Movies about music and musicians

[Harpo]

I was just reading a review of "The Soloist" and noticed that "Hillary and Jackie" was on Ovation TV. This led me to wonder: what are your favorite (or least favorite) movies about music or musicians?

Here are a few I like:
Shine, bio of David Helfgott--power of music to transcend and perhaps destroy
Music of the Heart bio in which Meryl Streep plays an inner-city violin teacher--power of music to inspire and transform
Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon, semi-biography about an aging jazz musician in Paris--genius and dissolution
Buddy Holly Story pioneer of 50s rock 'n' roll

[karlhenning]

I am shying away from Shine.

Clint Eastwood's biopic of Charlie Parker, Bird, is handsomely shot, and Eastwood composed his own score, I believe.

[Harpo]

I am shying away from Shine.

Clint Eastwood's biopic of Charlie Parker, Bird, is handsomely shot, and Eastwood composed his own score, I believe.

I'm mixed about Shine, really. When it was on TV recently, I found it too painful to re-watch. But the first time around I was mesmerized. The combination of music and dysfunction is hard to resist.  (That may be why I'm so well-liked  )

Does everybody hate Amadeus?  It probably helped to popularize classical music.

[karlhenning]

Does everybody hate Amadeus?  It probably helped to popularized classical music.

I prefer it on stage.  As it is, many less-discriminating viewers take the movie for a documentary;  and more than popularizing classical music, it has popularized a lot of scurrilous half-information re: Mozart.

[vandermolen]

In a warped kind of way I've always rather liked Ken Russell's 'The Music Lovers' and 'Mahler'. Also the movie of Amadeus. And, of course 'A Night at the Opera', featuring your namesake, Harpo.

[karlhenning]

We're striking off your Sanity Clause, Jeffrey.

[Brian]

Amadeus is, for all its historical foibles, a really great film - I love it. I'm also a great fan of The Pianist, primarily because I love the work of the original pianist whose life is depicted in the film, but also because Polanski elects to go with no soundtrack whatsoever for a crucial half-hour of the movie, culminating in a brilliant scene in which the pianist is found by the Germans...one of my favorite sequences from any movie, ever.

[Sergeant Rock]

In a warped kind of way I've always rather liked Ken Russell's 'The Music Lovers' and 'Mahler'.

I'm of two minds about those films. I saw The Music Lovers in its original theatrical run, and loved it. Twenty-five years later I attempted to watch it again on tape but couldn't get through it. Mahler I hated on first viewing but I've come to love its grotesqueries...and of course the music is sublime  0:)

Some of my favorite films:

Passion, about Percy Grainger, covering one year of his life (1914, I think).  Not recommended for the prudish or easily offended:




Frühlingssinfonie



about Robert and Clara. It stays fairly faithful to the historical facts (unlike the Hollywood film based on their early life) and has the additional plus of Nastassja Kinski as Clara 




Notturno, a very dark film about Schubert's last days. Disturbing but strangely beautiful and haunting:



Sarge

[karlhenning]

Frühlingssinfonie

He looks like Geo Willis Jr in Scent of a Woman, Sarge! 

[Opus106]

The film Impromptu, which follows the affair between Aurore Dupin (alias George Sand) and Chopin, has a cheesy scene close to the end. She comes to his home and requests to speak to him for a minute (this is after they stop seeing each other for some reason), and Freddy immediately goes to the piano and starts playing the Minute Waltz.

But do check out the resemblance between Julian Sands and the young Franz Liszt.

[Opus106]

Notturno, a very dark film about Schubert's last days. Disturbing but strangely beautiful and haunting

This I'd like to see.

[Harpo]

I prefer it on stage.  As it is, many less-discriminating viewers take the movie for a documentary;  and more than popularizing classical music, it has popularized a lot of scurrilous half-information re: Mozart.

You're right that it could be misinterpeted, but I still imagine people walking away from the movie thinking,"Hey, I liked those songs.Where can I find more of them?"

[Harpo]

In a warped kind of way I've always rather liked Ken Russell's 'The Music Lovers' and 'Mahler'. Also the movie of Amadeus. And, of course 'A Night at the Opera', featuring your namesake, Harpo.

Aww, I was too modest to mention Night at the Opera.   

[karlhenning]

The film Impromptu, which follows the affair between Aurore Dupin (alias George Sand) and Chopin, has a cheesy scene close to the end. She comes to his home and requests to speak to him for a minute (this is after they stop seeing each other for some reason), and Freddy immediately goes to the piano and starts playing the Minute Waltz.

But do check out the resemblance between Julian Sands and the young Franz Liszt.

Oh, yes!  I rather like this 'un!

[karlhenning]

You're right that it could be misinterpeted, but I still imagine people walking away from the movie thinking,"Hey, I liked those songs.Where can I find more of them?"

Certamente.

[secondwind]

Perhaps this doesn't qualify as a movie "about" music and musicians, but I have very fond memories of Fantasia.

[ChamberNut]

Ditto, I'd like to see Notturno.

James, definitely watch The Pianist.  It's a fantastic movie.

[david johnson]

older stuff -

'rhapsody in blue' about gershwin
'the five pennies' - red nichols
'the benny goodman story'
'the glenn miller story'
'song of scheherezade' about rimsky...james mitchell of soap opera fame dance the sultan (he also played
curly in the 'oklahoma' dream ballet)

dj

[Diletante]

I'm also a great fan of The Pianist, primarily because I love the work of the original pianist whose life is depicted in the film, but also because Polanski elects to go with no soundtrack whatsoever for a crucial half-hour of the movie, culminating in a brilliant scene in which the pianist is found by the Germans...one of my favorite sequences from any movie, ever.

I liked that movie, too. I was just getting into classical music when I first saw it and the only Chopin pieces I knew were the piano concertos. Needless to say, after seeing the movie I rushed to get the Ballade No. 1 and the Grande Polonaise Brillante.

[karlhenning]

(he also played curly in the 'oklahoma' dream ballet)

Who danced Larry & Mo?

(Sorry! Couldn't help myself!)