My daughter (10) came home from school and showed me this film they discussed in class, has anyone heard it before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJDNSp1QJA&feature=fvw

The music is 'Comptine d'un autre été: L'après-midi' by Yann Tiersen and is from the soundtrack to a film called Amélie
Wikipedia Link.

I like the music and the short film complements it well I think, a very touching piece.

What did your daughter and the other children think of it?

A beautiful piece of music and I found the animation very moving and touching.

mwl1 played it beautifully in his recital at York last November and it's a lovely piece. It's cropped up a few times on forum if you do a search for "Yann". It's in Yann Tiersen's book Six Pieces Pour Piano Vol 2 - most of the pieces are around G4-5 apparently but Comptine is more G6 according to one poster.

I play this sometimes (I was going to play it at the last GG but forgot!) the trickest part IMO is the later arpeggio part in the RH up at the top end of the keyboard. It's not very forviging up there and it's difficult to make it sound clean and even Wouldn't say it's G6 though as I didn't have many problems learning it..

The LH part is very easy to learn as it's repeated throughout the whole piece. You can find sheets for free online.

The class discussed issues in the film more than the music (which obviously set the mood) I think the main theme was how quickly time passes, although in this case many of the events were sad.

n.b. it was also pointed out how the man's wedding ring changed from his left hand to right, presumably after his wife died

I wonder if the film was made to fit the music or the other way round ?


Thanks Skylark for your info on the piece

I found it a very positive film on the whole, which actually dared to consider the subject of death. Yes, the man's wife died, and he remembered seeing deaths in war, but his grandson was lovely compensation. We need to be able to see death as part of life, because we're all going to lose someone we love sooner or later. Surely the main point of the film is not the brevity of life, but that life goes on?

I hope it made the children realise just how much they are our hope for the future, and what joy they bring.

Yes, very true, it's the old 'circle of life' idea