Eric Demarsan (sometimes Eric De Marsan) was born on October 2nd, 1938
in Paris.
His father was a businessman and his grandmother a painter and
musician.
At 12 he was impressed by a pianist's glissando during a family dinner
in a restaurant. From then onwards he took piano lessons.
At about 18, he play piano until dawn in the nightclubs of the "Place
du Tertre", in Montmartre, along with Bernard Dimey, Marian Kouzan and
most of all Michel Magne.
He became the assistant of the latter for two years and learned from
him numerous techniques of orchestration and the "threads" of the music
of film.
In the 60s, he composed for commercials and industrial documentaries.
He also worked as orchestrator for the TV series of Cécile Aubry "Belle
et Sebastien", then as composer for "Sébastien Parmi les Hommes".
In 1967 he orchestrated for François de Roubaix the TV serie "Les
Chevaliers du Ciel" of François Villiers as well as the films
"Diaboliquement Votre" of Julien Duvivier and "Le Samourai" of
Jean-Pierre Melville.
After this work he composed for Melville "L'Armée des Ombres" in 1969
then, next year, "Le Cercle Rouge", within a fortnight, after Michel
Legrand's music was rejected.
He worked several times with film directors such as Jean-Pierre Mocky
(six times), Costa-Gavras ("Section Spéciale") and Patrice Leconte
("Les Spécialistes").
He also composed for the TV, in particular "La Dernière Fête" of Pierre
Granier-Deferre and "Clarissa" of Jacques Deray.
Today Eric Demarsan has become the usual composer of Guillaume Nicloux
with "Une Affaire Privée" in 2001 and "Cette Femme Là" in 2003.
