Sound of Cinema

Matthew Sweet marks the news of the death earlier this week of the great Italian film composer Ennio Morricone with a look back on his career and music with the Italian film expert Pasquale Iannone. The programme, which is a revised repeat of programme from 2014, includes film music from Morricone’s early years with the experimental ensemble, Il Gruppo through to his work for Sergio Leone and beyo...

John Williams is one of the most successful and most identifiable of all Hollywood composers, with the likes of Star Wars, Harry Potter, ET, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List to his credit. But what might the Williams legacy be had Steven Spielberg and George Lucas turned to other composers to write their scores? Matthew looks back over John Williams’ long care...

Jamie Anderson, whose father Gerry Anderson gave us Supercar, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, UFO and Captain Scarlet, joins Matthew Sweet for a look back on the music of Barry Gray, the man who provided the musical voice to Anderson’s classic small screen creations. Together, Matthew and Jamie consider the varied aspects of Gray’s style, his pioneering use of electronics, his working relationship wit...

The multi-instrumentalist musician David Amram describes himself as a 'promising young composer' as he approaches his 90th birthday. This promising young man has created and played seminal scores for films such as The Arrangement and The Manchurian Candidate and has, as jazz musician, performed with the great players of the last century, including Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus a...

Matthew Sweet features a selection of music for films that have been led by actors not yet in or out of their teens. From the likes of Jackie Coogan, Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, to more recent stars such as Jodie Foster, Daniel Radcliffe and Asa Butterfield. The programme is prompted by the release this week, to streaming services, of Artemis Fowl, Disney’s new young adult fant...

Matthew considers films that make a feature of the cinema going experience itself and invites stories and recollections from listeners as part of the programme; and he looks forward to the new re-mastered version of Cinema Paradiso out at the end of the month. At a time when nearly all cinemas are closed owing to Covid-19, Matthew celebrates the cinema buildings themselves, through scores and film...

Matthew Sweet focuses on music for mystery films, a genre favourite, where the unexplained disappearance of a character becomes the starting point for adventure. As well as great examples from the past, Matthew also features music from the new film 'Only The Animals' with a score by Benedikt Schiefer, which has just received wide release.

Matthew features music for films which take their inspiration from mankind’s inconsistent relationship with the atom and nuclear energy. The programme is prompted by the release of the new documentary film ‘The Atom: A Love Affair’. Matthew looks at how cinema has adopted an often contradictory relationship with things atomic. He also takes this opportunity to look at writing music for documentari...

Danny Elfman is one of the biggest names in film music. His numerous collaborations with Tim Burton include Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetlejuice. He's scored Hollywood blockcusters Men in Black, 50 Shades of Grey, and Spider-Man, and been nominated for four Academy Awards. He's also worked extensively in television writing the themes for Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. From his home...

Online film streaming services have become an influential means of receiving and enjoying film and have created an important platform for new film and for film composers. This week Matthew Sweet looks at some of the current list of films available from a variety of streaming services, focusing in particular on new film, for which streaming has become a major means of distribution whilst cinemas th...

With cinemas closed, new releases postponed and audiences turning to film from home, Matthew Sweet ponders the best films and best film music for these hard times.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's film 'The Truth' appeared this week, it stars Catherine Deneuve, Juliet Binoche and Ethan Hawke with a new score by Alexi Aigui. That much is fact. Matthew Sweet features music for films that explore the notion that sometimes the stories we are presented with are very far from the truth. Music in the programme is taken from the films ‘The Innocents’, ‘The Cabinet of Doctor Cali...

Matthew Sweet takes his cue from the UK release of Juliano Dornelles's and Kleber Mendonca Filho's award winning film 'Bacurau', with music by Mateus Alves and Tomaz Alves Souza, for an examination of the strange world of the 'Weird Western' and the music written for it. Weird Westerns combine the traditional cowboy film with elements of fantasy, science fiction or horror, and amongst his selectio...

Academy Award-winner Mychael Danna's scores include Life of Pi, Little Miss Sunshine, The Time Traveller's Wife, and Monsoon Wedding. His regular collaborators include directors Ang Lee, Atom Egoyan, and Mira Nair. He talks to Matthew about growing up in Toronto in the 70s, his love of India, the challenges of scoring animations and writing with his younger brother Jeff. Their new Pixar film Onwar...

With the release this week of the acclaimed 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' with music by Jean-Baptiste Laubier, Matthew considers the impact of "the female gaze" on film- making. He foregrounds films and their associated music that in some way or other deliberately set out to examine the distinctive perspectives of the female viewer. Matthew is joined by the critic Pamela Hutchinson and features mus...

Matthew Sweet talks to composer Isobel Waller-Bridge about her score for the 2020 film of Emma, and looks back at other Jane Austen adaptations over the years. From famous Mr Darcy's like Laurence Olivier and Colin Firth to Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, and Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson as the Dashwood Sisters. Featuring music by Rachel Portman, Patrick Doyle, and Dario Marianelli, whose 2005 score fo...

In the weekend of the Academy Awards Matthew Sweet looks at some wonderful film scores over the decades that somehow failed to pick up an Oscar despite their greatness. The programme includes music from Erich von Korngold, Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Leonard Bernstein, Henry Mancini, Nino Rota, Richard Rodney Bennett, John Corigliano, John Williams, James Horner, Philip Glass and Mica Levi. The...

In the week that sees the release of Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’ Matthew Sweet focuses his attention on music for films that explore the idea of coming of age. The programme features music for the new film by Alexandre Desplat, as well as other films on the subject, and also looks back on previous scores for screen adaptations of Louisa M Alcott’s classic novel, including Max Steiner's classic 1...

As the nationwide BFI Musicals season continues Matthew Sweet celebrates the all-singing, all-dancing world of MGM musicals on film. Featuring Judy Garland, Gene Kelly and Howard Keel in music from Easter Parade, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Show Boat, An American in Paris, and our classic score of the week Singin' in the Rain. Image © Warner Bros. Ent. All rights reserved. Singin’ in the Rain...

Matthew talks to the celebrated Los Angeles-based English film composer, conductor and arranger Henry Jackman. Jackman is now hugely successful in Hollywood. In this probing interview he relates his background in classical music to the world of the Hollywood blockbuster.

Matthew Sweet presents music from films with characters who come back down to earth with a bump. Whether it's returning to everyday life after war, surviving an accident or extreme event, or adjusting to life after fame. Our featured new release is Lucy in the Sky, starring Natalie Portman as an astronaut whose suburban life spirals out of control after returning to earth.

Matthew's guest is the Hollywood Sound Designer Midge Costin (Con Air, The Rock, and Armageddon), director of the new documentary 'Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound', who discusses the story of sound in film and how the industry has been comparatively slow to acknowledge the significance of what we hear impacts the way we see. The programme outlines some of the key milestones in sound desig...

Composer Bear McCreary's credits include Godzilla King of the Monsters, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Child's Play, Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, and the PlayStation 4 game God of War. In this exclusive interview he talks to Matthew Sweet about writing for tv, film and games, his love of horror and sci-fi, and the influence of his mentor Elmer Bernstein.

Joker is the new Batman-themed film directed by Todd Philips, a movie which describes the rich psychological back-story of its lead character, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Matthew Sweet uses the major new release to step into the world of films which explain the actions or motivations of their lead characters through a serious psychological event in their past. Producer: Paul Frankl

With the screen adaptation of Donna Tartt’s novel ‘The Goldfinch’ just released, Matthew Sweet features some of Trevor Gorecki’s score plus music for films on the theme of covetousness. The programme includes an interview with the film’s composer, Trevor Gureckis, plus music for Indiana Jones, Jason and the Argonauts, The Silver Chalice, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Thomas Crown Affair, Wo...