JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(19 September 1969 - 9 February 2018)

The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who has died at the premature age of 48, was a prolific musician who notched up over forty film scores since his first film in 2000, The Icelandic Dream. For many years he worked on films and television in Iceland but then began to be recognised for his work on three Dennis Villeneuve films, Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival. However, his score for Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 was rejected. As well as working in the US, Jóhannsson still scored films in Iceland, Denmark and Hungary and he worked with James Marsh on both The Theory of Everything and The Mercy. He was a music and sound consultant on Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! Of his last work, Mandy, with Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough, awaits a UK release, while Garth Davis’s Mary Magdalene is due to be released in the UK on 16 March. Jóhann Jóhannsson was Oscar-nominated for The Theory of Everything and Sicario.

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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