Conductor Laurence Equilbey picks seven astounding musical depictions of nature on the cinematic screen...
Fantasia (1940)
Walt Disney’s Fantasia was a meteor in the history of cinema; the first feature-length animated film to explicitly visualise classical music. I particularly love the mythological setting of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, populated by fauns and winged horses. Beethoven, of course, was not thinking of Greek mythology when he wrote this work; for him, the music evoked the forests and natural landscapes he knew. But this setting works so well, emphasising the music’s lyrical flow, gentle rhythms and dramatic contrasts. The storm scenes in particular align naturally with the symphony’s dynamic energy.
Out of Africa (1985)
The slow movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto has been used in several films, but Sydney Pollack’s epic romantic drama is one of the most powerful examples. Partly sentimental, partly cool-headed, it’s the perfect choice of music to accompany the romance between the protagonists (played by Meryl Streep and Robert Redford). But there is also something about this music that goes beyond the human dimension; there is weightlessness to it, a sense of poetry that enhances the sumptuous landscapes of Kenya. Watching it while listening to the music almost makes you feel as though you are levitating.
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Melancholia (2011)
Lars von Trier’s sci-fi drama is one of few films in which you hear the Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde played in its entirety. It accompanies the film’s opening: a blend of still and animated images, including a collision between two planets and a horse. Together, these elements form a poignant metaphor for humanity’s own condition: inhabiting a world we have destroyed, unable to live within it yet clinging to it through sheer denial. Wagner’s music makes a powerful accompaniment, ushering us toward something vast and epic beyond the world we know.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Stanley Kubrick’s historical drama about an 18th-century Irish rogue who uses charm and deception to climb the social ladder is a brilliant movie. It is also one of the first to feature Baroque music. In it, Handel’s Sarabande (from the Keyboard Suite, HWV 437) is used to generate a sense of fate, and it does an excellent job of underlining the illusory nature of human greatness and ambition. Combined with the film’s beautiful landscapes, it renders nature sublime yet indifferent, surviving humankind and its failures. It was beneficial for Handel too, since the movie introduced his Sarabande to a broader audience.
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The Tree of Life (2011)
Classical music’s inherent sentimentality can be overpowering in the wrong context. Pairing Chopin, for example, with a sentimental scene feels excessive, which is why directors often subvert the music’s meaning, using beautiful pieces in horrible scenes. Terrence Malick’s coming-of-age film about a middle-aged man’s childhood memories of his family living in the 1950s gets the balance right. Pieces by JS Bach, Couperin, Smetana, Berlioz and Mahler accompany images of creation, offering a poetic reflection on the origins of the world and of life.
Elvira Madigan (1967)
This film by the Swedish director Bo Widerberg earned Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 the nickname ‘Elvira Madigan’. Set in the summer of 1889, it tells of forbidden love between a tightrope walker and a lieutenant, filmed in sensuous detail against the backdrop of beautiful summery landscapes. The slow movement of Mozart’s concerto brings out the fragility, both of the characters and the natural world, adding a layer of humanity that you’d often associate with the melodies of Beethoven. The result feels luminous.
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Beethoven Wars (2024)
In Beethoven Wars, a manga space opera which I created with the Insula Orchestra and directors Antonin Baudry and Arthur Qwak, Beethoven’s incidental music from The Ruins of Athens and King Stephen underscores a sci‑fi story in which Earth has been devastated by war and nature is largely destroyed. Life, however, endures beneath the sea – a discovery that inspires hope, echoed in the vibrant, joyful spirit of the overture to the Ruins of Athens. The film ends with the return of flowers in full bloom – to which the solemn yet positive conclusion of The Ruins of Athens lends grandeur.
Who is Laurence Equilbey?
Parisian conductor Laurence Equilbey is the founder of chamber choir Accentus and the period-instrument Insula Orchestra. After completing studies under mentors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Paris, Vienna and London, she established herself as an expert in historically informed performance. Now resident at Paris’s La Seine Musicale, she focuses on reviving neglected works and championing overlooked women composers such as Farrenc. She is also noted for her multi-disciplinary collaborations and integration of digital arts. Her Musiques de Cinéma album is out on Warner Classics now.
