I see that they’ve taken down all the videos on my old blog, so I think from time to time I’ll bring back some of my favorites here.
This one comes from Hal Ashby’s 1979 film “Being There,” based on a novel by Jerzy Kosinski. Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers) is a simpleton who has spent his entire life in a Washington D.C. house in the service of an old man. The old man dies and Chance has to leave, emerging into the real world for the first time. His knowledge of it comes entirely from watching television (thus his use of the remote control in this excerpt). The perfect music for the occasion is a once famous funked-up version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (the theme from “2001″), which manages to express both the dawning of a new day for Chance, and the gritty urban world of that dawn. Keep watching: near the end comes what is, for me at least, an indelible melding of image and music, as Chance, in a long shot, walks up the middle of a busy street.
Classical Life 
Thanks for reposting this — not sure I saw it the first time around.
Bummer that they killed the videos on the old blog. Sad and lame. Perhaps this calls for a little “Erlkonig Strikes Back” . . .
Be careful what you wish for, CK.
Are you trying to threaten me with the gawd-awful children’s choir rendition of the Erl King? Even that doesn’t scare me — bring it on!
Somewhat off topic, but still speaking of using “classical” music in the movies…
Last night i saw a new German-Austrian movie directed by Percy Adlon and entitled “Mahler on the couch”. It’s about Gustav’s sessions with Sigmund Freud and the whole history of his relationship with Alma. Well done – i think it is worth seeing. Most of the music is taken from Adagio of the Tenth, but there are also passages from slow movements of the Fourth and the Fifth (Adagietto). All of this was recorded by the Swedish Radio Symphony conducted by Esa-Pekka – very beautifully played.
Love this one! Saw it last time you posted it, but had to watch it again. Thanks, Tim.