The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
(2009)
The BAFTA Award-winning original 2009 Swedish film
adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was
interpreted by Danish director Niels Arden Oplev.
Differing from the later 2011 adaptation, this focuses more
on the character of the journalist Mikael Blomkvist.
The score was written by Danish film composer
Jacob Groth and won him a nomination for Best
Composer at the European Film Awards.
Harry Brown
(2009)
Set in modern day gangland Britain, this gritty
action-thriller stars Michael Caine as the eponymous
Harry Brown, a widowed Royal Marines veteran
who decides to take justice into his own hands.
Ruth Barret expertly builds the creeping tension in her
piece, ‘Walk To Hospital In Rain’, which provides suitable
atmosphere for the murky world Harry finds himself in.
Heidi
(2005)
Directed by Paul Marcus, this British family film
is based on Johanna Spyri’s novel of the same name.
It stars Emma Bolger as the young orphan Heidi, alongside
Max von Sydow, Geraldine Chaplin and Diana Rigg.
The soft, sentimental piece ‘Buying Tobacco’ written by
Jocelyn Pook features a lush, swelling string texture that is
answered by woodwind phrases in beautiful counterpoint,
appropriately matching the charming atmosphere of the film.
Looper
(2012)
This award-winning American science fiction thriller
centring around time travel was directed by Rian
Johnson, who is also the director of science fiction
mainstay Star Wars: Episode VIII.
Nathan Johnson composed the score for the film.
Using found-sounds and field recordings, recorded by
Johnson recorded while on location in New Orleans,
he received the IFMCA Breakthrough Composer award
for his work on the film’s soundtrack.
The piece selected for this book, ‘Finale’, occurs at the
end of the film. In the work the culmination of the film’s
tempestuous plot is reflected in a grand, powerful theme
utilising rich expansive strings and an insistent, emotional
piano part. Building to a climax, the music finally drops
into a gentle, thoughtful music box melody.