BFI | Sight & Sound | The Best Music in Film

The Best Music in Film

(Danish composer who wrote the music for Den Blå Munk)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?: "I have a few favourites and this one pops up in my mind: Otto Preminger´s Anatomy of a Murder (1959) with music by Duke Ellington. His band with star soloists like Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Ray Nance etc. plays Duke´s music that matches the different moods in the film perfect. I would like to emphasize the opening of the film, where the music together with the pictures puts up a strong tense atmosphere. To me it is close to a masterpiece."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?: "To build up an atmosphere, stress the different moods sex. fear, anger, happiness, and sometime when you are lucky: to become a synonyme or symbol with the film. Just think of Henry Mancini´s 'Pink Panther theme'."
S&S: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?: "I like the atmosphere of the monkish solo piano going on nearly through the whole film - discreet but effective in Christian Braad Thomsen´s Den Blå Munk (1998). And the closing scene in Klaus Kjeldsen´s Amar (1954)with a jazz quartet playing a hard swinging minor blues with a sax in front with the pictures of a taxi driving for the airport. I was actually inspired by Lalo Schifrin´s music for Bullitt (1968), another old favourite of mine."