BFI | Sight & Sound | The Best Music in Film

The Best Music in Film

(The Grass Arena, Hideous Kinky)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?: "The Star Wars (1977) music catches the spirit of the film brilliantly. I would say the same for the James Bond theme and the score for The Piano."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?: "I personally love the way Tarkovsky integrates Bach into his sequences. This is a hard trick to pull off without seeming pretentious. He objected to commercial cinema's common use of music as a halo around the characters to enhance their performances. Still, this is what most of us do."
S&S: What is the most effective sequence of music in your own films?: "In Regeneration (1997), Dr Rivers (Jonathan Pryce) chases Sassoon who has fled the hospital. He finds him lounging on the lawn. For some reason this was hard to score without being obvious. In the end, Mychael Danna came up with an unlikely medieval sounding melody which still makes me chuckle."