# Contemporary classical in movies



## Alonso (Feb 1, 2019)

I've recently been watching movies directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, and I was struck by his taste in music, which is pretty good. In The Lobster there's music by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Schnittke. In The Killing of a Sacred Deer, there's music by Bach, Ligeti and Gubaidulina. And the movies are nice as well.

Can you think of other examples of movies that use contemporary classical music? (Kubrick immediately comes to mind)


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

It is not a movie, but the use of Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima in Twin Peaks season 3 episode 8 (the most strangest episode in the whole series) was striking.


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

The most recent Yorgos Lanthimos film _The Favourite_ had a piece by Luc Ferrari called _Didascalies_. He only used the quiet, static beginning, but it was particularly effective at being unsettling in his twist on the standard costume drama.

Stanley Kubrick, as you mentioned, incorporated various Ligeti pieces in _2001_ and _Eyes Wide Shut_ as well as Penderecki and Wendy Carlos in _The Shining_ (along with some Bartok).

Alfonso Cuarón used Penderecki's _Threnody_ as a fitting backdrop to his great, post-apocalyptic film _Children of Men_. It also has, in my opinion, one of the most moving endings of all-time courtesy of John Tavener (spoilers).

David Lynch must be a particular fan of Penderecki, using his _Threnody_ in not only in Twin Peaks as tortkis mentioned, but also _The Dream of Jacob_ in his rabbit-hole of a film _Inland Empire_.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu's _The Revenant_ has perhaps the most recent well-known contemporary work in John Luther Adams' _Become Ocean_.

And while not classical, Michael Haneke's _Funny Games_ (both versions) has some particularly jarring John Zorn cues.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Trout said:


> Stanley Kubrick, as you mentioned, incorporated various Ligeti pieces in _2001_ and _Eyes Wide Shut_ as well as Penderecki and Wendy Carlos in _The Shining_ (along with some Bartok).


Yeah, I can remember back when _The Shining_ came out, there was much talk about the use of Bartok's music in the film. But IIRC, the only Bartok that appears is a brief snippet from the third movement of _Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste_ that got repeated many times.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Philip Glass.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

tortkis said:


> It is not a movie, but the use of Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima in Twin Peaks season 3 episode 8 (the most strangest episode in the whole series) was striking.


that was great. 
There's also Shutter island where the soundtrack uses a lot of modern composers. I remember Scelsi's Uaxuctum right now.
And the exorcist used Black angels of George Crumb.

Oh, and since above Tortkis and Trout mentioned Lynch, there's an italian cult thriller movie made in 1968, quite surreal and nightmarish called La morte ha fatto l'uovo that seems a bit like Lynch before Lynch with the soundtrack composed by Bruno Maderna.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

it must be said that even original soundtracks often are deeply influenced by modern classical music. The soundtrack on Alien 3 for instance to me sounds quite close to certain things of Ligeti and Scelsi.






or what about this scene with concrete music from The Shout





not to mention all the great library music that has been rediscovered recently that was used in many movies.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Mother Night, based on Vonnegut's eponymous novel (starring Nick Nolte) used the music of Arvo Pärt for its soundtrack, and quite effectively too.

Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze) uses a movement of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste.


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

Also, _There Will be Blood_ uses Arvo Pärt's _Fratres_ amidst its quasi-Penderecki score by Jonny Greenwood.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

tortkis said:


> It is not a movie, but the use of Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima in Twin Peaks season 3 episode 8 (the most strangest episode in the whole series) was striking.


Yes, a great episode, though for me the season finale is even stranger.

As mentioned above Lynch also uses Penderecki in _Inland Empire_, there is also music by Lutoslawski in that film. His movie _Blue Velvet _ has quotations from Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, a work that he was listening to a lot while writing the screenplay.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I'm not sure if it counts but the atonal soundtrack for Altman's 3 Women made by Gerald Busby is a fantastic one. 
It's the kind of soundtrack that seen with the great movie could make people understand the emotion in atonal music.


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