Sounding Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

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Sounding Cinema

Nathan Platte

Tv & Film

Frequency: 1 episode/238d. Total Eps: 8

Nathan Platte joins University of Iowa students to explore how film music and sound transport us, building worlds beyond what we see on screen. Sounding Cinema hosts conversations among students and authors to show how soundscapes shape our relationships to characters, story, and film itself.

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https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2019.0004
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https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2019.0004.
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Score global : 43%

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(Stop) Making Sense of Concert Films

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 • Duration 52:24

Concert films show us how musicians make their music, but they also help us hear that music differently. In this episode, we break down how this works in the concert film classic, Talking Heads’ and Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense (1984).

More about the student team:

Luke Heying is a University of Iowa senior (’25) majoring inEconomics with a minor in Music.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa senior (’25) doublemajoring in Cinema and Journalism.

Will Sinak is a University of Iowa senior (’25) majoring inCinema.

Resources

You can explore the music discussed in this episode in thesoundtrack album to Stop Making Sense as well as Talking Heads’ studio albums Speaking in Tongues and More Songs About Buildings and Food. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, A24 completed a major restoration of Stop Making Sense in 2023. More information on that is available here.

Want to learn more about the history of concert films? Werecommend K.J. Donnelly’s chapter, “The Film Should Be Played Loud’: Rockumentary Films,” from his 2015 book, Magical Musical Tour: Rock and Pop in Film Soundtracks (Bloomsbury).

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The Sound of Silents and Marc Ribot's Music for Aelita: Queen of Mars

Saturday, April 26, 2025 • Duration 41:08

What is it like to hear and see a live musician accompany a silent film? Luke Heying, Abbie McLaren, Will Sinak, and Nathan Platte tackle that question in this episode by exploring guitarist Marc Ribot’s live musical accompaniment to Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) at FilmScene in Iowa City. We talk about the experience of drinking in Ribot’s brilliantly eclectic soundscape for a silent-era science fiction odyssey.

More about the team:

Luke Heying is a University of Iowa senior majoring in Economics with a minor in Music.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa senior double majoring in Cinema and Journalism.

Will Sinak is a University of Iowa senior majoring in Cinema.

Resources

For more on Ribot’s music for silent films, check out ShoeString Symphonettes (1997), which features an earlier accompaniment for Aelita composed for small ensemble. Listen too to his album, Silent Movies (2010), which features more of his work for the medium. Brief excerpts from both albums are heard in this episode.

For more on the expanding practice of musicians writing newmusic for silent films, see Today’s Sounds for Yesterday’s Films: Making Music for Silent Cinema, edited by K.J. Donnelly and Ann-Kristin Wallengren (Palgrave, 2016).

to FilmScene for hosting Marc Ribot's performance and helping us get tickets to his sold-out show. Thanks also to Jean-François Charles for providing recording space for our conversation.

Once More, With Song: The Musical Television Episode

Tuesday, July 23, 2024 • Duration 24:45

Sounding Cinema turns to the musical television episode! Erika Chagdes, Abbie McLaren, Caleb Payne, and Nathan Platte spotlight the unique and often comedic opportunities that arise when a TV series turns into a musical…for just one episode. By comparing “Once More, With Feeling,” the infamous musical episode from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, with “Regional Holiday Music,” Community’s glee-ful fiasco, we discover some ways in which TV musicals can teach us a lot about musicals and the episodic format of television itself.

More about the team:

Erika Chagdes graduated from the University of Iowa in 2024 with a BA in Cinema. She is excited to pursue a career in filmmaking.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa student with a double major in Cinema and Journalism and Mass Communication (production and design track). After graduating in 2025, she plans to pursue film professionally through work or graduate studies.

Caleb Payne graduated from the University of Iowa in 2024 with a BA in Cinema. He plans to attend a graduate-level studio art program in the future.

Samuel Ross, who provided original music, is a University of Iowa student drawn to both film and music. A Cinema major, Sam also composes, writes film music, and enjoys playing piano and bass.

Resources:

Kelly Kessler, Broadway in the Box: Television’s Lasting Love Affair with the Musical (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Kathryn VanArendonk, “Theorizing the Television Episode,” Narrative 27, no. 1 (2019), 65–82. , https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2019.0004.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and 'The Young Girls' Turn 25 (1993): Different Spins on the Film Musical

Tuesday, July 9, 2024 • Duration 53:29

Sounding Cinema returns to the immersive musicals of Jacques Demy, exploring the serious whimsy and peculiar pairs of The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). Join Abbie McLaren, Caleb Payne, and Nathan Platte as we discuss the ways in which Demy’s film, Michel Legrand's music, and Agnès Varda’s documentary about the film play with and against the formula of the Hollywood studio musical.

Special thanks to: Samuel Ross, who wrote and recorded original and adapted music for the episode. Erika Chagdes, who helped with production preparation. Abbie McLaren, who designed our episode artwork.

More about the team:

Erika Chagdes graduated from the University of Iowa in 2024 with a BA in Cinema. She is excited to pursue a career in filmmaking.

Caleb Payne graduated from the University of Iowa in 2024 with a BA in Cinema. He plans to attend a graduate-level studio art program in the future.

Sam Ross is a University of Iowa student drawn to both film and music. A Cinema major, Sam also composes, writes film music, and enjoys playing piano and bass.

Resources:

Rick Altman, “From Homosocial to Heterosexual: The Musical’s Two Projects,” in The Sound of Musicals, edited by Steven Cohan (London: British Film Institute, 2010), 19–29.

Andrea Bravo, “‘Have you found her yet?’: The Dream World of Jacques Demy’s ‘The Young Girls of Rochefort.’” , 7 March 2023, .

Jack Curtis Dubowsky on the Legacy of Easy Listening in Film Music

Episode 5

Thursday, June 16, 2022 • Duration 33:41

Cecilia Kryzda and Nathan Platte talk with Jack Curtis Dubowsky about his recent book, Easy Listening and Film Scoring, 1948-1978 (Routledge, 2021). A composer, performer, and scholar, Jack illuminates the vast and underappreciated opportunities easy listening provided film composers and how certain styles and habits shaped later music and film practices. Jack also explains the process of writing the book, including his inspiration behind the project and how his vision for the book changed over time.

Jack's book spotlights an array of fascinating albums and films. His recommendations for listeners are:

Music:

Michel Legrand, I Love Paris (preferably the original mono record)
Michel Legrand, Archi-chordes
Cecil Holmes, The Black Motion Picture Experience
Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker with Strings
Wendy Carlos, Sonic Seasonings
Stu Phillips & The Hollyridge Strings (all the albums)

Films and TV

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, music by Henry Mancini)
Peter Gunn television series (1958-61, music by Henry Mancini)
Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, music by Michel Legrand)
Partir Revenir (1985, music by Michel Legrand)
Mahogany (1975, music arranged by Lee Holdridge)
Battlestar Galactica (1979, music by Stu Phillips)
Watership Down (1978, music by Angela Morley)
The Lawrence Welk Show (1951-1982)

Shades of Quiet in Sound of Metal

Tuesday, September 28, 2021 • Duration 33:22

Rebekah Erdman, Cecilia Kryzda, Anastasia Scholze, and Noah Zahradnik return to Sounding Cinema to discuss Sound of Metal (2020), a film that challenges its central character--a musician-- to listen differently to the sounds and silences that define daily life and the relationships within it.

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The Unceasing Melodies of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Monday, August 23, 2021 • Duration 39:56

Sounding Cinema welcomes Rebekah Erdman, Cecilia Kryzda, Anastasia Scholze, and Noah Zahradnik to discuss The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and Sound of Metal (2020), two titles that push film sound to its extremes. In the first of a two-part series, we consider how director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand unsettle a strikingly realistic story by having the characters sing all their lines.

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Introducing Sounding Cinema

Wednesday, February 10, 2021 • Duration 02:31

Join Nathan Platte and Anastasia Scholze as they explore how music and sound draw us closer to film. First stop: the shifting soundscapes of Robert Wise's films (West Side Story, The Haunting, The Andromeda Strain, Odds Against Tomorrow, and many more).

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Sounding Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

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Sounding Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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DOI Foundation2

RSS feed quality and score

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Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other11

Spotify13

DOI Foundation2

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