Shunji Iwai: For Lily Chou-Chou

In his second week as Apple Music's Curator of the Month, Japanese director Shunji Iwai explores the soundtrack of his film All About Lily Chou-Chou, which incorporates many works by Claude Debussy alongside original compositions. “There was no real reason for it. But if I had to think of one, I was listening to [Debussy] a lot in my room at the time”, Iwai says of why he chose the French composer's music. “The central character Lily Chou-Chou actually comes from a play on words I took from someone related to Debussy. It was an unexpectedly compatible combination, like that famous metaphor about a ‘chance juxtaposition of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table' [by French author Comte de Lautréamont]. Writers are always seeking such surreal serendipity”.