Top 5 Movies About Music

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

SHAWNMONEY - Nice list!  Let me echo "Round Midnight," which I saw for the first time about 3 months ago.  Not to pick nits, but I would sayd that "Amadeus" might count as a (highly fictionalized) "biographical" film.

I saw "Once" at a screening in Chicago where writer/director John Carney was in attendance for a Q&A and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were there and conducted a brief performance on vocals and acoustic guitar.  It was a great experience.  While a few of the grainy digital shots were a bit difficult to sit through, I really think that "Once" and the music contained therein was a gift that I am really thankful for.  It is rare to see a movie that is so immediate and unsentimental that also is so uplifting.  Also, the music was lovely and really well-performed.  "Once" is also one of the better screen portrayals of the actual creative process.  Often films about art (whether music, painting, sculpture, or whatever) seem to skip over the sometimes painful process of the actual creation of the art.

On to my Top 5 with no Adam and Sam overlap (NASO -- I like that abbreviation).  Let me say that if I were starting from scratch, I would include many or most of the ones that Adam and Sam listed -- they preempted many of the best choices:

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” –  In my opinion, it works a better as a soundtrack than as a film. That said, the folk/blues/bluegrass/"American roots" songs are truly outstanding and really ground this mythical tale in a dreamy, dusty South.

"Round Midnight" -- Though it flirts with the biography category, I'm including it here. It has a couple of nice performances but really turns on when the music starts.  It also demonstrates, in an unsentimental way, the redemptive power of music, friendships, and family.

"Mo' Better Blues" -- flawed though it is -- especially the forced, quick, redemptive happy ending and the borderline antisemitic portrayal of some New York club owners -- I am a big Spike Lee fan and wanted to give a shout-out to this color-drenched and music-drenched story of a jazz musician's rise and sudden, sad fall.

"The Saddest Music in the World" -- not everybody's cup of tea, perhaps, but another dreamlike semi-autobiographical (the father in the film is based on his own father, from what I've read) near-masterwork from Guy Maddin.  Intriguing music, some humor, some haunting performances, and arresting images -- who can forget the beer-filled leg of Lady Helen Port-Huntley (Isabella Rossellini)?

For the last movie -- so tough to choose -- "Singin' in the Rain"  almost seems too easy!  Who can forget Gene Kelly on that lampost?  An immortal song and an immortal screen image in a movie filled with memorable songs and images.  That has to be one of the most uplifting music-oriented numbers ever committed to celluloid.

I'll also throw in an honorable mention to Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," which is a mess, but still beautiful in its own way.  Over the top?  Ham-fisted?  Overdone?  Yes, yes, yes.  But it is also a tribute to passion and love and music and poetry and art -- the things one's should go a bit over-the-top for.  I am particularly haunted by the tango version of the "The Police" classic, "Roxanne."  I'd wager that these three words have never been uttered by Baz Luhrmann, at least not in this order: "A bit less, please."

Nice show, gents.

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

I sent some older movies to the podcast feedback email address:

1. The Jazz Singer (1927)
2. A Star Is Born (1954)
3. Don't Knock the Rock (1956)
4. Young Man with a Horn (1950)
5. Tin Pan Alley (1940)

Here are five that were fun to watch:

1. Blues Brothers (1980)
2. Be Cool (2005)
3. New York, New York (1977)
4. Mambo Kings (1992)
5. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (to add to the Jack Black list)
 

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

Great list and great topic......

here are my top 5

1. Spinal Tap:  Not a biopic, not really a mucis doc......but about a band......about a band that loves 11 on the amps, drummers die and one of the funniest movies of all time....

2.  A Mighty Wind: Only one man can make folk seem cool.....Christopher Guest.  Come on.....the soundtrack even has a folk version of the Rolling Stones Start Me Up!!!!

3.  Blues Brothers:  Every great soul, r&b and blues musician was in this movie.....even the band are real musicians

4.   High Fidelity: Sorry......cop out i know and everyone will put this on their list, but still an impact movie

5.  Eddie and the Cruisers:  This was the movie I grew up with.  The band that gave them their sound is from Providence, near where I grew up.  Cheesey but oh so good.

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

As a music junkie, I thought this top five should be easy for me.  But it wasn't!  After discounting the biopics and documentaries, I was left with a surprisingly sparse list of movies.  I had to look at my collection and really reevalute each film, trying to figure out which ones were really about music, or had music in a prominent role.  All of the movies on my list gave me a certain feeling while I was watching them, and after.  Music, good music, can do that to you, and when paired with a good screenplay and good actors, it has the makings of a great experience.  I couldn't put too many of Adam and Sam's choices on this list -- it felt like cheating to me.  Needless to say, Almost Famous, High Fidelity, etc are all in my 6-10.

5. Once -- I don't know what's wrong with Sam.  He has a big black hole where his heart should be, suckng all the joy away from an experience.  I am so thrilled that this movie was made.  The music is transcendent; it just takes me away.  Glen Hansard is so charismatic, so real, I just can't take my eyes off him.  The story is so simple and beautiful. 

4. Empire Records -- Set in a record store, music, both good and bad, surrounds the whole story.  It's about people who really love and care about music, and a rather unusual day in their lives.  And they have time to talk about Gwar and vinyl and being the lead singer of a band.

3. Mr. Holland's Opus -- Yeah, it's a sappy movie.  But I'm someone who had a music teacher who was like Mr. Holland, who lived for what he did (in my case, a chorus teacher).  The American Symphony, which is played at the end, is so uplifting.  Mr. Holland's journey through composing that is chronicled throughout the film, and that paired with the other great music from the decades leads up to such a beautiful, cathartic moment at the end.

2. Moonstruck -- If there was ever a film just driven by music, it's Moonstruck.  Musetta's Waltz, as well as other selections from the opera La Boheme, permeate the entire film.  That beautiful music wraps itself around every scene, and breaks free during the opera scene as well as the climax of the film, the kitchen scene.  Without the musical element, Moonstruck wouldn't be what it is.

1. The Sound of Music -- I cheated a little, I guess.  It's a movie musical.  But it's about music, completely.  Maria comes into the Von Trapp's lives and brings music with her.  She teaches the children to sing, and reminds the captain what music is.  When Maria enters their lives, music becomes a permanent part of it, just as she does.  It's a musical about music.  Not the only one, but the best.  I mean, who doesn't get tears in their eyes when they hear the captain sing Edelweiss?

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

I'm not sure why everyone always makes these self imposed rules like "no bio pics" and such.

First of all it's hard to pick movies about music because movies themselves almost ARE music.  Music is certainly the closest artform to film.

I'm just going to do a search for keyword "music" on IMDB for movies I rated and pick the ones that seems the most relevent.

The Singing Detective.  A great mini-series and a great film.  The film took what was fundamentally British in the miniseries and found the American equivalent.  Wow this movie is dense and beautiful.  I've found out that the musicals I like that most are ones that don't have original music but use prexisting familiar music in a way to inform or contrast the themes of it's particular story.

Amadeus.  There's no reason this movie shouldn't count.  It's just too good.

The Ruling Class.  Another great British film to use prewritten music to amazing darkly comic and profound effect.

The Hole.  This is like The Singing Detective and The Ruling Class but in Taiwan.  I've been trying to find a good collection of Grace Chang songs after this, but I can't find any distributed in the USA.

This Is Spinal Tap.  Yeah you know.

For a runner up, Ghost World is about collecting some great vintage R. Crumb/Terry Zwigoff fan type music.

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

Two of my favorite movies as a kid: "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "Moonlight Bay."

One pleasant musical that I enjoyed from beginning to end, which didn't use professional singers: "Everyone Says I Love You."

And if we're going biopic, Ken Russell:

1. Lisztomania

2. The Music Lovers

3. Mahler

4. Ralph Vaugn Williams

5.  Tommy

Re: Top 5 Movies About Music

joem18b:

5.  Tommy

I just saw Tommy for the first time last weekend.  So fucking rediculous.  I made sure to watch the part with Elton John a second time though.  That's my favorite song and it's great to hear him sing it.