Eric Serra began his musical career in the '70s as a guitarist and bassist for various French pop/rock bands. His long-term collaboration with filmmaker Luc Besson began when he scored the short film L'Avant Dernier (1981) and then Le Dernier Combat (1983), the director's first feature film. Serra's dramatic and inventive style incorporates acoustic instruments alongside heavy electronic production on scores filled with manipulated synths and percussion sounds moving through haunting harmonies—the versatile Serra would later win a César for the Besson comedy-drama Le Grand Bleu (1989).