dispatch directed by Wes Anderson features of a score composed by Alexandre Desplat, and selections of French classical and pop hits curated by the music supervisor Randall Poster, who were Anderson's regular collaborators.
"[4]Desplat, while writing music, would play his sketches to Anderson where he would give the notes and thereby he would explore and elaborate those ideas, repeating the process back and forth until they found a direction that felt right for the film.
Desplat scored the opening sequence and two of the episodes in the film: "The Concrete Masterpiece" and "The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner".
To achieve this, he collaborated with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet whom previously worked on Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) to perform solo piano for the film.
[9] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Desplat would record his parts with Thibaudet on Los Angeles, while the orchestra performed the score at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Hence, he undertook vocal coaching from Stereolab frontman Lætitia Sadier to understand the pronunciation of the language; in addition to this, Sadier performed a duet on "Paroles, paroles" and translated Nino Ferrer's English song "Looking for You" into a French version titled "Amour, Je Te Cherche".
[12] James Southall of Movie Wave wrote "the best way of experiencing the score is to do so in sequence, but the album scatters in an array of songs and orchestral pieces – it's all good stuff, but focusing on the Desplat is rewarding".
[15] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Desplat's "doodling piano themes help shape the jaunty tone".