This week on “Picture Perfect,” things will get pretty steamy, though not in the way you might think. We’ll have an hour of scores from films that exemplify the science fiction subgenre known as “steampunk.”
Generally speaking, steampunk employs forward-looking technologies and gadgetry – in many cases literally powered by steam – in incongruous, quasi-Victorian settings.
We’ll hear selections from Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” (2011), with its abundant gears, steam, and free-writing automaton, with music by Howard Shore; “The Golden Compass” (2007), with its carriages, old-fashioned air ships, and vintage arctic gear, with music by Alexandre Desplat; “Wild Wild West” (1999), with its cowboys, proto-James Bond gadgetry, and Gustave Eiffel-style iron spider, with music by Elmer Bernstein; and “Time After Time” (1979), with Jack the Ripper, H.G. Wells, and a time machine of his invention, with music by Miklós Rózsa.
We’re powered by steampunk this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

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