The music of this supreme melodist and harmonic innovator has been quoted in approximately 125 feature films across many genres. There is a fairly wide range of his compositions used, unlike many other composers for whom only a few of their more popular pieces were repeatedly employed in soundtracks. The waltzes, the ballades, the nocturnes, the sonatas, a couple of the polonaises, and the two piano concerti, all evoke the early to mid-19th century Romantic spirit but each piece is uniquely defined enough to suit a filmmaker's specific emotional intent.
In a touching early scene from the thriller The Net (1995), the protagonist Angela Bennet (Sandra Bullock), a computer programmer and debugger (who later has her identity taken away by forces trying to take over the government), visits her mother who is gradually losing her memory because of Alzheimer's syndrome. Her mother is attempting to play Chopin's Nocturne in B Major, Op. 32, No. 1 in starts and stops on a piano in the corner of a large living room where other residents of the rest home are watching television. Angela asks her mother if they can play the piece together because "you taught it to me." This puzzles the mother for a moment, and then she decides that her daughter, whom she does not recognize, must have been one of her students. The scene concludes with mother and daughter each playing one hand of the engagingly lovely piece.…  » Read more