Love Actually in Concert

Love Actually in Concert screens the film in full on a large screen while an orchestra plays Craig Armstrong's score live in the room. The film is remembered for its cast and its dialogue; the music is the part almost nobody notices, which is exactly why separating it out changes the balance.

Armstrong's writing is quieter and more restrained than the film's reputation suggests. It works in small piano figures, long string lines and a harmonic language that resolves later than expected, and its job is to hold together a story told in fragments. The score is what carries an audience across the cuts from one set of characters to another. Heard on its own terms it sits closer to chamber writing than to romantic-comedy scoring.

Played live, the cues stop working as glue and start working as music. The strings sit forward instead of underneath, the piano registers as an instrument being played rather than as a texture, and scenes that pass quickly on screen take on a weight the film never claimed for them. It holds up whether the film is known by heart or has never been seen at all.