The award for the most effective piece of classical music in a film goes to......

[chomalungma]

Well - lots of candidates.

But I think that Variations on a theme by Thomas Tallis ...by Vaughan Wiliams which is used at the end of Master and Commander just after the battle when they are reflecting on their losses has to be a contender.

Plus the use of the Enigma variations in Dunkirk when the little ships arrive.

A perfect use of classical music to fit a scene in a film.

So what's yours?

Not as high brow as these but. The theme tune in Love actually. The bit where the boy is running around Heathrow

The Pirates of the Caribbean music

Oh well, if we're talking Rachmaninov... Piano Concerto No 2 in "Brief Encounter."

It basically is the movie. Er, I think there might also be a steam train and some sticky buns. But that's it.

Troika by Prokofiev, in Love and Death (Woody Allen movie from 1975).

I like the beginning of Platoon - Adagio for strings.

I opened the thread to post exactly this. I don't even like the film but my brother was a big fan and the death scene just stays with me because of the music.

Given how much it makes me sob, the whole of the end section of Amadeus esp. Lacrimosa at the very end.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=TUt4DfGnyJQ

Others I love:
Symphonie Fantastique in The Shining
Saint-Saens in Babe! Still awesome.
The Magic Flute in Shawshank Redemption

Yyy to the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony in "Babe." It's inspired!

Zadoc the Priest in The Madness of King George.
Although I agree with the Beethoven in The Kings Speech too.

Oh God, Albinoni's Adagio at the end of Gallipoli. I first watched that film as a teen, and it has stayed with me forever. The music has me in bits every single time.

This would be my answer too, but there is a lot of competition.

The theme tune to Schindler's List by John Williams, played by violinist Itzhak Perlman 😭😭😭

Another vote for Apocalypse Now. Even when I saw The Valkyrie a year or two ago I pictured helicopters at that bit!

I know it's cheating because the film is about Mozart, but the scene in Amadeus where Mozart, on his sick bed, is dictating the requiem to Salieri is beautifully done.

I love that film.

Immediately brought to mind Kubricks's Barry Lyndon and 2001

Schubert’s Trio op 100 from Barry Lyndon (one of the best film soundtracks of all time) played during the Lady Lyndon scene and during the final scene.

Shawshank Redemption Sull’aria/Marriage of Figaro scene.

Conciertode or concerto du orange juice as it’s called in the film. (Brassed off)
Love how it helps convey the passion of the Forman trying to save the miners jobs.

Requiem for a Dream

Cheating a bit, but I also love the classical version of Dancing Queen in Muriel’s Wedding!

Oh and Beethoven’s 9th Ode to Joy from Immortal Beloved when Beethoven brings it to the stage and as it’s being performed, he relives his youth- swimming with the stars. That bit kills me. That’s another phenomenal soundtrack.

Classical guitar (does that count?) Stanley Myers’ ‘Cavatina’ in The Deer Hunter.

Lascia ch'io pianga at the beginning of Antichrist.

Blueberrycreampie
Death in Venice Mahler's Adagietto from the 5th Symphony.

Was going to say the above, I always cry when I hear it.

Mozart’s clarinet concerto in Out of Africa. It’s so majestic

I also agree re Puccini in A Room with a View.

I just always think of a cornfield and poppies when I hear O Mio Babbino Caro

Many of the above. Atonement is one where I found the music particularly moving.

To turn this around rather, the best (perhaps only?) setting of film (animated) to music to me has got to be Fantasia. Perhaps particularly the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence. And The Rite of Spring sequence, which made an enormous impression on me when I first saw it as a very young child. With the help of just a few explanatory words from my father, that was evolution (or rather some of it) made clear.

And my dds always loved the Pastoral Symphony sequence.

I wouldn't show the Night On Bare Mountain sequence to any young children now, though - far too scary!

Also - and I do know it’s not a film - whenever I hear the Flower Duet, I always think of those British Airways adverts!

Amadeus, Lacrymosa being played at his burial. Historically its complete tosh but I squeeze out tears for it in the film.

The English Patient, Bach Goldberg Variations. I just think it works beautifully.