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.

Paper Airplanes
Bruno Coulais Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Cerf-volant
Volant au vent
Ne t'arrête pas
Vers la mer
Haut dans les airs
Un enfant te voit
Voyage insolent
Troubles enivrants

Amours innocentes
Suivent ta voie
Suivent ta voie
En volant

Cerf-volant
Volant au vent
Ne t'arrête pas
Vers la mer
Haut dans les airs
Un enfant te voit
Et dans la tourmente
Tes ailes triomphantes
N'oublie pas de revenir
Vers moi

Cerf-volant
Volant au vent
Ne t'arrête pas

Cerf-volant
Volant au vent
Ne t'arrête pas
Vers la mer
Haut dans les airs
Un enfant te voit
Et dans la tourmente
Tes ailes triomphantes

N'oublie pas de revenir
Vers moi

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Bruno Coulais' song, "Paper Airplanes", speak of a paper kite flying freely in the wind towards the sea. The kite is seen by a child and they watch in wonder as it travels on an insolent voyage, causing both enlivening and troubling feelings. This innocent pursuit leads the child to follow the kite's path in flight. The song then calls out to the kite, and acknowledges the power of the wind with its ability to uplift and carry the kite away, but also asks the kite not to forget to come back.

At its simplest level, this song is the story of a child who is captivated by the sight of a paper kite in flight. But the lyrics hint at something deeper, more profound. The journey of the kite invites us to consider the nature of freedom and the human desire to break free from the constraints of daily life. The kite represents the playful spirit of childhood, and the child's desire to follow its path, to find their own way. The kite's journey also suggests that there is power in vulnerability and that one must be willing to take risks in order to find new horizons.

Line by Line Meaning

Cerf-volant
A kite

Volant au vent
Flying in the wind

Ne t'arrête pas
Don't stop

Vers la mer
Towards the sea

Haut dans les airs
High up in the sky

Un enfant te voit
A child sees you

Voyage insolent
Bold journey

Troubles enivrants
Intoxicating troubles

Amours innocentes
Innocent loves

Suivent ta voie
They follow your path

En volant
While flying