It is no question the score of a movie is orchestrated to invoke an intended reaction.

No movie has pulled such a strong response from me than Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece “Schindler’s List,” and the magnificent score coupled with it.

Written by notable composer John Williams and performed by world-renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, the music behind this movie gives the chilling surge of emotion with the blood-curdling scenes to create a powerful art form that pulls forth the deepest, most inner emotions.

It’s no surprise the score won countless recognitions, including an Oscar for Best Original Score. The elegiac orchestrations take what is already a mind-numbing experience to watch, and brings it to a whole new level; one that pulls you in and holds you so tightly you find it difficult to walk away unscathed.

Few who have seen the film could forget the massacre in the ghetto following the sequence with the little girl in the red dress.

Perlman’s violin pulls you into the screen with a  feeling as though you are standing with Oskar Schindler on the hill watching the nauseating rampage.

The music in this movie feels natural, as though it existed as the events unfolded, and there was no such thing as silence. The pull of the simplicity in Perlman’s playing forces you to focus so strongly on what is happening it nearly places you into a trance — there is a way about how Williams wrote the score that obliges you to never look away.

Scores such as this make a film; it is not always a case of an original orchestration. In some cases it is a perfectly compiled soundtrack of already existing music, or combinations of orchestration and existing music that can pull these emotions out from the audience.

“Schindler’s List” is no doubt my favorite soundtrack because of how well it is orchestrated with the scenes in the movie.

Actors Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes perform brilliantly. I would be saddened to find a person not driven to tears the ending scene with Oskar Schindler as he stands and looks over the hundreds of men and women he saved, yet still overwhelmed in that he knew he could have saved more. Yet again, in this scene Perlman’s violin creates a moment of sheer terror but also beauty that is unforgettable.

Fiennes’ scenes as Nazi officer Amon Goeth are played with a simple, single instrumental orchestration to portray Goeth as the man he was: heartless, yet at times, enticing.

In the scene with his Jewish house maid, it can be seen that there is decency inside him that had been beaten down by the totalitarian tactics that made him the officer seen by his peers. The music had much to do with that.

Many a time in a film it is very much less about what the film’s dialogue is saying, but more about the unspoken interactions amongst the characters.

“Paris, je t’aime,” a compilation of twenty short films based in and around Paris, performs this almost perfectly. The film in nearly all in French, and yes subtitles are an option. However, I would suggest you at least once watch it without the subtitles, and just watch the interactions between the characters and how the music intertwines with the people in the movie.

The soundtrack includes original pieces by various composers such as Craig Pruess and Sylvian Chomet, as well as an original song performed by the Feist called “We’re All in the Dance.” The score to this film creates the varying moods surrounding each short film.

Though all the shorts are centered on falling in and out of love, the circumstance surrounding each story varies rather spectacularly. With a story involving a divorcing couple, another about a married couple losing a child, and even a man falling in love with a vampire, the music varies to match each short.

Even in the most unconventional story lines, the simplicity of the orchestrations makes two mimes falling in love feel completely natural.

What I think defines a good score is, if the music is intertwined with the story so well it feels as though the music would have existed naturally, but also strengthening the emotional impact of the story.

When one takes a beautiful orchestration of music, and combines it with a well-written and well-directed movie, we find it creates a whole new art form few movies are able to accomplish.