Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

The big names just keep on coming to Soundtracking - and today we're over the moon to be joined by Guillermo Del Toro and Alexandre Desplat to discuss their wonderful collaboration on Guillermo's take on Pinocchio, which is streaming now on Netflix.

Set against the backdrop of the emergence of Facism in Italy, this is a bittersweet tale of the challenges of the father-son relationship which has a deeply personal feel to it - and certainly got Edith and her 9-year-old talking about the many profound themes it raises.

As you'd expect, Alexandre's score is magnificent, and there's plenty of that sprinkled throughout the conversation too.

It's our 350th birthday, and what a way to celebrate it - with another bonus episode in the company of the legend that is James Cameron.

James was on sparkling form as he joined Edith to discuss the music of Avatar: The Way Of Water and the 25th anniversary re-release of Titanic. There's also a bit of a news line in here too, regarding plans for the subsequent films ...

Fresh off the back of its huge success at the Golden Globes - and multiple BAFTA nominations - we're delighted to welcome The Banshees Of Inisherin composer Carter Burwell back to Soundtracking.

Little did we know when we recorded this interview at the end of last year that the film would win best picture in a musical or comedy AND best screenplay for Martin McDonagh, as well as a best actor gong for Colin Farrell.

Carter was pipped in the Best Score category by our last guest on Soundtracking, Justin Hurwitz, but that takes nothing away from the excellence of his work on the project

We have a bonus episode for you today, as two friends of the podcast return (separately, we should say) to discuss their work together on the extraordinary Babylon.

Director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz have worked their magic once again, bringing to life a tale of decadence, depravity, and outrageous excess in 1920s Hollywood.

What we do is share the interview with Justin first, as that goes into great detail about the music; then we'll get an overview from Damien about the score and the movie as a whole.

We've got an incredible run of guests coming up with you over the next fortnight - so much so that we'll be doing a couple of bonus episodes. But what a treat we have to kick off with today.

Cate Blanchett is magnificent in Todd Field's new film, Tár, which charts the downfall of the eponymous composer and conductor, Lydia Tar. We won't say too much more about it, except for the fact that Cate has real musical chops, and puts her heart an soul into her incredible performance, and that it is scored by the wonderful Hildur Guonadottir

This might be a first for Soundtracking, but if it isn't, it certainly doesn't happen very often. For in speaking to Bones And All script writer David Kajganich, we've now completed the triumvirate of director Luca Guadagnino and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

David is so insightful about the process, and also how music is fundamentally important to it. It's a fascinating listen.

We're also giving away a pair of tickets to a screening of The Fabelmans in this episode - so have a listen to find out how to win!

Having chatted to Daniel Craig on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, we're delighted to share Edith's conversation with Rian Johnson, the writer and director of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Rian is a great lover of music, and we'll hear about his thinking when it came to the sound of this film - both in terms of the needle drops and the score, which was provided by his cousin, Nathan Johnson.

Now, Christmas week is just about to get a whole lot cooler, as we welcome Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to Soundtracking for a second time

Edith LOVES talking to this dynamic duo about film music, and the good news is we have two of their scores to unpack: the first being for Luca Guadagnino's Bones And All and the second for Sam Mendes' Empire Of Light.

If you harbour ambitions to write film scripts, you must listen to this - a very welcome return to the podcast to Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who joins us discuss her truly excellent Netflix vehicle, The Good Nurse.

Starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse tells the story of Amy Loughren, a night nurse who suspects that her co-worker is the serial killer Charles Cullen. 

Perhaps more importantly for our purposes, Krysty offers a truly fascinating insight into the creative workings of the screenwriter.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

Bonus episodes of Soundtracking abound this festive season with so many great film offerings out there - one of which is Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

So it is that we welcome Daniel Craig to the podcast to discuss his relationship with music and his role as the returning master detective Benoit Blanc in Rian Johnson's smart comedic mystery - soon to be showing on Netflix

We don't want to say too much about the plot, but suffice to say it has all the humour, twists and turns of the first film, with an incredible ensemble cast including Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.