David Arnold
Composer
Grammy award-winning composer David Arnold is best-known for scoring five James Bond films. His 1997 album Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project, also featured re-makes of various Bond themes and brought him to the attention of a wider audience.
Q1 Which one film would you wish to share with future generations?
West Side Story
USA 1961
Stunning modern-day musical update of Romeo and Juliet.
West Side Story. As a musical film, this show must be considered the greatest that there has been. It covers so much ground, its story taking advantage of the beauty of one of Shakespeare's greatest works, Romeo and Juliet, its songs musically constructed by one of the geniuses of the 20th Century , Leonard Bernstein, and the lyrics by the still working and still brilliant Stephen Sondheim. The film's fabulous cast, incredible choreography and superpanavision photography, its iconic Saul Bass poster and direction by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins earned it ten academy awards out of its eleven nominations. I can't think of a more essential film when I consider great films. It's got heart.
Q2 What excites you about the future of the moving image?
The future of film excites me as there may be someone out there playing around with a cheap digital video camera, writing a script in Final Draft, trying out edits on a laptop, running up a score in a digital studio at home, who may emerge as the greatest film maker of all time, who will make the greatest film of all time.
