The Piano Concertos in Films
Mozart's piano concertos have also featured in the soundtracks to several films; again, the slow movement to No. 21 (KV. 467) is the most popular. Its extensive use in the 1967 film Elvira Madigan about a doomed love story between a Danish tightrope walker and a Swedish officer has led to the concerto often being referred to as "Elvira Madigan" even today, when the film itself is largely forgotten. A partial list of the concertos in recent films includes:
- Elvira Madigan (1967 - the Bo Widerberg version) – No. 21.
- Funeral in Berlin (1966) - No. 23.
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) – No. 21.
- They All Laughed (1981) – No. 27.
- Amadeus (1984 – the fictionalised Mozart biopic) – Nos. 10 (for two pianos), 15, 20 & 22.
- Barfly (1987) – No. 25.
- Pacific Heights (1990) – No. 19.
- Regarding Henry (1991) – No. 21.
- Boxing Helena (1993) – No. 25.
- Silent Fall (1994) – No. 21.
- The Associate (1996) – No. 25.
- The Way of the Gun (2000) – No. 23.
- Le Goût des autres (2000) – No. 21.
- Spun (2002) – No. 23.
- The New World (2005) – No. 23.
- Superman Returns (2006) – No. 21.
Read more about this topic: Mozart Piano Concertos
Famous quotes containing the words piano and/or films:
“Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody’s piano playing in my living room has to the book I am reading.”
—Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)