Big orchestral flourishes, memorable themes, expansive action set pieces… These were once a staple of film music, but these days you are perhaps even more likely to hear such things coming from your T

Steven C Smith Oxford University Press 978-0-197-68128-2 312pp (hb) £31.99 Theirs remains one of the most thrilling composer-director collaborations of all time, and while Bernard Herrmann and Alfred

New tribute to their former guitarist Brian James is delivered with real passion.

I’ve made a lot of films about young people trying to figure out what the hell they’re doing in the world. Although I’m still wondering that myself. It’s so interesting looking back – I realised from

Andrey Gugnin (piano) Hyperion CDA684712 83 mins This album of Russian ballet transcriptions sparkles like a glass bauble hanging amidst the fairy lights. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky wrote so colourful

Remember PADS? This was the ‘post-Avatar depression syndrome’ widely reported in 2010, where distressed filmgoers claimed that they were feeling blue because the planet of Pandora from 2009’s Avatar w