ABSTRACT
The film music tend to disparage such uses of classical music, partly perhaps because of the history of the use of classical music cliches in silent film accompaniment, but also perhaps because it was deemed to be less original and less creative. Ambiguity is maximized in the film; with the result that thinking about the music emphasizes the more conventional role of the traditional film score. The music seems to function partly as a critique, or at least a parody, of traditional film music. The three films will demonstrate classical music: Raging Bull, Brief Encounter, and Detective. The three films differ in their relationship to gender, with Raging Bull seeing the world through a masculine point of view, Brief Encounter being centred on a woman's point of view, and Detective fracturing any clear sense of a unified point of view. The films show in different ways how using classical music can add complexity and ambiguity to film scores.
