I never knew that music could trigger so much emotion until I heard the Portuguese Love Theme by Craig Armstrong this morning. This composition accompanies the storyline of Colin Firth's interlanguage romance with Lucia Moniz in the movie Love Actually, and also bridges other storylines at the end of the movie. I woke up and was listening to the piece, and even though I was nowhere near, I could see the scene where Colin Firth's writer character, Jamie Bennett is trying to write next to the lake, and she comes in and the wind blows all the paper into the water, and she jumps in to save his writing.I do have a major connection with music scores of my favorite movies. I can hum the opening notes of Marta Sebastyan's song that begins English Patient, or replay the scene in my mind where Anna Paquin does front tumbles across the beach in the Piano synched with Michael Nyman's score, or when Gwyneth Paltrow just puts her hands up and turns and turns while a smitten Shakespeare first frees her from the men's clothing. Or the time, the clock ticks and Juhi Chawla gets up from her bed and marks her calendar to keep track of days left until she can see Aamir Khan in Qayamat se Qayamat Tak.
Film scores are beautiful by themselves, but when they have a special place in your heart because of the particular scene they represent. The musical flourish that accompanies the scene in My Cousin Vinny when the judge finally acquits Billy Gambini always turns me into mush. But it's not the music, it's the way the scene is built up, and the way Marissa Tomei jumps out her seat and leaps onto Joe Pesci and they kiss...
Now that's the ultimate proof that love... is... in fact, all around.
