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Antonio Sanchez: Birdman (15)

Screening and live score

,Barbican Hall
Running time
Antonio Sanchez holding a cymbal

Feel the heightened tension and unease in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman as composer Antonio Sánchez performs the award-winning score live to a screening of the film.

A mix of intense jazz drumming and sparse percussive noise, Sánchez’s score adds an eerie feel to the film, propelling the action forward and hypnotising audiences. Responsive to the action on screen, each performance of the score is a one-off – even the original music was almost entirely improvised.

Satirising the vanities of Hollywood actors, Tinseltown veteran Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), is a neurotic bundle of anxieties, bitter about his decline and other actors’ successes. Filmed in New York, the film is a tour de force of swooping long shots and fantastical flourishes.

Sánchez is an accomplished jazz drummer who has toured with Pat Metheny and Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra. His composition for Birdman won the BAFTA and Golden Globe for Best Score, whilst the film won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Tagged with: Cinema Contemporary music

This performance will begin promptly at the advertised start time

Running time 2 hours - no interval

All times are approximate and subject to change

Produced by La Linea - the Latin Music Festival

‘The drums, for me, was a great way to find the rhythm of the film... In comedy, rhythm is king, and I knew I needed something to help me find the internal rhythm of the film‘
Alejandro González Iñárritu
‘This is such an original approach, and you can’t imagine the film any other way once you have seen it this way.‘
Michael Keaton
‘Sanchez injects a vitality that maps out the emotions of the film’s characters with precision… his drumming so perfectly punctuating the film – propelling it forward here, adding tension there.‘
The Guardian

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