Best Use of Classical Music in Films

[anasazi]

I think my favorite may be a 1980's film called HOPSCOTCH that starred Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson.  A really entertaining and funny spy outing that featured Murray Perahia playing the Mozart Rondo #2 for piano and orchestra.  The main character (Matthau) is a nut for opera and Mozart, so that forms the connection. 

There is also some of Mozart's Barber music mixed in.  A Very nice job of adapting all of this to the film was done by Ian Fraser.

[hornteacher]

Wow, I'll have to watch it again. I recall really liking the realism of the first two thirds, but then it got silly and dull when the action moved to Afghanistan.

I agree, there are some weak moments in the last third of the film but its still a good one.

[DavidRoss]

How did we get this far without anyone nominating Amadeus (thanks for mentioning it, at least, Grazioso!)

Yes, Kubrick and Ridley Scott both came to mind as directors with a good ear for music.  And let's not forget Death and the Maiden. 

[Great Gable]

How did we get this far without anyone nominating Amadeus (thanks for mentioning it, at least, Grazioso!)

Yes, Kubrick and Ridley Scott both came to mind as directors with a good ear for music.  And let's not forget Death and the Maiden. 

That's true - it was Amadeus that single-handedly got me into opera.

[Haffner]

That's true - it was Amadeus that single-handedly got me into opera.

Me too!

[ChamberNut]

That's true - it was Amadeus that single-handedly got me into opera.

For me, it was Amadeus that single handedly got me into Mozart.  Specifically, the Gran Partita Serenade. 

[MDL]

Any takers for Ken Russell? The Music Lovers makes brilliant use of Tchaikovsky's music; comic, satirical, terrifying and, of course, deeply moving. The notorious train carriage sequence, in which a drunken Glenda Jackson strips off in front of an appalled Richard Chamberlain, accompanied by the Pathetique and Manfred, is a brilliant example of the matching of music and image.

Another set of thumbs-ups for Kubrick's 2001, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining . I've not seen Barry Lyndon yet. Am I missing much?

[ChamberNut]

I've not seen Barry Lyndon yet. Am I missing much?

Love the movie!  It is a bit long, and slow at times.  But the music and cinematography alone make it a "must see", IMHO. 

[DavidRoss]

Love the movie!  It is a bit long, and slow at times.  But the music and cinematography alone make it a "must see", IMHO. 

Indeed.  Gorgeous natural light cinematography rivaled only by Ridley Scott's The Duellists.  First saw this 30 years ago and the Handel Sarabande is still echoing in my skull.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Sibelius Finlandia -- The Hunt for Red October

It's btw also in "Die Hard 2" with Bruce Willis.

[anasazi]

It's btw also in "Die Hard 2" with Bruce Willis.

I keep reading this, and having seen RED OCTOBER a number of times (I have it in my collection) I still cannot recall hearing FINLANDIA in it - anywhere.  Can anyone point me to the scene it is in?

[loudav]

Nice topic idea! I'm late responding, but here are my favorites:

1) The Unbearable Lightness of Being, directed by Philip Kaufman from Milan Kundera's novel of the same name and set largely in Czechoslovakia, exclusively uses Janacek's music for the soundtrack, including great uses of the string quartets. The Janacek monopoly gives a coherence to the score, as well as an unmistakably Czech sound.

2) Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from Stanislaw Lem's novel of the same name, makes poignant use of Bach's setting of Ich ruf' zu dir (BWV 639) from the Orgelbuchlein--including during a transcendent scene in which everyone becomes weightless.

3) Chopin's waltz in A-flat, op. 69/1 with eerie reverb makes a nice cameo in The Others.

[loudav]

Oh, oh:

4) A recording of Caruso singing Donizetti's Una furtiva lagrima from L'elisir d'amore sets the emotional tone in Woody Allen's (non-comic) Match Point. If you haven't seen it, do.

[loudav]

Sorry for the stuttering contribution:

5) The sarabande from Bach's second cello suite plays over the opening credits of Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly. That may not sound like much, but it sets up the movie just perfectly.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

I keep reading this, and having seen RED OCTOBER a number of times (I have it in my collection) I still cannot recall hearing FINLANDIA in it - anywhere.  Can anyone point me to the scene it is in?

The repetition of the first two notes appears very often in dramatic scenes. The Finlandia conclusion appears, surprise, after the good side has won It's when the plane has landed successfully and the passengers are rescued.
EDIT: Oops. Your question was about Red October.

[Drasko]

4) A recording of Caruso singing Donizetti's Una furtiva lagrima from L'elisir d'amore sets the emotional tone in Woody Allen's (non-comic) Match Point. If you haven't seen it, do.

Klaus Kinski as Fitzcarraldo playing Caruso record from a top of a ship on the Amazon as reply to indian drums.

[Sergeant Rock]

Nice topic idea! I'm late responding, but here are my favorites:

1) The Unbearable Lightness of Being, directed by Philip Kaufman from Milan Kundera's novel of the same name and set largely in Czechoslovakia, exclusively uses Janacek's music for the soundtrack, including great uses of the string quartets. The Janacek monopoly gives a coherence to the score, as well as an unmistakably Czech sound.

I agree with everything you say but I was still disappointed the Beethoven late quartets weren't included somehow. Afterall, they are an integral part of the book.

Sarge

[loudav]

I agree with everything you say but I was still disappointed the Beethoven late quartets weren't included somehow. Afterall, they are an integral part of the book.

Sarge

I have to admit that I haven't read the book since when it first came out in the 80's, so I remember practically nothing of it except what was also in the movie. But any movie inevitably cuts out all but the main lines of a book, or it would be ten hours long. That's why movies can be adapted so effectively from short stories (Maugham's Rain) or novellas (Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity).

I'm curious, how did the late quartets figure in the book?

[anasazi]

The repetition of the first two notes appears very often in dramatic scenes. The Finlandia conclusion appears, surprise, after the good side has won It's when the plane has landed successfully and the passengers are rescued.
EDIT: Oops. Your question was about Red October.

I think I caused the confusion by quoting the wrong post.  Sorry.  You are correct about DIE HARD by the way.

[jwinter]

I considered starting a new topic, but found this one in the vaults...

This morning I was listening to Swan Lake, which of course made me think of the opening for:





I always thought the soundtrack for this was brilliant, precisely because there's so little of it -- the director's background was in silent movies, and he understands how effective silence can be in creating atmosphere and suspense.  The bit from Swan Lake Act II that he uses in the opening sets the perfect mood.  LOVED it as a kid, though it took me many years to eventually figure out it was Tchaikovsky.