Re: Help me identify Impressions de France
Am I the only one who tears up during
Impressions de France? Depending on how long it has been since I last visited the attraction, there is at least a 40% chance that I will tear up at some point. I've had visiting family and friends give me an odd look when they notice me moving to wipe a streaming tear from my face. It is the beautiful music that does it to me, and
Claire de Lune is one of the trigger spots.
Oh, ABSOLUTELY!
That's about the percentage for me, too. I guess it depends on mood and how much I can "lose myself" in the film, which is more likely to happen in a relatively private screening - or at least one in which Joe and Jane Sixpack aren't blabbering away on their cellphones or talking amongst themselves drowning out the soundtrack - or another WDW tradition - a baby bawling at a deafining volume and the parents REFUSING to walk them out of the show so as not to ruin the experience for everyone else! But I digress...
Yes, the Claire De Lune/Alps sequence has indeed at times moved me that much. If not always tears, usually always at least goosebumps. Something about the music itself, the specific Baker arrangement, and the visual of the snow-covered mountains peaking up above the clouds, transcending the earth itself - is unforgettable.
I'll tell you another scene that always gets me, and this is all scored with Baker original music or possibly traditional French folk music...
After the wedding scene we see the reception and a gathering of people happily celebrating together at the reception, scored to the aforementioned folk music.
This cuts to a shot of an elderly couple walking along the cliffs, theoretically in the twilight of their lives. The sky is grey and the wind is blowing. They are walking a little dog who seems distracted and has much more energy than they have, but otherwise they are alone...
This scene is skillfully linked to the reception scene which preceeded it because the same music which scored the reception scene is now hauntingly echoed in the background, at a much lower volume, before transitioning to the original score for this scene.
This seems to be painting a picture of how time can pass by so quickly, and the fleetingness of life, in a very poignant way...
Impressions de France is nothing short of a sublime, poetic masterpiece that deserves to stay in its current form forever. It was always my favorite of the WS Epcot films, even before the others got changed. I make it a point to clap very passionately at the end, *before* the CM even solicits our applause.
