CLASSICAL MUSIC and the Movies

[Guest]

As Oscar night is upon us, a movie related question.
which movies (any country, any period ) have made the best use of already existing classical music for their soundtracks?

Two obvious nominations 2001 A space Odyssey (johann and Richard with Ligeti ect.)
Death in Venice (Mahler 5)

[Oliver]

My favourites are from the cinema of the sixties. I stopped going soon after this.

1) Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman); Bach's Cello Suite in G Minor
2) Mama Roma (Pasolini); Vivaldi's Concerto in D Minor RV540

Pasolini invariably used classical music. In his St Matthew's Gospel, the crucifixion is accompanied by Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music. In Accetone (about a pimp in Rome), the scene when the protagonist is attacked is accompanied by the final chorus of Bach's St Matthew. A very interesting effect; unlike film music generally, the music here apparently contradicts what is happening on screen.....or does it? Is the pimp a Christ figure- like the young waiter in Mama Roma?

I'll stop there. I suspect that I'm the only Pasolini devotee who contributes to this forum!
.

[Ferretfancy]

How about Hollywood and the classics?

I've always treasured the moment in the film A Woman's Face, when Joan Crawford plays a murderess whose face is seriously disfigured on one side. Of course, as she is Joan Crawford, we only see her from her good side as she sits at a concert grand playing some quietly romantic prelude.

Conrad Veidt, who is the villain ( Naturally! ) Leans confidentially over the keyboard, saying "Ah! You like classical music! Symphonies ? Concertos ?"

To which she coldly replies " Some symphonies, most concertos "

I wish they still made them like that!

[amateur51]

In Anthony Minghella's Truly Madly Deeply Nina (Juliet Stevenson) and her dead boyfriend Jamie (Alan Rickman) play some JSB together (viola da gamba & piano) when he reappears to her - it's their tune - poot!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Amadeus, of course - and skilfully done.
Brief Encounter
Ocean's Eleven

[doversoul1]

Fantasia

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Fantasia

Silly me. Fancy forgetting that.
Other Disney cartoons -
Fantasia 2000
plus a "short" I can't recall the name of


And there's also
Raising the Wind, a "Carry on" style comedy.

[Stanley Stewart]

Adolescent memories:

Mary Astor as a temperamental concert pianist tearing into Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 in"The Great Lie" (1941) as she sparred with Bette Davis over the custody of her child.

Tchaikovsky again as I became seduced by my intro to the Romeo & Juliet, Fantasy Overture, in the first version of "The Magnificent Obsession" (1935 - seen by me some years later)), Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor.

"Escape" (aka as "When the Door Opened") (1940) when a young boy became a lifelong Wagnerite after hearing the Tristan & Isolde prelude in this film - also starring Conrad Veidt.

A conversion to Puccini in "His Brother's Sister" (1943) when Deanne Durbin sang None Shall Sleep so effectively.

A further conversion with several road to Damascus surprises in "Music for Millions" (1944) culminating with a rousing Hallelujah chorus. These early memories from hugely popular films also gave me a gift for life.

[Tevot]

Hello there,


Kubrick used music very well didn't he? I remember Bartok and Penderecki from The Shining and Ligeti again in Eyes Wide Shut...

There is a film (very much in Kubrick's spirit I think) called Birth - info about it is here - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/birth/

and it has a sequence featuring the prelude to Act 1 of Die Walkure - and to me at any rate it is spine tingling...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpJj9c2OV-0

The film was poorly received - but it is one that I've got a lot of time for.

There's also The Unbearable Lightness of Being - in which Janacek's music was used pertinently and evocatively.

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Barry Lyndon is a masterpiece of imagery and music; Mozart, Handel, Schubert and that old fave Trad ...

[gurnemanz]

Absolute favourite has to be Fellini's Otto e Mezzo. I can't hear the Barber of Seville without thinking of Claudia Cardinale. Trailer here

Also Schubert Piano Trio in Kubrick's Bary Lyndon.

[doversoul1]

Dare I mention K 467?

Goodbye Again
Based on a Françoise Sagan’s novel with the original title Aimez-vous Brahms. One of the less impressive/well known Ingrid Bergman’s films, with Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins. I can’t remember the actual works but I think there were scenes where Brahms’s works were used. It was made in the early 1960’s

Oliver #2 (re: Pasolini)
No, you are not alone, although I was more fascinated by the imagery than the contents (?) of his films. I wasn’t worldly enough then to understand what I was seeing (although I thought I did). I wonder what I’ll make of his films if I see them now but I’m not sure if I want to try.

Incidentally, do we have movies instead of films now?

[Petrushka]

Am I the only one to totally hate classical music being used in this way? The combination of images and music can stay with one for ever and colour one's perception of the music for a lifetime. What's more the use of classical music in film can have a decidedly negative impact on the interpretation of the piece used and here I am particularly thinking of the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony. Interpretations have got slower and slower since its use in Death in Venice and it has taken on a death-tinged hue ever since when in reality it is a tender declaration of love to his wife, Alma.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I am far more offended by watching a film with and atmospheric classical-style score, only to be subjected to a dumbed-down ending with an inappropriate pop-style song for the credits.

A sequel to a film for which I did some of the orchestration is a case in point.

But for films I can name, Born Free and Titanic are good examples.

[Nick Armstrong]

Eyes Wide Shut...

It's the Shostakovich 'Variety Suite' Waltz No. 2 that I associate with that film, unforgettably...

Personal favourite: Schumann's Piano Quintet in Bergman's entrancing 'Fanny & Alexander'