Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

Few filmmakers at work today can claim to have more visual flair than Nicolas Winding Refn. From his debut thriller Pusher to Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon, he has always served up a feast for the eyes.

Invariably his themes are downright dark and sleazy - with tech-noir soundscapes and cinematography enhancing the mood. Whether using source music or score, the Danish director is most accomplished when it comes to sonic dressing...

From child star to Academy Award winning director, Ron Howard has always made it his business to entertain.

And entertain us he has - from A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 and Frost / Nixon to his most recent offerings - the Beatles documentary Eight Days A Week and Dan Brown thriller Inferno...

Andrea Arnold announced herself to the film world by winning an Oscar for her short film Wasp in 2005. Since then her releases Red Road, Fish Tank and American Honey have all won the Jury Prize at Cannes.

The latter is her latest offering - a road trip following a 'Mag Crew' as they party their way across the American Midwest selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door - listening to plenty of phat beats...

In his brief directorial career, Tate Taylor has brought us three very different films requiring three very different soundscapes.

First up was his Oscar-nominated Civil Rights drama The Help, set in his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. It is a deeply personal film for Tate and awash with the music of the time - including Ray Charles, Mavis Staples and Johnny Cash. It also saw him collaborate with Thomas Newman for the first time on the score...

Thea Sharrock was brought up on The Ramones. She cut her directorial teeth in theatre, becoming the youngest ever artistic director at a British theatre when she took over at the Southwark Playhouse at the tender age of 24.

She went on to direct Happy Now? at the National Theatre, before taking Equus to New York in 2008 - with Daniel Radcliffe making his Broadway debut. In 2009, she directed a production of As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe...

It's a safe bet that any writer / director who borrows song titles to name his own films is something of an audiophile. Richard Linklater is unquestionably one of these. From Dazed and Confused To Boyhood and the so-called 'Before' Trilogy, the amiable Texan has forged a career making movies with a very specific sense of time and place - accompanied by soundtracks that appropriately underscore the mood he's attempting to create.

His latest film continues this trend...

Though it’s impossible to pigeonhole the 9 feature films David Mackenzie has directed, there’s one thing they have in common: his obvious passion for music.

Having enlisted Scottish band The Pastels to provide the soundtrack for his debut The Last Great Wilderness, he’s since collaborated with luminaries such as David Byrne and Max Richter...

Actor, writer and now director of Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen, Matt Ross takes Edith on a musical journey encompassing bagpipes, German experimentalism and Bulgarian folk – not to mention Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Guns N Roses.

To hear all the music from the show in full, check out our spotify playlist - https://play.spotify.com/user/soundtrackingwithedithbowman and please subscribe to the show on itunes. You can find out what else Edith is up to at www.edithbowman...

In the latest episode of Soundtracking, writer, actor, director and all-round good guy Jon Favreau joins Edith to discuss how he uses music in his films.

From the big-band beats of Swingers to the Latin and R&B infused rhythms of Chef, Jon has always displayed a knack for using sound to perfectly compliment his visuals. This is no bad thing in the context of his remake of The Jungle Book, what with its formidable musical legacy...

On the release of his latest film War Dogs, writer and director Todd Phillips discusses the use of music in his movies, which reflects his love of everything from Black Flag to Billy Joel, Pink Floyd to Gram Parsons.