Soundtracking With Edith Bowman

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is an Italian filmmaker Edith absolutely adores, who's brought us 20th century classics The Consequences Of Love and The Great Beauty among his many offerings. His latest movie is also his most personal, the semi-autobiographical The Hand Of God, which you can watch on Netflix from December 15th and is in selected cinemas now. He's an absolute hoot - enjoy.

Edith's latest guest on Soundtracking is another giant of film music composition, who she was lucky enough to catch up with at Abbey Road Studios as he was recording his work on the latest Fantastic Beasts movie. James Newton Howard has scored well over 100 films across all genres, including The Fugitive, Pretty Woman, The Sixth Sense, Prince Of Tides, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, My Best Friend's Wedding and a couple of Nolan's Batmans for good measure. We could listen to him - and his music - all day.

Who doesn't watch their own films? Well, our latest guest for one - a hugely versatile actor and musician most presently to be seen as Paolo in Ridley Scott's House Of Gucci. Jared Leto first gained recognition in My So Called Life, went on to form 30 Seconds To Mars with his brother, Shannon, and has also landed numerous notable cinematic roles, including The Joker in Suicide Squad and Niander Wallace in Blade Runner 2049. He absolutely loves scores too - and you'll find out which ones in particular during the conversation.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a very dear friend of Edith's who we're delighted to say has done an absolutely superb job with his feature film debut. The friend in question is writer / director Reggie Yates, and the film is Pirates. Starring Elliot Edusah, Jordan Peters and Reda Elazouar, Pirates tells the story of 3 young friends trying to get into a club night on New Year's Eve in 1999. It's worth watching for the garage music alone, though there's plenty more to enjoy besides.

Our latest guest on soundtracking is the actor, songwriter, playwright, producer, rapper and now feature film director, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Not fair, really, is it?! Lin-Manuel is perhaps most well known for writing the script, music and lyrics for Hamilton, which has been a global phenomenon since its Broadway premiere in 2015. He's since done all manner of wonderful things, including the songs for Moana. At the moment, you can hear his music in Disney's Encanto and see his directorial Tick Tick Boom on Netflix, about the life of composer Jonathan Larson (who brought us Rent)

Our latest guests on Soundtracking are two friends who've come together to create something quite unlike anything I've ever seen. The Nowhere Inn sees Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark - aka St Vincent - play themselves in what appears to be a documentary about St Vincent's life as a musician. However, the film is entirely scripted, and in fact transforms into what one critic describes as a Lynchian nightmare smeared in lipstick.  Annie also scored the movie, and we have to say it's an absolutely wonderful compilation of tunes - which more than stands alone as an album.

Our latest guest in this bumper run on Soundtracking is the Chilean director, Pablo Larraín, who's brought us many gems including Tony Manero and Jackie. Pablo's latest film is Spencer, which tells the story of Princess Diana's decision to end her marriage to Charles. Kristen Stewart is brilliant in the lead role, and gets able support from Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins and Sean Harris. And as if that weren't enough to whet your whistle, Spencer is scored by Jonny Greenwood

Our latest guest on Soundtracking returns to the podcast to discuss a very different film than the one she spoke about previously. Chloe Zhao quite rightly landed critical acclaim and awards aplenty for Nomadland at the start of the year - and now ends it by co-writing and directing Eternals for Marvel Studios. Starring Gemma Chan, Barry Keoghan, Kit Harrington, Selma Hayek and Angelina Jolie to name but a few, Eternals tells the story of alien immortals who have been sent to earth to protect the human race from their evil counterparts, The Deviants.

Our latest guest has undoubtedly had more mentions on this podcast than anyone else by quite some distance - and now we finally have him in person. Hans Zimmer has scored in excess of 150 films and been instrumental in developing the careers of numerous composers, including Lorne Balfe and Harry Gregson-Williams. He's worked with just about everyone who's anyone in the film business, and joins us today to discuss his two latest blockbusters, Dune and No Time To Die.

Our latest guests on this bumper run on Soundtracking are Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who have formed a fine screenwriting partnership on Edgar's latest film, Last Night In Soho. We're not going to tell you what it's about, as it really is one of those movies that benefits from seeing with next-to-no prior knowledge. What we will tell you is that it stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp and the late Dame Diana Rigg in her final performance, has a fabulous 60s soundtrack, and is scored by our old friend Steven Price.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a composer we've been trying to pin down since day one of the podcast, back in 2016. Alexandre Desplat is a true giant of the film scoring business, having been nominated for numerous Oscars and winning one for his work on Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel and one for the The Shape Of Water. And if you were in any doubt as to his credentials, he's worked with the likes of - in no particular order - George Clooney, Stephen Frears, Greta Gerwig, David Fincher, Terrence Mallick, Nora Ephron, Roman Polanski and Ben Affleck. But it's to discuss his latest collaboration with Wes that Alexandre joins us today - the typically idiosyncratic The French Dispatch. As always, his music beautifully compliments the quirky visuals, humour and narrative presented to us by everyone's favourite offbeat director.

We're really excited about our latest episode of Soundtracking, seeing as it does the return of Denis Villeneuve. The French-Canadian director joins Edith to discuss his adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic Dune - which boasts a stellar cast including Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin and many, many more. Dune is scored by Hans Zimmer, who we're thrilled to announce is going to be a guest on the podcast in the next couple of weeks too. Happy days!

Our latest guest on Soundtracking has been on twice before, and returns for a third time to discuss his documentary about one of the most influential bands of all time. The Velvet Underground is Todd Hayne's idiosyncratic love letter to the visionary punk-rockers, featuring beautiful footage and contributions from founding members John Cale and Maureen Tucker, among others. It's available on Apple TV and selected cinemas, and is a treat whether you're a fan of the band or not. 

This latest episode of Soundtracking is another live outing for the podcast, with a man who we've no doubt is thoroughly sick and tired of being described as a national treasure. But, let's be honest, he is ... Sir Michael Palin's CV is simply too long to run through - but we all know and love him from Monty Python, the accompanying films and his truly wonderful travelogues for the BBC. Michael was kind enough to venture out of the safety and comfort of his home to join me and a live audience at the Widescreen festival at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, which we recorded just for you ...

We have two guests for you this week, who have formed a hugely close and productive creative partnership over the course of a number of films. David Lowery is returning for his third visit to the podcast, while composer Daniel Hart is making his debut having been discussed at length on several previous occasions. David and Daniel are with us to discuss The Green Knight, David's adaptation of the 14th century poem, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. In keeping with the source material, Daniel's score draws on medieval musical idioms, but is also infused with many contemporary twists. As always, you'll hear plenty of it throughout the conversation ...

Our latest guests on Soundtracking are members of a band I hugely admire, who have done plenty sterling work on film and television in addition to their studio albums. Stuart Braithwaite and Barry Burns are half of Mogwai, whose screen work includes The Returned, Atomic, Zidane, The Fountain, Before The Flood and ZeroZeroZero. Their latest album, meanwhile, is As The Love Continues, which reached number one in the UK charts and was also nominated for a Mercury Prize. 

This week's episode of Soundtracking sees us joined by a fantastically gifted and humble screenwriter, whose work includes Skins, This is England 86, 88 & 90, His Dark Materials, The Eddy and Enola Holmes,  Jack Thorne's latest offering is Help, a show which Edith absolutely loved and is available on All 4 now. Starring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham, Help tells the story of Sarah, a care home worker who looks after Tony, a man beset by Alzheimer's far to young - as if there's ever a good time. It's an exceedingly powerful piece of storytelling - and a profound, moving and poignant reflection on some of the serious questions raised about British society's priorities in the wake of the pandemic.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a producer and director who has worked extensively in theatre and film, most famously (in cinematic terms, at least) on Mamma Mia and The Iron Lady, which saw Meryl Streep win an Oscar for best actress. Phyllida Lloyd's latest offering is Herself. Written by and starring Clare Dunne, Herself tells the story of Sandra - a struggling single mum who decides to build her own home when the housing authority refuses to offer her one. In doing so, she rediscovers herself with the help of a kindly community, only for her abusive ex-husband to return to haunt her ... The film is scored by former guest on this show Natalie Holt, and we must say thank you to her for sending us her unreleased music from the film.

We've been wanting to put out this latest episode of Soundtracking for some time now, featuring as it does two people who were instrumental in bringing us Black Widow. First up is our old pal Lorne Balfe, returning to the podcast for a third time to discuss his excellent score for the film. Then we'll bring you a chat Edith had with director Cate Shortland, who's put a very distinctive spin on the story of Natasha Romanov. If you haven't seen it, it is still showing in a few cinemas, but is also available on Disney+ to customers with Premier access, and coming out on blu-ray and DVD on 13th September. It's cracking fun, and both Lorne and Cate have brought plenty new to the MCU table.

Our latest guest is a composer who has been on the podcast before, but is appearing by herself for the first time. Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch joined me, Carly Paradis and Amelia Warner for a very special Soundtracking Live at the BFI back in June 2019. In this episode, she's here to discuss her work on Censor, a smart, scary British horror which is out in cinemas now.  Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond and starring Niamh Algar, the film tells the story of Enid, a video nasty censor who links a particularly disturbing movie with the disappearance of her sister.  It is beautifully scored by Emilie - at once acknowledging the classic video nasties of the 70s and 80s while having its own distinctive voice. And the good news is, it's soon to be released on vinyl by our good pals at Invada Records. Hurrah!