Sound of Cinema

Matthew Sweet introduces music for films which explore the idea of the doppelgänger - from "The Prince and the Pauper" and "I Was Monty's Double" to this week's featured new release, François Ozon's "Amant Double" with a score by Philippe Rombi. The programme features music from 'A Stolen Life', 'I Was Monty's Double', 'The Man In The Iron Mask', 'The Prince and the Pauper', 'Vertigo', 'The Double...

Matthew Sweet with music for films that employ a common theatrical device often used to explore ideas about gender politics - where a woman appears disguised as a man. This programme comes in the week of the release of The Breadwinner, the acclaimed new film about 11 year old Parvana who lives under the harsh Taliban rule of early Twenty-First Century Afghanistan, and which features a new score by...

Matthew Sweet with music for films inspired by contemporary British novelists in the week that sees the release of On Chesil Beach based on the novel by Ian McEwan, and featuring a new score by Dan Jones.

Matthew Sweet looks at films that explore clashes of culture and presents a mix of music for the screen which underscore the world as it might appear from the perspective of someone from another world. Films on his list include "My Favourite Martian"; "Species"; "The Man Who Fell To Earth"; "The Day The Earth Stood Still"; "Vikaren"; "K-Pax"; "The Brother From Another Planet"; ""PK" and "District...

Matthew Sweet look at music for films with an overt or subliminal philosophical subtext, in the week of the release of "The Young Karl Marx" which features a new score by Alexei Aigui. Films and scores included in the programme are "Socrates"; "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"; "Il Conformista"; "Hollow Man"; "Total Recall"; "Rashomon"; "I Heart Huckabees"; "Interstellar"; "The Mission"; "La Ch...

Matthew Sweet talks to Academy Award winner Alexandre Desplat on a line to his home in France, about his career in film music in the week that sees the release of his latest score for Wes Anderson's 'Isle of Dogs'. Alexandre talk about his methodology of writing for film and about the importance of collaboration. The programme draws on scores for 'Le Plus Bel Age'; 'Girl with A Pearl Earring', 'Th...

As Lara Croft leaps into cinemas in the latest Tomb Raider film, Matthew Sweet takes on her, pacman and the Super Mario Brothers as he explores the influence video games have had on film and filmmakers.

Matthew Sweet rounds up a mob to explore crowd scenes in film, live from the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead,.

Matthew Sweet dusts off his tux and strolls back in time to the red carpet of the 1940 Oscars. It marked the year of The Wizard of Oz, Goodbye Mr Chips and Mr Smith Goes to Washington but it was Gone with the Wind that stole the show. 1939 had been a golden year for cinema. Among the scores and films that Matthew looks at are Erich Korngold's 'The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex'; Ferdinand H...

Matthew talks film music with Angela Allen, the hugely prolific English script and continuity supervisor of nearly a hundred movies, including The African Queen, The Dirty Dozen and Murder on the Orient Express.

Matthew Sweet looks at movies, music and monsters in the week of the release of the acclaimed new film by Guillermo del Toro 'The Shape of Water'. Matthew considers the monstrous films of Universal Studios from the 1930s onwards; the work of movie creature makes Ray Harryhausen, Phil Tippett and Rick Baker; and features music from films such as 'The Blob', 'The Mummy Returns', 'The Creature From T...

Matthew Sweet with a selection of film music exploring the theme of lies and deception in the week of the release of 'The Mercy' about the tragic story of yachtsman Donald Crowhurst boasting a new score by Golden Globe winner Johann Johannsson who died suddenly on 9 February 2018. The programme also features music from 'Pinocchio'; 'Suspicion'; 'Presumed Innocent'; 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'; 'The...

Matthew Sweet with film music on the concept of the muse reflecting a theme of this week's new release, 'Phantom Thread' with a new Oscar nominated score by Jonny Greenwood. The programme also features music from the 1947 Rita Heyworth musical 'Down To Earth'; 'Shakespeare In Love'; 'The Invisible Woman'; 'The Girl With A Pearl Earring'; 'La Belle Noiseuse'; 'Surviving Picasso'; Carl Dreyer's 1927...

Matthew Sweet presents a selection of film music inspired by ideas of patriotism and promoted by this week's new release, Richard Linklater's 'Last Flag Flying'.

Matthew Sweet presents a selection of film music inspired by the theme of power, in particular the abuse of power, prompted by the release of Steven Spielberg's new film 'The Post'. Amongst Matthew's selection is music for 'Caligula'; 'The Last King of Scotland'; 'Paths of Glory'; 'A Few Good Men'; 'Compliance'; 'All The King's Men (2006)'; 'La Mani Sulla Citta' (Hands Over The City); 'The Insider...

Matthew Sweet takes this week's new release, the acclaimed "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", which has a new score by Carter Burwell and looks at how this and other film scores present ideas about grief. Among Matthew's selection are the 1939 version of 'Wuthering Heights'; 'A Monster Calls'; 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'; 'Manchester By The Sea'; 'Message In A Bottle'; 'Up'; 'T...

Matthew Sweet on the film music of Franz Waxman and in this, the second of two programmes, the focus is on the post war years - a time which gave us some of Waxman's greatest scores from Sunset Boulevard to Taras Bulba. Matthew also looks at Waxman's major contribution to the classical musical life of America through the annual Los Angeles Music Festival which Waxman created and ran, and at how hi...

Matthew Sweet with the first of two programmes marking the 50th anniversary of the death of one of cinema's greatest musical figures from the Hollywood Golden Age - Franz Waxman. In today's programme Matthew focuses on Waxman's pre-War years, from his first work in film in Germany in 1930 for Frederick Hollander on The Blue Lamp and with Fritz Lang, to his breakthrough years in Hollywood with Jame...

Matthew Sweet reflects on the impact of the Russian Revolution and music for Soviet film as part of the "Breaking Free" season, with scores for Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, War and Peace, and The New Babylon. Lenin declared "that of all the arts the important for us is the cinema" recognising the propaganda potential that it offered and means of spreading the message of Bolshevism across...

Matthew Sweet explores the whodunnit genre with a varied line-up of suspicious looking film scores in the week of the release of the new version of Agatha Christie's classic "Murder On The Orient Express". The original Orient Express boasted a much loved classic score by Richard Rodney Bennett. The new film, with a starry ensemble cast and directed by Kenneth Branagh, has music by Branagh's regula...

Matthew Sweet interviews composer and musician Nitin Sawhney, who has scored music for over 50 films, including the new film "Breathe" directed by Andy Serkis, and music for TV including "Human Planet". Clip from "Breathe" - Robin (ANDREW GARFIELD), Diana (CLAIRE FOY) and Dr Clement (STEPHEN MANGAN) the director of the Disability Research Foundation are visiting Teddy's (HUGH BONNEVILLE) workshop...

Matthew Sweet with music for films inspired by the Disaster Movie genre in the week of the release of "Geostorm" featuring music by Lorne Balfe. An often ensemble cast, pitted against difficult odds, caught in the drama of overcoming cataclysmic events, the Disaster Movie has its antecedents in the pioneering days of cinema but it reached its peak in the 1970s. But as one of the latest examples of...

Live from Wellcome Collection as part of Why Music? The Key to Memory, a weekend of events, concerts and discussions exploring music's unique capacity to be remembered. Matthew Sweet is joined by pianist and film music authority Neil Brand for a live programme exploring the importance of memory on the working of music for film. Matthew and Neil discuss and illustrate how musical recollection infor...

With Blade Runner 2049 hitting cinemas Matthew Sweet dons his trilby and gumshoes and prowls the mean streets to bring us music from some of the best neo-noir films around. He'll be hunting replicants in the rain-drenched neon of Los Angeles, snowbound in Fargo, spinning webs of lies with The Usual Suspects and caught in a tangled trail of corruption in Chinatown.

Matthew Sweet in conversation with one of today's leading Hollywood figures, Michael Giacchino, composer of "The Incredibles", "Up", "Ratatouille" for Disney/Pixar and for his collaborations with JJ Abrams on the "Star Trek" movies; and also for his work on the new "Star Wars" films, "Jurassic World" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes". The programme marks Michael's forthcoming 50th Birthday and...