Filmmakers and Their Soundtracks
About the Book Series
The Filmmakers and Their Soundtracks series consists of concise monographs that each address the nature of the soundtrack in the works of a significant filmmaker. The books in this series seek to expand scholarship on film music and sound – and to challenge those categories – by examining the use of sound across an individual filmmaker’s oeuvre. These short monographs of 25-50,000 words are published in the Routledge Focus format.
Music and Sound in the Films of Dennis Hopper
1st Edition
By Stephen Lee Naish
September 14, 2025
Across his directorial films, American filmmaker Dennis Hopper used music and sound to propel the narrative, signpost the era in which the films were made, and delineate the characters’ place within American culture. This book explores five of Hopper’s films to show how this deep engagement with ...
David Lynch: Sonic Style
1st Edition
By Reba Wissner
April 16, 2024
Director David Lynch is best known for films that channel the uncanny and the weird into a distinct "Lynchian" aesthetic, in which sound and music play a key role: Lynch not only writes his intended sounds into the script but also often takes on the role of creating the sounds himself. This ...
Music and Sound in the Worlds of Michel Gondry
1st Edition
By Kate McQuiston
May 30, 2022
Michel Gondry’s directorial work buzzes with playfulness and invention: in a body of work that includes feature films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, to music videos, commercials, television episodes, and documentaries, he has experimented with blending ...
Howard Hawks: Music as Communication in Film
1st Edition
By Gregory Camp
December 13, 2021
Known for creating classic films including His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks is one of the best-known Hollywood ‘auteurs’, but the important role that music plays in his films has been generally neglected by film critics and scholars. In ...
Terrence Malick: Sonic Style
1st Edition
By James Wierzbicki
December 18, 2020
In the course of a decades-spanning career as a filmmaker, Terrence Malick has carved out a distinctive cinematic aesthetic. Central to this style is the use of sound. James Wierzbicki offers the first comprehensive study of Malick's soundtracks, arguing that they create a distinctive sonic style ...