Episodes
Matthew Sweet in conversation with Abel Korzeniowski, the composer of Ishana Night Shyamalan's supernatural horror film The Watched. We'll hear about writing music for 'Emily', the 2022 biopic about Emily Brontë, and the film that won Colin Firth the Best Actor award at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, A Single Man. Abel also talks about why Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather means so much to him.
Published 06/19/24
Published 06/08/24
Matthew Sweet showcases film scores about female firsts and cinematic examples of outstanding achievements by women, and he chats to composer Amelia Warner about her score for the new film Young Woman and the Sea recalling the story of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel. The programme also includes music from Pope Joan, Cleopatra, Captain Marvel, Hidden Figures, Suffragette, Radioactive, Amelia, Mary Shelley, and the Classic Score of the Week - Toshiro Mayazumi's...
Published 06/08/24
With the release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Matthew Sweet hails cinema's greatest apes. From King Kong to Gorillas In The Mist, apes have proven a constant lure throughout the history of film and in today's programme we'll hear the soundtracks for the very best of them. And Matthew takes us on a sonic journey through the music of all nine Planet of the Apes films.
Published 05/25/24
Cannes is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. In this week’s Sound of Cinema, Matthew Sweet catches up with journalist and film critic Agnes Poirier who is in Cannes to put us at the heart of the festival. She tells of encounters with Jack Nicholson on his way home from a party at 7am and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a shoe shop. She also talks about the growing recognition of female directors and the global nature of film.
Published 05/25/24
From the new Zendaya film "Challengers", to "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind", every breakup brings its own challenges. Matthew Sweet brings the ice cream and a shoulder to cry on for the films that tackle the subject of exes head on.
Published 04/27/24
With the release of the biopic about Amy Winehouse, Back to Black, Matthew Sweet explores the stories of lives that have been told on the silver screen.
Published 04/13/24
The Sci-fi sequel Dune 2 is one of the most hotly awaited films of the decade. As part of the build-up to tomorrow's Sound of Cinema Day, which anticipates the Academy Awards celebrations, Matthew Sweet talks music with Dune's extraordinary and brilliant French-Canadian director, Denis Villeneuve.
Published 03/09/24
Matthew Sweet in conversation with the Oscar-winning composer of Shakespeare in Love, Stephen Warbeck.
Published 02/17/24
The American composer of TV's Bridgerton, The Green Book, Chevalier and King Richard, Kris Bowers, joins Matthew Sweet to talk about his music for the remake of The Color Purple and Origin in a look back on his screen career to date.
Published 01/27/24
Matthew Sweet musters all his resourcefulness to bring us the music of the best modern survival films as Jodie Comer tackles rising water and raising a child in The End We Start From. Matthew is joined by the composer of the film's score, Anna Meredith, who talks about her experiences of working in film. Also in the programme, music from Life of Pi, The Poseidon Adventure, Gravity, The Martian, 127 Hours, 1917, The Day After Tomorrow, and the Classic Score of the Week - Miklos Rosza's The...
Published 01/20/24
Matthew Sweet celebrates 50 years of one of cinema's greatest collaborations - that of director Steven Spielberg and his composer of choice, John Williams. With music from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Schindler's List and Jurassic Park. Matthew gives us a close encounter with the music for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind as he analyses the scene of humanity's first contact with the alien mothership.
Published 12/30/23
Ridley Scott's new biopic of Napoeleon is on release now. Matthew Sweet looks at cinema's obsession with the French Emperor in films that have generated extraordinary music.
Published 11/30/23
Laura Karpman is best known for her work composing the soundtracks for The Marvels, and the Disney+ series Ms Marvel and What If… She joins Matthew Sweet from her studio in LA overlooking the Pacific and talks about studying under Milton Babbitt and Nadia Boulanger, scoring for documentaries, attending the Last Night of the Proms and the influence of Benjamin Britten on her score for The Marvels.
Published 11/11/23
This weekend sees the relaunch of Hammer Studios and the release of a new telling of the Dr Jekyllstory, starring Eddie Izzard. Matthew looks back on Hammer’s contribution to cinema and to some of the often inventive and even experimental composers who have created music for the studios since its inception in 1934. Hammer Horror - the vibrantly colourful and distinctive engagements with terror that starred the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Films that brought us recurring tales...
Published 10/28/23
What was your experience of a first date at the cinema? Presumably you arrived together - but did you leave separately? Matthew Sweet listens to listeners' experiences of their movie first-dates and - rather appropriately - plays great, thrilling and tragic music from the films.
Published 10/21/23
Matthew Sweet's guest this week is the composer George Fenton. His breakthrough came with Richard Attenborough's biopic Gandhi, since then he's scored over 100 films including Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, The Madness of King George, Groundhog Day and The Wind that Shakes The Barley. He speaks to Matthew about his rich and varied career as well as his assocations with directors such as Richard Attenborough, Stephen Frears, Nora Ephron - and Ken Loach, whose latest film, The Old Oak, is released...
Published 09/30/23
Of all the genre titles the 'family film' is perhaps the trickiest to define. Its intention, clearly, is to entertain and appeal to the whole family - togetherness. But what are the specific ingredients that make it so? Nevertheless, cinema goers seem to have a good sense of what an advertised family film might have to offer. Matthew Sweet looks back at this category of film, which seemed to spring into existence in America around the 1930s, and he foregrounds the music of some of the best...
Published 09/23/23
From the Life of Pi to The Jungle Book; His Dark Materials to Wolverine, Matthew Sweet features film music shaped by the fantastical idea of humans as animals. We'll hear of spirit animals, cursed princes, what happens when your parents are turned into pigs (Spirited Away) or your mum becomes a bear (Brave). And we adopt the mantle of The Batman to root out the animal powers of superheroes. The programme also features music from the new release 'Blue Beetle' composed by Bobby Krlic.
Published 08/19/23
Following the release of Greta Gerwig's Barbie, Matthew Sweet considers cinema's fascination with the colour pink. Many films adopt a colour code to establish the mood and tone of the movie. The colour pink in particular has associations with love, innocence, femininity, charm and fun. In this edition of Sound of Cinema, Matthew focuses on music for films which exploit these ideas of pinkness - for films such as Grease, Batman Returns, Steel Magnolias, Legally Blonde, The Devil Wears Prada,...
Published 07/29/23
With the appearance of the eagerly anticipated new Christopher Nolan biopic about Oppenheimer, Matthew Sweet turns his attention to film scores bent on destruction, including Ludwig Goransson's score for the new film. The programme includes music from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, When Worlds Collide, Melancholia, Wandering Earth, Deep Impact, Armageddon, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Rogue One - A Star Wars Story, Star Wars - A New Hope. The Classic Score of the Week is Star Trek II -...
Published 07/22/23
With the release of the new Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible film - Dead Reckoning Part 1 - Matthew Sweet focuses on stunt scenes in movies. Carefully planned and choreographed stunts have been a part of cinematic entertainment since the start. Matthew offers a selection of music to match the moment. Matthew is joined by Hollywood stunt co-ordinator Simon Crane (World War Z, Men in Black, Quantum of Solace, The World Is Not Enough, Mr & Mrs Smith, Troy, Lara Croft, Saving Private Ryan,...
Published 07/15/23
The film Elemental is released this week with a score by Thomas Newman. Matthew looks at how the elements, earth, air, fire and water have been portrayed in movie soundtracks.
Published 07/08/23
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.
Published 06/24/23
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.
Published 06/17/23