I Lost My Body (soundtrack)
Score for the 2019 film I Lost My Body.
Dan Levy composed the score for Jérémy Clapin's 2019 film I Lost My Body. Released by Lakeshore Records on 8 November 2019, the soundtrack earned Levy the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in a Feature Production.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Dan Levy
- Released
- 8 November 2019
- Recorded
- 2019
- Studio
- Studio Watchtower
- Mandeville
- Eure
- L'Obsidienne Studios
- Paris
- Genre
- Film score
- Length
- 50:24
- Label
- Lakeshore
Facts from the source article.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | J'ai perdu mon corps | 2:44 |
| 2 | Intuition | 3:05 |
| 3 | That Night | 1:36 |
| 4 | A Hand in the City | 3:06 |
| 5 | Memories | 1:16 |
| 6 | Fluorescent | 1:59 |
| 7 | You're the One S+C+A+R+R | 2:47 |
| 8 | Horizon | 2:08 |
| 9 | Igloo | 3:44 |
| 10 | Suburban | 2:21 |
| 11 | Camtar | 1:26 |
| 12 | Rosalie | 3:13 |
| 13 | Intercom | 2:57 |
| 14 | Music Box | 1:05 |
| 15 | Sale soirée | 2:06 |
| 16 | Fly's Fate | 3:59 |
| 17 | Snow | 2:28 |
| 18 | End Credits Alternative (Bonus Track) | 2:30 |
| 19 | I'm Here (Bonus Track) | 2:45 |
| 20 | La complainte du soleil | 3:09 |
| Total length | 50:24 | |
Track listing from the source article.
Development
Dan Levy, from the indie-pop band the Dø, wrote the score for I Lost My Body. Director Clapin saw the music as a way to elevate the film’s everyday Parisian settings into something mystical and cosmic. He chose Levy because he admired his melodic sense and his blend of natural and electronic sounds. Levy’s first composition was the destiny theme tied to the hand, Rosalie, and the melody for the black-and-white childhood flashbacks.
Levy initially pushed for a flute, but Clapin wanted a fully synthesized, ambient score. Levy eventually convinced him otherwise. He also had to argue for melody and strings in the love story between Naofel and Gabrielle. In the scene where the lovers first speak through an apartment intercom, Levy wove synthesizers into the strings.
But when Naofel follows Gabrielle onto the subway and into the library, the background noise of the metro made things difficult. Levy persuaded Clapin that without love music, the audience might see Naofel as a stalker. Clapin, however, insisted that the hand’s journey through Paris should feel abstract, textured, and harsh, needing an emotional dimension that synthesizers could provide. This led to a key discussion about blending score and sound design.
Levy recalled Clapin asking for many descending synthesizer notes for the hand sequences, not realizing at first that Clapin was describing sound design. Later, Levy worked with the sound team, finding the back-and-forth between music and sound fascinating. He observed how the process grew more melodic and organic, flowing naturally with the editing. In the end, the film’s musical palette was built from a combination of strings and synthesizers.
Reception
Thor Joachim Haga of Celluloid Tunes wrote that overall it is a score that perfectly mirrors Naofel's qualms, somewhat detached but hovering over the story like a gust from the past or an aural spirit. Daniya Jawwad of Cherwell wrote that the music matches the melancholic and unsettling undertones of the film and greatly complements certain scenes, such as those from Naofel's childhood, making them unbearably bittersweet. Mark Kermode of The Guardian wrote that a gorgeous electronic score by Dan Levy completes the picture, emphasising the romantic themes of longing and loss, tugging upon heartstrings without resort to sentimentality.
David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote that Levy's phenomenal score helps sweep the viewer right along, thrumbing with plaintive beauty from start to finish, alternating between spectral ambience and percussive discord like two melodies racing to find each other. Peter Debruge of Variety and Bilge Ebiri of Vulture called it a mesmerizing and lovely score. Carlos Aguilar of TheWrap wrote that the entire film is enveloped in a musical blanket knitted from the astral notes of Levy's atmospheric score, with electronic harmonies encapsulating what floating in the immensity of the universe might sound like, grand in an outer-space scope but emotionally rousing.
David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote a huge shout-out to composer Dan Levy, whose techno-propulsive score switches moods on a dime yet keeps a sense of consistency. Rafael Motamayor of /Film called it an electronic, impressionistic score, adding that Levy's electronic harmonies infuse the film with sci-fi tones and tragic orchestration that encapsulates all of life's experiences. Christopher Inoa of Thrillist called it a spellbinding score composed by Dan Levy, a mixture of classical piano, electronic, and French hip-hop that amplifies the film's dream-like, melancholic tone.
Kambole Campbell of NME wrote that throughout all of these moments, Levy's score evokes painful longing, a beautiful and dramatic theme played over memories shared by Naoufel and the disembodied hand.
More in Lakeshore Records Soundtracks
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced