Between 1929 and 1970, five years before his death, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote almost 40 film scores for most genres of Soviet films, from Stalinist cult epics to classical literary adaptations. His long and distinguished cinema career has hitherto been overlooked. Here, John Riley provides this first account, which examines the scores and their contexts in the films for which they were written, the ways in which contemporary events shaped both films and scores, and how he thought about, developed and applied his film music._x000D_ _x000D_ "Thanks to John Riley we now have a much fuller picture of the tortuous fate of many of the films themselves, as well as a judicious weighing of their cinematic and musical merits. To all this the author brings not only his expertise as a film historian - drawing on Russian as well as Western sources - but also a wide-ranging musical knowledge and penetrating intelligence." Professor David Fanning, University of Manchester_x000D_ _x000D_ This well-researched study helps to bring crucial dilemmas in Soviet cultural history into sharper focus. Riley produces some wonderfully evocative descriptions of Shostakovich's work that show a sure grasp of musical logic and make us want to find the scores and recordings for ourselves. - Moscow Times_x000D_ _x000D_ Riley performs a valuable service in illuminating a "life in film" that has been largely ignored by musicologists and by film scholars who have been reluctant to take it seriously. - Times Literary Supplement.