Sound of Cinema

Mar 06 2025 423 ep. 24 mins 16.3k
Sound of Cinema Podcast artwork

Matthew Sweet's weekly look at music for the screen

  Society & Culture  Music
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Wallace & Gromit and the music of Aardman Animations

Mar 06 2025 32 mins  
Evil penguins, chickens on the run and the mischievous sheep of Mossy Bottom Farm. Enter the unique musical world of Aardman Animations as Matthew Sweet celebrates the studio's iconic film scores with the release of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Matthew visits the Aardman Animation studios in Bristol to meet archivist Tom Vincent, where he encounters uniquely Aardman p

And the Beat Goes On: percussion in film

Mar 06 2025 15 mins  
Matthew Sweet bangs the drum for the inventive ways films use percussion. There's Tan Dun's taiko masterclass of a score in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the delicate and lyrical marimba in American Beauty, John Williams' ritualistic drums in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Justin Hurwitz's obsessive kit in Whiplash.To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sou

100 years of Ron Goodwin

Mar 06 2025 21 mins  
Matthew Sweet celebrates the centenary of legendary film composer Ron Goodwin - famous for his scores for Where Eagles Dare, 633 Squadron, The Battle of Britain and the Miss Marple films. However, Goodwin's scores are far more varied than military marches, with his music for Hitchcock's Frenzy and the first-ever score for brass band, Escape from the Dark.Matthew also speaks to Hele

Bafta Film Awards 2025: Soundtrack highlights

Feb 25 2025 21 mins  
Matthew Sweet celebrates the film highlights of the year with a focus on the recently announced 2025 Bafta winners. He speaks exclusively with the winner of the Best Original Score - composer Daniel Blumberg, for the film The Brutalist - who tells Matthew about how he travelled to an Italian quarry to record some of the music, and what it was like to actually win the Bafta itself.T

Warsaw Concertos – Film music from Poland

Feb 20 2025 26 mins  
Matthew Sweet speaks to actor and director Jesse Eisenberg about using Chopin's music in his latest film "A Real Pain" - the story of two cousins touring Poland to honour their grandmother. Matthew also explores the wider impact Polish music and musicians have had on the world of film music - from Bronislaw Kaper's music for the 1954 monster classic "Them!" to Wojciech Kilar's awar

Wolf Hall and Period Music in Film

Feb 05 2025 24 mins  
Matthew Sweet talks to composer Debbie Wiseman about using period music in films. For the TV series Wolf Hall, Debbie wrote original music in a period style, films like Farinelli and Death In Venice use classical music and for the series Bridgerton Kris Bowers created a hybrid of period-sounding music with hip-hop beats. Matthew asks how the search for authenticity enhances the vi

Maria Callas and opera in films

Feb 05 2025 26 mins  
With the Maria Callas biopic starring Angelina Jolie in cinemas, Matthew Sweet speaks to Maria director Pablo Larrain. The talk about working with Angelina Jolie, being a frustrated musician himself and how Pablo uses music in his films. Pablo also reveals the secrets of bringing Maria Callas alive through Angelina's singing.Matthew also explores how films have turned to their natu

Four trombones and a mandolin? Small but mighty soundtracks

Jan 25 2025 17 mins  
Defying the convention of massive orchestral scores, Matthew Sweet looks at films that embrace the intimacy of chamber music including: the Syrian-inspired strings of Nainita Desai's For Sama score, The Third Man's iconic 1949 zither melody composed by Anton Karas, Clint Mansell's agonising quartet from Requiem for a Dream, and a surprising period drama score written for a trio by

Alfred Hitchcock

Jan 11 2025 18 mins  
From the driving energy of North By Northwest to the iconic string stabs of Psycho, music is an integral part of what makes Alfred Hitchcock's films stand out. Matthew Sweet finds out what makes them so good and looks at times when Hitchcock and his composers disagreed.To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Sound of Cinema".

A celebration of German film

Jan 04 2025 20 mins  
As part of Radio 3's European Road Trip, Matthew Sweet explores some of the best soundtracks in German cinema.To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Sound of Cinema".