Bruno Coulais is a French composer, born in Paris on 13 January 1954. He ha… Read Full Bio ↴Bruno Coulais is a French composer, born in Paris on 13 January 1954. He has a father from Vendée and his mother is an Iraqi Jew. He is most widely known for his music on film soundtracks.

Coulais began his musical education on the violin and piano, aiming to become a composer of contemporary classical music. However, a series of acquaintances gradually re-oriented him towards film music. Coulais was particularly influenced by director François Reichenbach, who asked him in 1977 to write the soundtrack to his new documentary Mexico Magico. The first full-length production he composed the score for was the 1986 film La femme secrète by Sébastien Grall. Until the end of the 1990s, he remained low-profile, composing mainly for television. His name can often be found from TV films by Gérard Marx and Laurent Heynemann. He also composed the soundtracks for Christine Pascal's 1992 film Le petit prince a dit, and Agnès Merlet's Le fils du requin in 1993.

In 1994, he met the television producer Josée Dayan, who let him write a theme for the TV series La rivière Esperance, aired on the France 2 network in autumn 1995. He worked with Dayan again with other major productions such as Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Balzac, and Les nuiteux.

The largest turning point of his career came in 1996, when he worked with directors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou of the documentary Microcosmos. This single film, which gave a great significance to the music in it, was a great success and made Coulais one of the most wanted composers of French film music. In 1997, he won the César award for the best musical score in a film, as well as a Victoire de la Musique. His reputation was confirmed by the soundtracks to Himalaya (1999) and Les rivières pourpres (2000), and after that Bruno Coulais's name was to be found on most new French blockbusters, such as Belphégor and Vidocq.

After producing the soundtrack to Winged Migration in 2001, Coulais announced that he wanted to significantly reduce his contributions to film music, and instead concentrate on other projects, such as the creation of an opera for children, and collaborations with Akhenaton, Akhenaton's group IAM and the Corsican group A Filetta, with whom he had worked since he had made the soundtrack for Jacques Weber's film Don Juan in 1998.

In 2002, his name was found on the ending credits of the animation L'enfant qui voulait être un ours, and in 2004, on Frédéric Schoendoerffer's Agents secrets. The same year, he wrote the soundtrack to the film Les choristes by Christophe Baratier, which subsequently became an international hit. The music for this film received as great praise as the film itself, and it won Coulais his third César award. Since then, Coulais's collaborations in cinema seem to be limited to works by directors with whom he already shares some history, in particular Jacques Perrin, Frédéric Schoendoerffer, and James Huth.

Bruno Coulais's musical style may vary significantly between different projects, but there are some constant factors visible: his taste for opera and for human voice (in particular that of children), for a search for original sonority, for world music and mixing different musical cultures, and finally, a certain tendency to give preference to the ambience created by lighting rather than the film's narration.

La Fin Du Rêve
Bruno Coulais Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Look at your feet
This funny world
Full of insane small creatures

cnd listen to
This buzzing chord
Who keenly spreads such strange murmurs

The sound's buzzing, swarming
Sliding beetles, snails, and ladybirds

On swarming grubs
On sliding ants
Open your eyes before you die

Sit on the grass
Observe and paint
The toad, the wasp, the dragonfly

The sound's buzzing, swarming
Sliding beetles, snails, and ladybirds

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Bruno Coulais's song "La Fin Du Rêve" evoke a sense of awe and wonder towards the natural world and its inhabitants. The opening line, "Look at your feet," encourages the listener to pay attention to the small details of the world around them. The following line, "This funny world, full of insane small creatures," introduces a playful tone, suggesting that the world is teeming with peculiar and fascinating beings.

As the song progresses, the lyrics urge the listener to not only observe but also listen to the sounds of nature. The line "And listen to this buzzing chord, who keenly spreads such strange murmurs" suggests that there is a symphony of natural sounds that can be appreciated if one takes the time to listen closely. The buzzing sound mentioned in the lyrics represents the constant activity and vibrancy of nature.

The subsequent verses further emphasize the diversity of insects and small creatures, mentioning beetles, snails, ladybirds, ants, toads, wasps, and dragonflies. The repetition of the line "The sound's buzzing, swarming, sliding beetles, snails, and ladybirds" creates a rhythmic quality, mirroring the commotion and movement of the natural world.

Overall, "La Fin Du Rêve" celebrates the beauty and intricacy of the natural world, urging the listener to appreciate and engage with the small wonders that often go unnoticed in daily life.

Line by Line Meaning

Look at your feet
Take a moment to observe the world beneath you

This funny world
This world filled with peculiar and amusing things

Full of insane small creatures
Teeming with eccentric and unpredictable tiny beings

And listen to
Pay attention to

This buzzing chord
The harmonious blend of buzzing sounds

Who keenly spreads such strange murmurs
Which eagerly carries unfamiliar whispers

The sound's buzzing, swarming
The sound is bustling, teeming

Sliding beetles, snails, and ladybirds
Crawling beetles, snails, and ladybirds in motion

On swarming grubs
Upon wriggling larvae

On sliding ants
Upon moving ants

Open your eyes before you die
Pay attention while you still can