{"product_id":"movie-goer-pop-cinema-and-the-classics","title":"Movie Goer - Pop Cinema and the Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough by the mid '60s the use of pre-existing classical music in films had already been deployed with sensitivity and humour by such directors as Alexander Mackendrick, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier- Paolo Pasolini, Glauber Rocha, Richard Lester, Ken Russell and Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick was the first to give it a central role in an entire film. \u003ci\u003e2001: A Space Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Clockwork Orange\u003c\/i\u003e used swathes of Also\u003ci\u003e Sprach Zarahustra, The Blue Danube Waltz, Ligeti's Lux Aeterna\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBeethoven's Ninth Symphony\u003c\/i\u003e to famous dramatic effect, with Kubrick explaining, \"Unless you want a pop score, I don't see any reason not to avail yourself of the great orchestral music of the past and present\". \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComing into vogue after Kubrick, the system offered the director flexibility and control. It was a valid, stylish way of clarifying the underlying emotion of a scene or establish mood; a way to compliment the film narratively, theatrically, structurally and conceptually.  Instrumental classical works or traditional song are featured in \u003ci\u003eA Hard Day's Night, Help!, Privilege, Head, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Lisztomania\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAbsolute Beginners\u003c\/i\u003e, and all say something of pop's relationship with the classics. Bowie actually performed the Holst piece live in 1966. Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was the subject of an adaptation by Emerson Lake and Palmer and was showcased in a fascinating live performance film of the group shot at the Lyceum Ballroom in 1970 (though the film was not given a cinematic release until 1973). ELP's contemporaries, Yes, drew inspiration from Igor Stravinsky and paid homage by using the final movement from The Firebird as introductory music at their concerts from 1972 and for decades on. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring The Beatles' \u003ci\u003eHelp!\u003c\/i\u003e Paul McCartney is miniaturised to the strains of Wagner, while in a dank Chiswick pub cellar, the singing of Beethoven's \u003ci\u003eOde to Joy\u003c\/i\u003e saves Ringo from an escaped tiger. In Hal Ashby's black comedy \u003ci\u003eHarold and Maude\u003c\/i\u003e, Harold is obsessed by death, and likes to stage elaborate fake suicides to get the attention of his distracted mother, including an attempted drowning to Tchaikovsky's \u003ci\u003ePiano Concerto No. 1\u003c\/i\u003e. During \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather,\u003c\/i\u003e the baptism sequence, interspersed with scenes of the brutal assassinations of the heads of the five families opposing the Corleones is underscored by the intensity of Bach's organ work \u003ci\u003ePassacaglia in C Minor\u003c\/i\u003e. On a lighter, note, Michael Caine's Harry Palmer during the \u003ci\u003eIpcress File\u003c\/i\u003e chooses Mozart to cook by, a musical enthusiasm shared by Jean Seberg, immortalised by \u003ci\u003eGodard in Breathless\u003c\/i\u003e. These are but a few of the indelible scenes complemented by the classical music featured in this presentation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"EL","offers":[{"title":"CD | x3","offer_id":50487110533451,"sku":"1062764","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/57a7952b-90d1-4130-b062-20e6ef4eb6d2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727620948","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/products\/movie-goer-pop-cinema-and-the-classics","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}