KEEPING SCORE

After composing music for more than 50 European films, Alexandre Desplat has become something of a hot ticket in Hollywood these days, thanks to his recent award-winning scores for “The Queen,” “The Painted Veil,” “Lust, Caution” and “The Golden Compass.”

Desplat’s latest work is for David Fincher’s fable “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which opens Christmas Day and revolves around a child who is born as an aged man (Brad Pitt) but grows ever younger over the decades.

Desplat says his score brings feeling to the tale without overdoing it. Fincher, he says, “wanted the audience to feel a lot of emotion and gentleness so we are moved with this story about death and love and the loss of people you meet in your life.” So Desplat composed a score tinged with melancholy and repetitive patterns that reflect the ticking of time.

“The most important thing that Fincher and many great directors I have worked with, like Stephen Frears, have is this great trust in you,” Desplat says. “You have to respond to their expectations, but they also want you to surprise them.”

-- Susan King