Has music ever been used in film more powerfully than this?

[Pabmusic]

One film sequence that made a deep impression on me occurs in a 1994 film by Peter Jackson. It's called Heavenly Creatures, and stars Kate Winslet as one of the two 1950s New Zealand schoolgirls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, who planned and carried out the murder of Parker's mother. When the killing happens, on a walk in the country, all 'natural' sound is muted, the picture slows, and the Humming Chorus from Madam Butterfly is played complete over the gruesome images. Jackson uses something of the same technique in the first part of The Lord of the Rings, when the Fellowship emerges from Moria, having lost Gandalf.

It's a horrible, yet very powerful, sequence that has stuck with me since the first time (of only two) I've seen it. I'm not going to provide a link, though.

Incidentally, Juliet Hulme eventually became the successful crime writer Anne Perry - something that ought to be on the detective stories thread.

[vinteuil]

Ry Cooder in Paris, Texas

[Sir Velo]

Talking of Kubrick. What more masterly use of music is there than the Adagio from Bartok's Music forStrings, Percussion and Celesta to soundtrack Jack's kid as he careers around the empty hotel on his trike? Just thinking of this scene is enough to have one's hairs horripilating at the horror at the heart of Bartokian "night music"!

[Richard Tarleton]

Picnic at Hanging Rock - soundtrack Gheorghe Zamfir on pan pipes - ''Doina Sus Pe Culmea Dealului''.

The music perfectly matches the air of heat haze, mystery and menace that pervades this haunting film.

[Northender]

Caliban - in answer to your question about 'Cabaret': I would say not. The transition from a pleasant day's outing in the jolly German countryside to a chilling foretaste of the forthcoming takeover of the country and all that will follow is nothing less than a stroke of cinematic genius. Equally shocking are the brief glimpses of the Nazi emblems among the audience in the film's closing seconds - the threatened nightmare is well on its way to becoming an all-embracing, terrifying reality.
I'm also a huge admirer of 'Picnic At Hanging Rock', in which the infrequency with which the (entirely appropriate) music is used makes it all the more telling.

[Nick Armstrong]

In answer to your question: I would say not - the transition from a pleasant day's outing in the jolly German countryside to a chilling foretaste of the forthcoming takeover of the country and all that will follow is nothing less than a stroke of cinematic genius. Equally shocking are the brief glimpses of the Nazi emblems among the audience in the film's closing seconds - the threatened nightmare has become a reality.

Northo - exactly. And the fresh-faced boy who starts singing becomes a manic proto-stormtrooper in the space of 3 minutes.

Equally powerful are the scenes of entertainment in the 'Cabaret' where swastika armbands among the audience are glimpsed fleetingly in distorting mirrors on the walls... or the sequences of song are intercut with glimpses of brownshirts beating kicking Jewish people to death in the alleys outside...

Terrific, in the true sense of the word.

[Mr Pee]

I would nominate the use of Barber's Adagio for Strings at the end of The Elephant Man, when John Merrick takes the pillows off his bed and lies down to sleep, knowing that he will die as a result. The perfect fusion of music and image, IMO:-

And I know its not strictly a film, but I thought the use of an extended excerpt from "The Thieving Magpie" overture in the BBC's "Sherlock", when Moriarty is "stealing" the Crown Jewels was quite brilliant. Can't find it on YouTube unfortunately.

[doversoul1]

It was probably 1971 or 2, I walked into one of those small art cinemas where a Chilean film was shown. I can’t remember the title or even the story but it was set in a massive grape farm and pickers were lined up to be signed on. They were asked to whistle and those who couldn’t were sent away. In the field the farmer’s ombudsmen were going round making sure that pickers were whistling while they picked. Whistling would stop them from eating the grapes. After awhile this tuneless whistling seemed to change the tone and gradually, gradually, it turned into a recognisable tune, and finally it became The Internationale. Once it established, the tune filled the entire field and the cinema. Loud and clear.

When I think about it now, it is a bit of a cliché but at the time it really was impressive indeed.

Much later, when piles of grapes began to appear in shops in spring, I asked a shopkeeper where they came from. ‘Chile’, he said. I couldn’t bring myself to buy those grapes for a long time. I knew things must have changed and all the rest, but that whistling… I still hesitate to buy Chilean grapes (not that I buy grapes in spring that often).

[aeolium]

I recall Mikos Theodorakis' music to Costas-Gavras's film Z having a very strong effect on me when I first watched the film, though it was a long time ago and I'd have to watch it again to pick out the most powerful scenes.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

[MrGongGong]

Ain't counterpoint a wonderful invention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue8VS-bcj88&feature=relmfu

though it's a shame that this music has become so cliched

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

wagner in his element

[Mr Pee]

Ain't counterpoint a wonderful invention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue8VS-bcj88&feature=relmfu

though it's a shame that this music has become so cliched

The Barber Adagio was also used in a recent episode of The Simpsons, where a "soccer" game descended into mindless violence, both on and off the pitch. As the throwing of beer cans and general mayhem played out in slow motion, so Barber's adagio accompanied the images.

[Mr Pee]

wagner in his element

Wagner very much in his element:-

[EdgeleyRob]

Puccini (the killing fields).