Thursday Token Themes

Welcome a weekly feature here at Movies With Abe. I’m a hugely enthusiastic fan of film scores, and music is far too often an element of cinema that goes unrecognized. Therefore I present a platform for a look – or rather, a listen – to some fantastic film scores. I’ll be selecting a composer and one or more of their film scores for your listening pleasure, embedded from YouTube.

This week’s featured composer is Johan Söderqvist, the Swedish-born go-to composer for Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier. Söderqvist has composed tremendous, powerful scores for Bier’s films that help to draw out the intensity of each of them, but you’ll notice a distinctive and creative energy to some of the tracks as well. Listen to two tracks from the best film I’ve seen so far this year, “In a Better World,” where the music really helps to make the film an awe-inspiring experience. Bier’s only American film, “Things We Lost in the Fire,” was an enormous disappointment, but fortunately the score wasn’t. Listen to three short selections from that soundtrack. The suite from “After the Wedding” shows a particularly diverse range of musical selections on Söderqvist’s part. These are excellent musical compositions, but more than anything, if you haven’t seen “In a Better World” or “After the Wedding,” watch them as soon as you can.

In a Better World (2011)





Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)







After the Wedding (2006)