Annoying film cliche: only evil people listen to classical music.

[Aristus]

Cross-posted in the movie group.

Just once, I'd love to see a film protagonist listen to classical music and or opera with knowledge and enjoyment. But in films where someone is listening to classical music, they are almost always rubbing their hands in glee at some evil deed they have just committed, or are about to commit, and the music offers a dramatic counterpoint to the scene.

[NightWatcher]

1. They edited the scene out of Silence of the Lambs where Hannibal dances around to

Katrina and the Waves "I'm walking on sunshine".

[Throd]

2. Kinda hard to do your evil scheming to "99 Love Balloons"

but it would make for a more interesting contrast.

[lame54]

23. The Wiggles wouldn't work so well either

[kentauros]

41. Throbbing Gristle makes for good "evil" music

Also

[pinboy3niner]

3. We still have Five Easy Pieces

[CBGLuthier]

4. All That Jazz. Scheider's character Joe Gideon starts every day with Vivaldi

The Competition starring Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving, everybody listens to classical music as it is about classical pianists.

32 Short Short Films about Glenn Gould has a great scene where a young Gould is overcome with emotion listening to classical music.

Those are a few exceptions but you are correct that it is a lazy cliche.

Oh one more really worth noting. The French film Diva. The protagonist loves classical and the bad guy listens to Polka.

[Ino]

5. Master & Commander

The ship's captain & doctor play classical music together (violin and... I think... cello?)
They are good guys!

[Aristus]

6. Yeah. My favorite exception.

And one of the best closing scenes in film history, IMO.

[panader0]

13. Me too. I had to teach it to myself on guitar.

[msanthrope]

39. I love that movie! nt

[Mike Daniels]

42. A pity they never tapped the other books

I know the movie wasn't a blockbuster but I thought it did well enough to at least merit one more go-around.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. In the PBS "Inspector Morse" series, Morse was an opera buff.

But that was a BBC production.

[elleng]

16. Was just thinking of him, Ocelot!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. good music is like needing AIR to me.

It keeps me sane and keeps my attitude positive. Because good music is reaching for the stars (to quote Casey Kasem's cliche). It expresses what is the best in us about creativity and the human spirit.

I am referring to four genres: classical, opera, rock and jazz (not everything of each type of course).


If they were bad guys, logically, they would be listening to death metal or something else depressing, wouldn't they?

[gratuitous]

9. Did you miss Philadelphia?

A key scene involves Tom Hanks listening passionately to an opera, while Denzel Washington looks on and finally grasps the humanity of his client.

[Aristus]

10. Nope. Forgot.

Thanks.

[fishwax]

17. yeah, that's a good one

[Enrique]

19. that just proves what I already knew

Tom Hanks is evil

[gratuitous]

21. Dang!

Foiled again by the crushing grip of reason. The internet wins again.

[jcboon]

11. How about this one?

[Aristus]

12. Okay, in this case, the people who made that movie were evil...

If you like Bicentennial Man, cool. But it made me contemplate suicide. Now, the movie A.I. actually had me reaching for a razor, but still...

[panader0]

14. I lived in Morocco when I was 6 and 7, in '56 and '57. (Air Force dad)

There was no radio except in Arabic. If I made good grades, and I did, my mom would buy me records, Bach, Mozart, Shostakovich,
Tchaikovsky and more. I loved it. It was a shock when I returned to the US and Rock and Roll. Now I have 10 guitars and favor the blues.....

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

15. Unless you're Patrick Bateman

Then you need to run if he asks you if you like Huey Lewis and the News.

[geardaddy]

18. Agreed.

That is very annoying.

[Enrique]

20. the hero in "Serpico" was an opera fan

also, going to TV, Lieutenant Columbo loved classical music (although so did a lot of the murderers to be fair to your point).

[sarge43]

22. Moonstruck

Ronny was a lot of things; he wasn't evil and he loved opera. The scene of he and Loretta attending a performance of La Boheme is touching and romantic.

[ailsagirl]

24. What about Inspector Morse?

Granted, he was on the telly, but his big thing was classical music.

Oops-- The Velveteen Ocelot beat me to it.

[jrandom421]

25. There's also Star Trek: First Contact

where Picard is playing Vallon Sonore by Berlioz on the trip to Earth to confront the Borg.

[Aristus]

26. Thank you for all the examples of good guy classical music enthusiasts.

I appreciate it.

[sarge43]

36. Maybe an appreciation of the more difficult musical forms like classical and jazz

is a trope for an intelligent and complex character, regardless of morals. In short, our hero or villain is smart and something more than a one trick pony.

[LynneSin]

27. My annoying film cliche: Even downtown in the city there is always parking right in front

They did a scene in Philadelphia for the remake of "The Italian Job" and when Charlize Theron's character is driving all over downtown Philadelphia at top speed (like anyone can do that) she somehow manages to find a parking space right in front of her business. And I recognized the area where they were filming - you can NEVER EVER find parking there.

[Yavin4]

31. In fairness, you're not Charlize Theron.

No offense to you, but Charlize's awesomeness opens up parking spots wherever she goes.

[LynneSin]

34. Hey I am pretty darn awesome

At least in my world!

[LynneSin]

28. My other annoying film cliche - it is always raining at funerals

If someone dies and they show the funeral it's always raining. It's like the director wanted to show god crying at the funeral because it's so fricking sad that someone died.

Ironically most of the funerals on True Blood were sunshiny!

[Chan790]

29. There's a technical reason for that actually.

Rain means black umbrellas. If you also shoot the scenes in the early AM or evening, you get good shadows that make people look sadder.

The reason the funerals on True Blood were in the sunshine is symbolic..it's contraposition for a series where 3/4 of the scene take place at night. Sunlight plays an important role...it's both the enemy and the thing that vampires strive for: a return to the light. It's as much of a trope...light as a symbol of salvation. It's why Godric is bathed in light in Eric's visions.

Bad characters don't get deaths/funerals in the daylight.

[chrisa]

30. I notice this every time, and it's cringe-worthy.

The bad guy always has a generic Eastern European accent too.

[Recursion]

32. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Jack and Stephen's friendship was based on their shared love of classical music, and they play a lot of it during the movie. The "villain" (to the extent the movie has one) also likes it, though...

[In_The_Wind]

33. It's not always bad ...

Watch the scene, we dare you not to shudder. Every bit of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is frightening, but providing your own epic soundtrack while bombing an entire Vietnamese village is something else. In Die Walküre, the theme accompanies the Valkyrie sisters riding flying horses as they search for fallen heroes and ever since that it has become synonymous with battle imagery. “The Ride of the Valkyrie” appears in D.W. Griffith’s silent film The Birth of a Nation, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and even provides the tunes for one of Elmer Fudd’s many hunts for Bugs Bunny.

[sarge43]

35. The evil/mad genius playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, usually on an organ n/t

[CBGLuthier]

37. Something Like This?

[sarge43]

38. Yeah. That's the one.

I would imagine that take off pretty much put an end to that moss covered cliché.

[IrishAyes]

40. Despite the sterling exceptions listed above,

my experience has been that Aristus' complaint holds water.

Unfortunately some form of classical music is often invoked to indicate insanity, not just evil - although we may well consider that a form of insanity.

One of my own favorite movies simply did w/o any background music at all - the incomparable 'A Panic In Needle Park'. In this case music would've been an ill-fated attempt to gild the lily. That movie's so perfect I could watch it forever.

[The Second Stone]

43. In the TV series Hannibal

the protagonist listens to, plays and composes classical music. And he is a fantastic chef!