Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

Our guest this week is visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, who Edith has been a huge fan of for many years. He always takes you on a journey with his storytelling, both visually and through the maverick nature of the way he uses music and sound. You might have even heard last week's guest, Lykke Li, referencing his Romeo & Juliet as a really seminal film for her.  His latest film is the glorious...

Our latest guests on Soundtracking have combined to great effect on an audiovisual album that specifically set out to challenge the conventions of the traditional music video. Lykke Li enlisted the services of experimental filmmaker Theo Lindquist to shoot a series of one minute loops, which accompany the songs on her latest album EYEYE. The results are utterly hypnotic, beautiful and moving - as...

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is the man responsible for one of the blockbusting cinematic events of the summer. Colin Trevorrow has played a part in the last 3 Jurassic movies - World, Fallen Kingdom and now World Dominion, which he co-wrote and directed.  The film is scored by friend of the show Michael Giacchino - and you'll hear plenty of his work throughout.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is someone we've been trying to get on for a very long time.  Anne Dudley made her name in Art Of Noise, and has since gone on to score numerous films, including The Full Monty, for which she won an Oscar. She's also collaborated with some of the biggest names in pop music, from Tina Turner and Elton John to George Michael and Liza Minelli. We also discuss her lat...

Now, as you're probably aware, Top Gun: Maverick has hit cinemas, a full 36 years after Mav, Goose, Iceman and co. first took to the skies. And to mark the occasion, we're rather giddy and excited to welcome director Joe Kosinski and the legend that is Jerry Bruckheimer to the podcast to discuss the iconic music of the original and how they retained the spirit of said music in the sequel. Suffice...

Our latest guests on soundtracking are not only composers, but also brothers, who between them have built up an extraordinary body of work for both film and television. Indeed, it's on the small screen that Harry and Rupert Gregson-Williams have joined forces for only the second time, on Julian Fellowes' New York high society drama, The Gilded Age. We'll talk about that and several of the other pr...

We have an actor for you this week, who we think is about to go stratospheric. Jack Lowden should be the next James Bond, in Edith's opinion, but in the meantime you can watch him in Dunkirk, England Is Mine, Fighting With My Family, Slow Horses, and, as of this week, Benediction.  He loves his music and also spins a great yarn - all of which makes for a very entertaining listen.

Something slightly different for you this week, as we reflect on a new documentary about the life of Ennio Morricone in the company of three admirers. The film is called Ennio, and features contributions from the man himself and the likes of Quentin Tarantino, John Williams, Clint Eastwood and Hans Zimmer, as well as one of of my guests today - director of The Mission, Roland Joffé Alongside Rolan...

Our latest guest on soundtracking is a musician, artist, cultural icon and film, TV and video game composer - who's been plying his trade for 50-odd years. Among Mark Mothersbaugh's many credits are Rugrats, Thor Ragnarok, Lego movies and several Wes Anderson films - though you'd be reading this for about half an hour if we were to list every single one of the projects he's been involved with.  Re...

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a writer / director who made an extremely promising start to his career with acclaimed horrors The Witch and The Lighthouse - both of which Edith loves. Robert Eggers has followed these up with The Northman, a visceral Viking epic based on the Scandinavian legend of Amleth. The film is scored by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough, and you'll hear plenty o...

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a man whose father, Alfred, blazed a trail for film scoring in Hollywood, while his brother, Thomas, has been nominated for 15 Oscars. Oh yes, and his cousin happens to be called Randy, which, when your surname is Newman, means you come from quite the musical dynasty ... David Newman is also a hugely respected composer, who joined Edith to discuss his work as a...

For the second week in a row, we welcome a female composer to Soundtracking, which is a delight, given the underrepresentation of women in the industry. Anne Nikitin's star is very much on the rise, after she made her big breakthrough working with Bart Layton on The Imposter and American Animals. She has several exciting projects on the go, including the prequel to Dangerous Liaisons.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a returning composer who has fast become one of the hardest working and most sought after talents in the business. Pinar Toprak's latest efforts can be heard on the light hearted jungle romp, The Lost City, but she's also got a number of exciting projects in the pipeline and is fresh from conducting Billie Eilish and Finneas's performance of No Time To Die at t...

We're 300! Wow. Thanks so much for all your continued support. It means the world to us and we wouldn't be here without you. To celebrate, we're joined by a Norwegian writer/director whose wonderful film The Worst Person In The World was up for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, missing out to the Japanese road movie, Drive My Car. Joachim Trier has received widespread acclaim for his bla...

We have a friend of the show returning to Soundtracking this week in the shape of Craig Roberts - who has directed a British indie film that Edith absolutely loves. The Phantom of The Open was written by Simon Farnaby, and tells the unlikely true story of Maurice Flitcroft - an excellent hoaxer and terrible golfer who posted the worst ever score recorded at an Open Championship when he contrived t...

Our latest guests on Soundtracking are Pixar animator, writer and director, Domee Shi, and producer Lindsey Collins, who's new project together is the wonderful Turning Red. Streaming now on Disney + Turning Red tells the story of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian student who transforms into a giant red panda when she gets into a heightened emotional state. It's scored by our old friend Ludwig Gorans...

We can't quite believe the run of guests we've had on Soundtracking, what with Andrew Garfield, Dave Grohl and Jonny Greenwood among those who've joined us in recent weeks. But when it comes to marrying music and film, Paul Thomas Anderson is right up there with Scorsese and Tarantino as a master of the art. His latest movie, Licorice Pizza, is not only a delight to behold, but also chock full of...

Legend alert! Our latest guest on Soundtracking is not only the lead guitarist, keyboardist and instrumentalist of one of the greatest bands on planet Earth, but has also transitioned with huge success into the realms of movie scoring. Jonny Greenwood has formed a formidable partnership with Paul Thomas Anderson since providing the music for There Will Be Blood, and has also worked with Lynne Rams...

We continue our bumper run of guests on Soundtracking with a man who's up for an Oscar this month in the Best Actor category. Andrew Garfield delivers a knockout performance as Jonathan Larson in Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical biopic Tick Tick Boom, as you can see for yourself on Netflix. It's always a joy chatting to him, though if you haven't seen the latest Spiderman film, we should say this inte...

Rock 'n' roll royalty joins Edith for the latest episode of Soundtracking, as Dave Grohl discusses his comedy horror Studio 666 among many other things. Featuring all six members of The Foo Fighters as themselves, Studio 666 is a pretty bonkers yarn about the band recording an album in an old mansion possessed by evil spirits. As you might imagine, carnage ensues!

We're starting a bumper run of Soundtracking episodes in the coming weeks, with two shows a week for the foreseeable future, including conversations with PTA, Dave Grohl & Jonny Greenwood. Eesh! Today, it's the turn of writer, director, producer and all round legend, Adam McKay. He is FANTASTIC company, and we have an absolute ball discussing the music in his latest film, Don't Look Up, which...

It's another double-header for you, with two returning guests to Soundtracking. First up, it's Bryce Dessner from the National, who composed the score and music for Cyrano with his brother, Aaron. Then it's the man who directed this latest interpretation of the classic tale, Joe Wright, who is always a joy to speak to.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is an actress, singer and dancer who dazzled us all in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of West Side Story. Ariana DeBose's performance as Anita has already seen her win a Golden Globe - and she's also been nominated for an Oscar and Bafta among many other accolades. It was an absolute delight to catch up with her - Ariana really is a thoroughly sparky and likeable c...

Our latest guests on Soundtracking are actor and now writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal and composer Dickon Hinchliffe, who join us to discuss their collaboration on The Lost Daughter. Available on Netflix, The Lost Daughter stars Olivia Coleman, Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckly, and is - among many other things - a genuinely powerful meditation on the trials and tribulations of motherhood. We abso...

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a friend of the show, returning to discuss his sequel to a massive family favourite in households across the globe - not least Edith's. Garth Jennings found a winning formula with his joyous animation, Sing, and has thankfully managed to recreate it with Sing 2. In addition to an all-star cast reprising their roles from the first film, Garth also managed to per...