Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

Without wishing to sound unduly self-congratulatory, it is slightly mind-boggling to us that one week Edith gets to introduce Sam Esmail and Julia Roberts to you on the podcast, and the next Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan. Bradley and Carey joined us to discuss Maestro, which Bradley co-wrote and directed and focuses on the relationship between Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. 

It's a Wonka special for you today, as writer director Paul King, songwriter Neil Hannon and composer Joby Talbot join Edith to discuss their origin story of the eccentric chocolate maker, who is brilliantly played by Timothée Chalamet. It's a beautiful, all-singing, all-dancing spectacular, with all the characteristic charm of Paul's work, and with fine contributions from Neil and Joby.

We can't quite believe I'm saying this, but our latest guests on this bonus episode of Soundtracking are Sam Esmail and ... Julia Roberts! We had a lovely wee chat about the music in their new movie, Leave The World Behind, which you can watch right now on Netflix. A deeply unsettling psychological thriller, it tells the story of a family whose holiday on Long Island is interrupted by two mysterious strangers bringing news of an imminent blackout.

Last week we had Mark Ronson, and this week it's the turn of another great producer, musician, and crate digger to join Edith on Soundtracking. David Holmes is back with new music in the shape of his album that sees him collaborate with Raven Violet. As as well as talking about that, we discuss his score and music supervision work for film and TV for the likes of Steven Soderbegh, and also his experience of producing Sinead O'Connor's final work, which has yet to be released. As you can see, we also got to meet his dog, Maisie ...

We're bringing you another of our Soundtracking Everyman Film Clubs today, recorded live following a screening of American Symphony in London. Edith was joined by married couple Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad and documentary maker Matthew Heineman to discuss their film, which chronicles a year in Jon and Suleika's life as he goes about creating the symphony of the title in the face of her potentially terminal leukemia diagnosis.

400! 400! We have reached 400 episodes. Holy cow. How did we do that? And what better way to celebrate it than with Mark Ronson - one of the greatest music producers in the world and now a composer of score. Mark joined me after I messaged him out of the blue to discuss his music for Barbie. What a legend. With no compulsion from a PR company, Mark gave Edith, and by proxy you, half an hour of his time to talk about Greta Gerwigs's brilliant film.

It's another bonus episode of Soundtracking during this particularly busy time, as Todd Haynes returns to the podcast for a fourth time to discuss his film, May December. A deliciously dark and unsettling drama, with lashings of beautifully observed comedy, May December tells the story of an actress who travels to meet and study the life of the controversial woman she is set to play in a film, with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore exquisite in the leading roles. Interestingly, Marcelo Zarvos's music is a reworking of Michel Legrand's score for the 1971 film, The Go-Between. 

We are very excited to be bringing you the first of a series which we hope will be a  long-running addition to the podcast - namely the Soundtracking Everyman Film Club. This new project will see Edith get together with people who bring you a film ... their film ... and have a wee natter about it before or after a screening, and then share conversation with everyone who couldn't be in the room on that day in pod form. On this occasion, it's Emerald Fennell talking about the music of Saltburn, which is incredibly important to the movie's narrative drive, and an element, as you'll discover, she thinks an enormous amount about. As a bonus, Edith also caught up with her composer Anthony Willis, in an interview you'll get to hear after the conversation with Emerald.

We recently had Charlotte Regan on the podcast to discuss her brilliant debut feature, Scrapper, and we're following up on that episode with her composer Patrick Jonsson. Scrapper tells the story of 12-year-old Georgie and her estranged father Jason, who comes into her life for the first time after her mother dies. Told very much from Georgie's perspective, the music had to communicate her innocence and wonder - and also the childlike way in which she is dealing with her grief.

We have a double-header on our latest episode of Soundtracking - so busy are we at the moment. First up are writer/director Molly Manning Walker and songwriter, producer, DJ and composer James Jacob - who goes by the professional soubriquet of Jakwob. They join Edith to discuss Molly's powerful and important debut feature, How To Have Sex, which has already scooped a major award at Cannes. How To Have Sex deals with that very particular rite of passage for girls of a certain age, as three young female friends travel to Crete in search of sun, sand and, possibly, you know what ... We also have writer / director Kitty Green to talk about her psychological thriller, The Royal Hotel, which sees two backpackers land jobs in a remote Australian bar, with events uncoiling thereafter in a truly gripping and suspenseful fashion.