Films about music

droid

Well-known member
Recommend some! Not necessarily biopics, most of which Ive probably seen.

Later I will stun you with the revelation of the best film about music ever made.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
Recommend some! Not necessarily biopics, most of which Ive probably seen.

Later I will stun you with the revelation of the best film about music ever made.

those ken russell bbc films
all ken russell films about composers/musicians
radio on
great rock n roll swindle
wildstyle
spike lee's bad 25

fantasia is the best film about music though.
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I really enjoyed 'Eight Days a Week' recently, but you've probably seen that one.

As cheesy as 'Sing Street' was, I think it really captured the typical teenage love affair with music, the way music glamorises life in a boring place, the joy of writing songs and band practices with your mates.

Isn't 'Love and Mercy' supposed to be good? The Brian Wilson biopic.

Can anyone tell me if 'Walk the Line' is worth watching?
 

droid

Well-known member
Walk the line is worthy but dull. Commitments did not age well, but is a good pick cos it actually tries to talk about what music means rather than just play it by the numbers. Will have to check out the Wilson thing.

Anything more metaphysical? 'Saddest music in the world' was by far the biggest disappointment.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
'The Beat my Heart Skipped' isn't really about music, but it revolves around an aspiring concert pianist so I'll mention it anyway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beat_That_My_Heart_Skipped

Thinking of pianists, Haneke's 'The Piano Teacher' comes to mind. Again, not really about music, but music is an extremely important aspect of the movie (and the book).

Also, here's a movie I've not seen but want to see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Two_Short_Films_About_Glenn_Gould

My favourite movie about music might actually be 'School of Rock' but that's about as non-metaphysical as you can get!

How is 'Nashville'?
 

droid

Well-known member
So many films about musicians, but so few about music.

Did anyone see drumline? Way better than whiplash.

 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Good Vibrations
The Harder They Come, Spinal Tap obvs
The Music Lovers by Russell
Inside Llewyn Davis (I hate the Coens, but I quite liked this)
Lady Sings the Blues (tho a biopic)
Laurel Canyon (sort of)

TV series rather than film, but The Get Down from last year was intermittently fantastic.

Whiplash is definitely one of the most hilariously bad films I have seen.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Good Vibrations

Inside Llewyn Davis (I hate the Coens, but I quite liked this)
.

This is interesting, cos that's such a Coen-y Coen brothers movie.

Sort of like a Coens take on Amadeus - the tragedy of being only talented, and then blown off life's stage by a genius.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Yeah, I liked the shadow Dylan cast over the whole story, and the last scene was so well judged. But yeah, very Coeny in a way - I just felt it was the first film I'd seen by them that wasn't bereft of emotion because consumed by a sense of its own cleverness. Possible exception of Fargo.

(Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is a brilliant 'like the Coens but good' film , I thought. But nothing to do with music.)
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Spinal Tap is probably the greatest, but that's a grim conclusion because it's, essentially, a diminution of music.

So I think that Saturday Night Fever is probably the greatest, a celebration of the transformative effect and transcendental quality of music in the face of hard, grinding reality.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Are music documentaries part of this? I only ask, because I find Martin Scorcese's music documentaries (all his documentaries, in fact, maybe with the exception of italianamerican which I have never seen but looks really good) to be surprisingly glib and amateurish, the very opposite of his great works (yes, I love Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, After Hours, King of Comedy and Goodfellas just like everyone else does, I'm not being contrarian).

He produced a massive multipart documentary about the blues which my father owns, and watching it with him I was amazed by its laziness and poor quality. He's apparently planning a Bill Clinton doc which sounds like it's going to be a cheap and embarrassing hagiography, as his Stones and NYRB films were.
 
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