Sound of Cinema

With the appearance this week of Wes Anderson's latest film, Asteroid City, Matthew Sweet looks back at one of Hollywood's most distinctive auteur director's films through the music written to serve them. Titles such as the award-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr Fox.

For the 400th episode of Sound of Cinema, Matthew Sweet hears from listeners about the films that changed their lives, including West Side Story, On the Waterfront, Maurice and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Jordan Peele films 'Get Out,' 'Us,' and 'Nope' composer Michael Abels discusses his latest project ‘Chevalier’, the story of the real life Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an enslaved African and a French plantation owner, who rises to heights in French society as a composer and master swordsman. Meanwhile Matthew explores music from Master and Commander, Pirates...

In a rare interview, the iconic film director David Lynch talks to Matthew Sweet about one of the most celebrated collaborations in cinema history: between Lynch and the film composer Angelo Badalamenti who died at the end of last year.

There has been an explosion in the global popularity of contemporary South Korean culture, often referred to by the Chinese word Hallyu - meaning Korean Wave. - which is also being reflected in a current exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Matthew Sweet foregrounds music from highly praised films such as Parasite, Snowpiercer, The Handmaiden and Oldboy and also takes a look at the...

Music for film reflecting cinema's engagement with the idea of an over populated planet prompted by the release this week of Chie Hayakawa's Japanese feature, 'Plan 75', with a score by Jeremie Archache and Christophe Musset. The programme also includes music from 'Inferno' by Hans Zimmer, 'Passengers' by Thomas Newman, 'Idiocracy' by Theodore Shapiro, Miklos Rozsa's 'The World, The Flesh and The...

To mark midsummer weekend, Matthew Sweet dons his finest handmade knitwear to bring us the folk-inspired soundtracks from films that embrace the old ways, including The Wicker Man, Midsommar and Deliverance.

Matthew Sweet marks Earth Day with a look at screen music composed to celebrate the natural world. He is joined by composer Sarah Class, who has written many scores foregrounding environmental issues and for natural history documentaries, and is one of the chosen composers commissioned to write a new piece for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla. Sarah talks about her approach to writing for...

With the release this week of Chris McKay's new film Renfield, Matthew Sweet looks back at the many appearances of Dracula on our screens and at the music the count has inspired. The programme looks back to some of the earliest cinematic manifestations of Dracula, from the 1920s, including the silent classic 'Nosferatu' and brings things right up to date with scores from Wojciech Kilar, Popol Vuh,...

John Debney, composer of scores for films such as Elf, Jetsons: The Movie, Hocus Pocus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, joins Matthew Sweet for a look back on his prodigious Hollywood career. John has a long association with the Disney studios and he explains to Matthew the extraordinary story of how his Disney career came about, of writing music for films such Bruce Almighty and The Pa...

On Oscars weekend, Matthew looks back on the 70th Academy Award Ceremony, to date the most watched ever Oscars. What was it about the films of 1997 that really caught the public imagination? Featuring classic scores from James Horner (Titanic), Hans Zimmer (As Good As It Gets), Edward Shearmur (The Wings of the Dove), Jerry Goldsmith (Air Force One) and Michael Nyman (Gattaca).

Mark Mothersbaugh's score for the new film Cocaine Bear is the inspiration for this week's programme with Matthew Sweet, who looks at music for films with animals behaving badly. From dogs in an aerial dogfight courtesy of Wallace & Gromit to carnivorous mutant lambs in Black Sheep. Not to mention giant ants, a rogue crocodile and a tornado full of sharks. It's going to get messy.

With the Baftas this weekend and the Oscars imminent, Matthew Sweet meets the German composer/pianist Volker Bertelmann (aka "Hauschka"), the nominated composer in the Best Score category for both the Baftas and the Oscars this year, for the remake of the classic First World War inspired 'All Quiet On The Western Front'. Matthew talks to Volker about his fascination with the prepared piano and abo...

Matthew is joined by award-winning Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir to talk about her screen music, including her scores for Tár and Women Talking.

Matthew Sweet explores listeners' experiences of going to the cinema with their Dads and contemplates Steven Spielberg's new autobiographical movie Fabelmans. Other classic 'Dad films' whose scores feature this week's mix include A Bridge Too Far, Zulu, E.T. and Superman.

With the current release of Justin Hurwitz's new score for 'Babylon' in cinemas, Matthew Sweet looks at the theme of decadence in the movies through examples of its music. The programme includes notes by Debbie Wiseman for 'Wilde', Jen Anderson for 'Pandora's Box'; 'Caligula' by Bruno Nicolai, Nino Rota's 'La Dolce Vita', Jonny Greenwood's 'Inherent Vice' and Dustin O'Halloran's 'Marie Antoinette'...

During the period of New Year resolutions Matthew Sweet looks at music for films which offer the opportunity of a "second chance", including 'It's a Wonderful Life', 'The Artist', 'The Pursuit of Happyness', 'Soul', 'Living', 'Mrs Jones Goes To Paris', 'Groundhog Day' and 'Star Trek IV - The Journey Home'. Matthew also focuses on music composed for the various screen versions of Charles Dickens's...

With the appearance this week of James Cameron's long awaited sequel to Avatar - The Way Of Water - Matthew Sweet meets its composer, Simon Franglen, to discuss his music for this and for other films. Simon talks about his early days working in film with John Barry, about his work with Howard Shore on the David Fincher crime thriller Se7en, and about his collaboraton with James Horner on Titanic ,...

Monsters, spooky atmosphere, terrifying effects, but horror is also a genre exploring ideas about relationships, as Matthew Sweet explains with music for the romance of horror. The programme features cues from classic Hammer Horror by Harry Robertson alongside Wojciech Kilar's 'Bram's Stoker's Dracula'. Also in the programme is some of Roy Budd's score for 'Phantom Of the Opera', some of Maurice J...

With the remastered cinematic and digital re-release of The Draughtsman's Contract, marking forty years since it first appeared, Matthew Sweet looks back on the film music career of the man who created its much-loved score, Michael Nyman. He charts his long association with director Peter Greenaway, his foray into the Hollywood, and his work with European and experimental cinema. The programme fea...

Matthew Sweet talks with the wildly successful, classically trained Dutch composer Tom Holkenborg, a.k.a. Junkie XL, a star of club electronica, video games and film scores. Tom talks about looking to composition masters for influence, making brand new instruments and writing 95 melodies to find the perfect one for his latest film, Three Thousand Years of Longing.

The world of the convent has given rise to some interesting and varied cinema - Black Narcissus, Agnes of God, Two Mules for Sister Sara, and not least, this week's new release, Prey for the Devil, a new horror from director Daniel Stamm with music by Nathan Barr. Matthew Sweet looks back at nuns on the screen, lavishly illustrated with the sound of music.

Matthew Sweet in conversation with Lorne Balfe, the prolific, Grammy-winning composer of films ranging from Mission Impossible: Fallout to Churchill. Lorne talks about working with Hans Zimmer, how dyslexia shaped him as a composer, and the day Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson turned up at a recording session.

Vaughan-Williams was very progressive and open minded with regard to the role of the film composer and the merit of the film score. He was keen to “try his hand” at composing for film in the 1940s not least because he thought it would fulfil his need to play a “useful role” during the war years. He wrote his first score for Powell and Pressburger’s propaganda 1941 film ‘The 49th Parallel’ and went...

Matthew Sweet looks back on the story of widescreen cinema, on some of the films designed especially for it and looks at the impact that the idea has had on film scores.