Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

It's another Soundtracking Live this week - this time recorded a month or so back at Festival No 6 in the weird and wonderful village of Portmerion, north Wales.

Our guest that day was a novelist, playwright and occasional director of shorts, who well and truly thrust himself into the pop cultural consciousness with Trainspotting, and Danny Boyle's subsequent film adaptation of the same name.

We are, of course, talking about Irvine Welsh.

Irvine was on fine form - discussing everything from his unlikely love of musicals and rom coms to the directors and composers who've inspired him as both a writer and a great fan of cinema. It all seemed to go down well with a packed audience, which made a very long round-trip more than worthwhile.

Expect music from from Oliver, Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction and more ...

Our latest episode of Soundtracking sees a return for the supremely entertaining writer, director and producer Sacha Gervasi, who joined us a couple of months back to discuss his career to date. We held some of that interview back to coincide with the realease of his latest movie, My Dinner with Hervé.

Starring Peter Dinklage and Jamie Dornan, My Dinner With Hervé recounts the later days of actor Hervé Villechaize, best known for his roles in smash TV show Fantasy Island and The Man With The Golden Gun, in which he played Nick Nack. As you'll hear, it's a deeply personal endeavour for Sacha, who, almost by chance, got to know Hervé well shortly before he commited suicide.

Given My Dinner With Hervé was 25 years in the making, Sacha talks at length about his own relationship with Herve and why he felt he owed it to him to get project off the ground. We think it's a tale worth telling. So, before we get to the music, we're going to share this incredible backstory with you, interspersed with extracts from composer David Norland's score.

Since last joining us on Soundtracking, it’s fair to say Damien Chazelle has done alright for himself - becoming the youngest ever winner in the Best Director category at the Oscars for La La Land.

His latest offering is First Man. Starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy, the narrative explores the years leading up to and including the 1969 Apollo 11 Mission to the moon, with the focus very much on the emotional challenges faced by Neil Armstrong and his family.

It's another giant leap for Damien, who seems pathologically incapable of making a bad movie. We discussed Whiplash and La La Land at length during our first conversation, so the focus is very much on how he and composer Justin Hurwitz went about creating a soundscape to transcend earth and space for this project.

As if it weren't enough writing, producing, directing and starring in a movie, you'd surely have the right to feel pretty smug if said movie got rave reviews across the board too.

Well, that's exactly what's happened with Bradley Cooper and A Star Is Born - though he was anything but smug when he joined Edith to discuss his achievements in our latest episode of Soundtracking. If anything, one gets the impression he's genuinely stunned and humbled by how well his work has been received.

A remake of the 1937 film of the same name, it stars Bradly and Stefani Germanotta (better known as Lady Gaga), and follows a hard-drinking musician who discovers and falls in love with a young singer.

It marks the third remake of the 1937 original, which was adapted into a 1954 musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason and then remade as a 1976 rock musical with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

And, just as Lady G proves to quite the actor, so it turns out Bradley has a really rather unexpectedly brilliant singing voice …

We very much like welcoming musicians to Soundtracking, so we were incredibly excited to learn about a documentary on the life of superstar Sri Lankan / British rapper M.I.A. - not least because Edith has been a huge fan since her days at BBC Radio 1.

Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. was directed by her longtime friend Steve Loveridge, and follows 22 years in her life - including her rise to fame and her perspective on the controversies sparked over her music, public appearances and political activism. It has been incredibly well-received, and won a special jury award at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Obviously, you'll hear plenty of M.I.A.'s work throughout the conversation, and also find out about some her musical and cinematic influences.

The latest episode of Soundtracking finds us out and about once more, this time at the British Film Institute on London's South Bank.

And it's a truly stellar cast.

Director Lenny Abrahamson, composer Stephen Rennicks, editor Nathan Nugent and producer Gail Egan joined Edith in front of an audience to discuss the music of their latest film, The Little Stranger.

Based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Waters, the plot follows a doctor who visits an old house his mother used to work at, only to discover it may hold a dark secret.

As you'll hear, there's a bit more talking and a bit less music than we usually serve up, but what the gang has to say makes for essential listening if you have even the the remotest interest in film-making.

Now one of the reasons it was such a joy speaking to Lenny, Stephen, Nathan and Gail is that they brought along all sorts of exclusive clips to share with us, including alternative beginnings and rough cuts from The Little Stranger.

Obviously you won't be able to see these clips, but we've included the audio anyway to give you a sense of how much thought the team puts into every single frame. The guys also set up each clip in detail to give you a sense of what's going on.

Hopefully, your imagination will do the rest.

Our latest edition of Soundtracking features British writer / director Bart Layton.

Bart won widespread critical acclaim for his debut The Imposter, a documentary about the case of the French conman Frédéric Bourdin, who impersonated a Texas boy who disappeared at the age of 13 in 1994. 

His new film is also inspired by an extraordinary true story about a group of ordinary everyday guys who plan to steal the most expensive book in America. Unlike The Imposter, though, it's predominantly a work of 'based on real events' fiction, with great performances by all of the actors in the central roles.  

It also features a banging soundtrack and excellent score by Anne Nikitin.