2 days Ago
Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert at the BFI IMAX on 18th March 2025. As George Lucas famously said, sound is 50% of the movie-going experience. In the 1970s and 1980s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg regularly relied on the genius of John Williams to elevate their celluloid visions from great to magic, with his iconic music for films such as Star Wars , E.
T. , and Indiana Jones . While Williams continued to produce great work, since the mid-1990s, it’s Hans Zimmer who has become the name most associated with the great music for epic movies, from The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean , to Interstellar and Dune .
The concert film, Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert , is a fantastic testament to this and recently I was fortunate to be present at a showing of the film at London’s BFI IMAX, followed by a Q+A with Hans Zimmer himself, along with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the film’s director, Paul Dugdale. The film is a tour-de-force for fans of movies and music, mixing footage of a live stage performance from one of Zimmer’s concerts in Dubai, mixed with performances set in astonishing locations. It opens with the music from Dune , set in a desert that could have been the planet Arrakis, but was more likely Jordan, to a setting for Interstellar that appeared to be on a floating stage in space.
The epic performances brought a tear to my eye, but to keep things grounded, these were interspersed with light-touch interviews with many of Zimmer’s famous musical and professional collaborators. These included Johnny Marr, Pharrell Williams, and Billie Eilish. As well as Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and of course, the two great directors, Chris Nolan and Denis Villeneuve .
The latter, along with others, such as some of Zimmer’s band members were in the audience for the screening, and it was fun seeing them casually in the foyer before we were all ushered in to watch the film: I even found myself walking and talking with Johnny Marr as we left the auditorium. As Marr explained in the film, it was he and Pharrell Williams (who worked with the composer on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014) who persuaded Zimmer that he needed to take his music on the road, describing him as more “rock star” than a conventional film composer. The Q+A was led by regular Q+A leader, Edith Bowman.
(It was also a high point to hear Marr point out the irony of him being the man who wrote the music for The Smiths' song Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now working with the guy who wrote Happy .) Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert received a very limited release, so if you’ve seen it, you’ll have to wait for the film to come to streaming, or preferably, pick up a physical disc copy for optimal sound quality. While the clear laser projection onto the huge screen was fantastic, after reading some reports of poor sound quality in some screenings, I was grateful that I had seen it in an IMAX, where as much attention is paid to the sound as the picture.
As this video from nearly ten years ago demonstrates, IMAX makes much of the fact that its theatres are designed from the ground up to ensure optimal sound. Naturally, a lot of attention focuses on how loud the speakers can go, and, yes, in the video, Zimmer himself says, “I love that I get to work and make a big noise”, but let’s not forget that it’s the dynamic range that makes the difference: the ability to go from very loud to very quiet, quickly and with detail. Indeed, it’s the space between those moments that conveys emotion and drama.
When the wall of sound stops on a dime, it’s that sudden absence of noise that has the biggest impact – and that’s where the emotional engagement comes from. In any cinema, then, you’ll be listening to the sound of the room as much as the sound of the speakers, and the result will be as much down to the room design as the quality of the speakers themselves. It’s clear that in an IMAX, or indeed other high-quality theaters, attention is paid to the entire space, from the speaker enclosures and the air conditioning system to the acoustic treatment on the floor and seats.
So next time you are heading out to the theater, even if it’s not to see a Hans Zimmer concert movie, pay attention to the sound – and if it’s not good enough, say something, or find somewhere that is put together by people that care..
