Mistermix and I saw “Nashville” on the big screen (at the local Dryden Theater) on Friday. Amazing movie! When I was in college and grad school, my two favorite things in the world were (though not necessarily in this order) watching 70s movies and reading Pauline Kael reviews of 70s movies. So this weekend made me feel 20 years younger.
What are your favorite movies about music?
Ben Franklin
Do Rock Operas which never made it to celluloid count?
Thick as a Brick—-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JEPeeohYs
Evolving Deep Southerner
The Last Waltz is hard to beat. Robbie Robertson is a pretentious tool throughout, and I can see where Levon Helm would have been pissed with the final product, but that makes the film better in a way.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Stop Making Sense.
It more or less meets the description. And it’s highly entertaining.
Baud
I enjoyed Walk the Line more than I thought I would.
RobertDSC-eMac 1.25
The only one off the top of my head that I can cite now is Moulin Rouge. Nicole Kidman killed me in that.
peggy
Does Chorus Line count?
the Conster
I like Almost Famous, but I love the scene where he’s looking through his sister’s record albums for the first time, caressing the cover art in wonder.
Jebediah
I love Nashville! Wonder if it could get made these days…
dance around in your bones
Well, Woodstock, of course. Last Waltz, as mentioned above. Also The Decline of Western Civilization (punk rock) and X The Unheard Killer. And OMG! The Blues Brothers!
khead
Purple Rain.
Once upon a time I was a teenager who thought Morris Day was the coolest man on the planet.
trollhattan
“Spinal Tap!”
“Stop Making Sense” also, too, and “Hilary and Jackie”
Nina-the-first
Spinal Tap goes to 11.
trollhattan
“Rocky Horror” although not reeeally a music movie. “Tender Mercies”
Ultraviolet Thunder
@dance around in your bones:
I’m a huge fan of X ever since Los Angeles. We’re all old now and they’re still great. Correct title of the film: X: The Unheard Music.
maya
Not a big impression in the good ol’ USofA, Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy is, by far, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s tentatively about Gilbert& Sullivan and the making of their operetta, The Mikado, but it was much more than that. Music scores were not only excellent, the actors actually played all the instruments involved and sang their own lines. It was over 2 1/2 hours long, but moves along at such a quick pace,at the end you will say, Is that all?
Ultraviolet Thunder
Shine a Light, Scorsese’s film of a Stones show wasn’t too bad. Excellent production values.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Gotta mention Help, but not Sgt. Pepper’s* or, for my taste, Yellow Sub.
*Frampton? really? FRAMPTON?
Ultraviolet Thunder
I liked Bryan Ferry’s Dylanesque, but that’s certainly an acquired taste. Even I thought he should have loosened up a bit.
aimai
Spinal Tap, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Little Voice (?).
Ultraviolet Thunder
Rust Never Sleeps. It’s a top-fiver. Neil Young ‘live’ is a guitar colossus.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Ultraviolet Thunder: It’s so funny that you mention X. One of the greatest bands ever, for sure, but the funny part is that John Doe has gone on to be http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=John+Doe+just+a+little+more+time&oq=John+Doe+just+a+little+more+time&gs_l=youtube.3…1059.10032.0.10197.36.34.1.1.1.0.80.1641.34.34.0…0.0…1ac.1.RkiCWbCvZcw>post-punk’s own Buck Owens. And I mean that as a sincere compliment.
ETA to correct link fail.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@maya:
We loved Topsy Turvy. Beautifully made and acted. Jim Broadbent just being quietly brilliant as W.S. Gilbert.
gbear
Saw ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ at the theater when I was 9 years old and it’s hard to top that. I still love that movie. I’d have to say that my second favorite music movie is Spinal Tap just because it’s so dead on hilarious about it’s subject.
reflectionephemeral
Bobcat Goldthwait asked Huey Lewis about his role in “My Aim Is True” and Altman’s “Short Cuts” a week or so ago.
raven
American Hot Wax
Ultraviolet Thunder
We recently watched It Might Get Loud, with Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page. That was very entertaining.
Evolving Deep Southerner
OK, gonna try this again. @Ultraviolet Thunder. It’s funny to me that X frontman John Doe has become postpunk’s Buck Owens. I mean it as a compliment.
raven
@maya: Great film.
Yutsano
Amadeus, which is also a brilliant stage play. I never saw the Beethoven biopic but I have issues with him anyway.
dance around in your bones
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Oops – you’re right.
I have loved X since I first heard Los Angeles and got to see them numerous times in LA and SD in small clubs. John Doe and Exene had this great weird harmony together – soaring, wild harmonics.
My kid still remembers when we took her to see X at SDSU when she was maybe 9 or 10 or so? And Mom (that’s me) disappeared to the front of the stage to dance and sing. Dad had her on his shoulders in the back of the room.
We also took her to see Decline of Western Civilization, which probably scarred her for life.
gbear
@Evolving Deep Southerner: John Doe’s solo albums are almost all great. I wasn’t too fond of the one he did with The Sadies though.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Evolving Deep Southerner: God damn it. Here’s the fucking link.
raven
Hype
Documentary covering the growth and subsequent overexposure of the Seattle “grunge” music scene in the early 90s
and
Control about Joy Division.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Evolving Deep Southerner:
X have always been more roots than Rotten and were mis-marketed as Punk. I love their country-ish side project The Knitters. Super talented people.
raven
The TAMI show.
Svensker
@Yutsano:
The movie stinks. Music is good, tho. :)
I love Amadeus, too. Perhaps best biopic ever made?
trollhattan
@aimai:
“Little Voice” is one of the nuttiest, most enjoyable movies I’ve seen, at least one nobody else heard of. Can’t say how many “Ab-Fabs” I watched before I sussed out Bubbles (Jane Horrocks) was Laura from the film.
raven
Festival Express
jenn
Hard question! Probably my favorites are Coal Miner’s Daughter and Songcatcher.
Evolving Deep Southerner
Does anyone here remember seeing a thing called Urgh! A Music War? Notable for the bands that lasted and the ones that didn’t. I have it on VHS tape and nothing to watch it on.
Of course, there’s always Athens, Ga., Inside/Out, but I’m hopelessly, hopelessly biased.
ETA: This great performance from the latter movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WyifQBBYJY
raven
@jenn: Then you’d like
High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music
Ultraviolet Thunder
Dammit. I’m enjoying this thread and I have to go to Easter dinner with in-laws.
It will be a bummer. My MIL had a house fire today and lost her 3 Pekes despite their having an open dog door of their own. We’ll never know…
The house may be a total loss. She’s devastated, but has a lot of family nearby to help her through. Gonna be a rough time.
Sorry to damper the proceedings. I’ll catch up in a few hours.
RossinD, out.
raven
@Evolving Deep Southerner: Ha, I love Cookie on the parking deck.
raven
The Last Waltz
Svensker
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
That’s horrible. Big hugs to all concerned.
raven
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Man, so sorry for them and you.
MikeJ
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Did you catch Border Radio on TCM the other night? John Doe and Dave Alvin from the Blasters in a movie about a band that gets ripped off and takes the money owed them. Surprisingly little music in the movie. Much more about the scene than the music.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@jenn: Coal Miner’s Daughter was a kickass movie.
Yutsano
@Svensker: It’s also more or less accurate, at least from the perspective of the madness of Salieri. He did insist until the day he died that he had murdered Mozart even though Mozart quite clearly died of natural causes. They just shrugged it off as a rival with a conscience to clear (which may or may not be true) but a few music historians have tried to see if there was any truth to it. Unfortunately we may never find Mozart’s body, so the world will just have to wonder.
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Oh man that’s rough. Hugs to the MIL and hopefully y’all get through this without too much grief.
AliceBlue
The Commitments.
Ditto Topsy Turvy, Little Voice, Almost Famous, Spinal Tap.
jenn
@raven: never heard of it, thanks for the tip!
WereBear
@Ultraviolet Thunder: How horrible. I’m so sorry for her.
WereBear
Lots of great picks here, but no love for Phantom of the Paradise?
Some Guy
Keep a goin’
mai naem
Does Amadeus count? High Fidelity?
Also Ray, Purple Rain, The Red Violin
vtr
It might be my favorite, if I ever got to see it. There’s a doc out there called “The Wrecking Crew” about a group of studio musicians in LA that backed up many of the records made in the sixties and seventies.
Also Clint Eastwood’s movie “Bird.”
raven
Always liked Paris Blues and Young Man with a Horn.
raven
And Bird and Mo Better Blues. (Sorry Spike)
rreay
How is the new Dryden? I haven’t made it since the remodel.
And I’m going to have to also say Stop Making Sense.
HI
How about Once? I recall that The Commitments was also good, but I don’t remember the details having seen it a long time ago. Stop Making Sense and The Last Waltz are great concert films, of course.
jenn
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Oh, man, I’m so very sorry. That’s my nightmare, and one of the reasons I cart my dogs around with me wherever I go. If your MIL needs a hug from a random, yet fellow dog-loving, stranger, pass her one from me.
raven
Jazz on a Summer’s Day will kick your ass.
raven
If you’ve never seen A Great Day in Harlem. . . do so.
MaryRC
@AliceBlue: Ditto all of these, especially The Commitments.
Anne Laurie
Phantom of the Paradise.
“You know your music lingers on, but all of us are glad you’re gone… “
Probably due for a revival, in all its tongue-so-firmly-in-cheek-as-to-protrude-from-the-vulgar-orifice glory!
dedc79
@AliceBlue: The Commitments is one of my favorites as well.
raven
The Jazz Baroness
AliceBlue
It got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed “De-Lovely” with Kevin Kline as Cole Porter and Ashley Judd as his wife Linda. Any movie that features Porter’s music can’t be all bad!
raven
Ray wan bad.
raven
I’m Not There
The Thin Black Duke
O Lucky Man, starring Malcolm O’Dowell, directed by Lindsey Anderson, music by the ridiculously underrated Alan Price.
R-Jud
Agree with Stop Making Sense, Topsy Turvy, and The Commitments. I also enjoyed the They Might Be Giants doc, Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns.
Jose C
@WereBear:
Once you said that, perfect shout out.
Almost Famous is my fave, though.
Nicole
I loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch, though I liked the stage version a bit better (but thought the movie was really good). Also The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Rough Easter here, too. My dad, who was in the hospital a few weeks ago (collapsed from weakness) is going back there today, barely two days after the very brief OT and PT Medicare would pay for ended and three weeks after he was released. He really needed to go to an in-patient place, but Medicare wouldn’t cover it. Augh. Best healthcare in the world, bitches.
raven
The Petty doc is awesome.
dedc79
Does Cabaret count as a movie about music? If so, Cabaret.
Nicole
@dedc79: Every bit as much as Priscilla, as far as I’m concerned.
raven
Horrific injury in the Ville-Duke game. Never seen anything worse in basketball.
Kevin Ware
raven
@efgoldman: Dislocated leg. Almost as bad as Lattimore.
Randy P
I see lots of mentions of Spinal Tap and it is a classic of course, but I think I like A Mighty Wind even better.
I loved Phantom of the Paradise, have to agree with that one.
This week I’m probably going to watch Alice’s Restaurant, which is a movie-length version of the same story told in the Arlo Guthrie song. I’d put it on my Netflix queue after we saw an Arlo Guthrie concert (no, he doesn’t accept requests to play it — too long) and then forgot about it. So it arrived this weekend in what we call around here “a Netflix accident”.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@efgoldman: Second that question. We’ve been speculating that it’s a compound fracture.
Mike E
@raven: The only thing comparable for me would be football lower leg injuries, college and pro.
M31
I haven’t seen it since it came out in the early 90’s but the move Impromptu, a sort of soap-opera costume drama about Chopin (Hugh Grant) and Georges Sand (Judy Davis), is quite good. The guy they got to play Liszt (Julian Sands) seriously looks just like the real Liszt. Or maybe anybody with those clothes and that hair looks just like the real Liszt.
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I’m pretty sure it’s at the knee. But it could have been. I shattered mine in 18 places but it wasn’t compound.
raven
@efgoldman: That’s the only thing to be thankful for, it’s not life threatening but goddamn.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I don’t know how Louisville can play. Their concentration has to be shot.
sharl
Fans of X might get a kick out of this old interview of John Doe and Exene. It ends with an acoustic version of I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.
[ETA: deleted the last bit – it looks like a studio, upon closer inspection; not “their living room” as I’ve thought all this time.]
Ronnie Pudding
I didn’t see whether Duck Soup has been mentioned, but surely one of the great musicals. Also, the South Park movie.
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Either team, these kids respect the hell out of each other.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven: Absolutely. But the Louisville players are so devastated….
raven
Others are saying compound. It’s actually better than the joint. Mine didn’t keep me out of the Army and I’ve lived with it quite well for 50 years.
Moonbatting Average
Duke – Louisville game: right tib/fib complete break. Kid’s leg was hanging at 90deg. Worst basketball injury I’ve ever seen
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: agree
Wag
Ok. It appears my comment is in moderation. Please release it.
raven
@Moonbatting Average: That was what I had. I don’t think this was compound because there would have been a lot of blood.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Moonbatting Average: That was Marcus Lattimore territory.
raven
@Evolving Deep Southerner: Yea but Marcus was a knee.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Randy P: A Mighty Wind is a damn fine, underappreciated movie.
WereBear
Compound fracture is nasty, but I agree; joint injuries are far harder to spring back from.
And another thing...
The Red Violin, High Fidelity
Moonbatting Average
@raven: agree. Poor kid, just awful.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@raven: Lord, I don’t know. Not a doctor, and the teevee people – to their credit – haven’t been showing it over and over. It ain’t good, whatever it is. I think I’ve told you that I’m not a roundball fan/spectator at all; I’m just trying to get into it now that I’m working at a basketball school. But good God, I thought being a basketball fan would give me a reprieve from some of the gorier types of injuries you see on the gridiron. That shit? I feel so very, very bad for that kid and everyone who loves him.
The other other Max
Spinal Tap, Mighty Wind, and any Altman film are among my favorites. I also thought Walk Hard was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.
raven
@Evolving Deep Southerner: It’s a miracle there are not more. Kid last night had another player come down with his full force on his head and neck. It bent his head in a way that I was sure it was a serious injury. Actually it happened in both games.
Tehanu
Didn’t anybody ever see Still Crazy with the great Bill Nighy playing a burned-out 70’s guitar hero? Wonderful movie. Or The Music Lovers with Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky?
And what about American Graffiti and Singin’ in the Rain?
I also endorse those mentioned already:
X: The Unheard Music
Moulin Rouge
Spinal Tap
Topsy Turvy
A Hard Day’s Night
Yellow Submarine
Little Voice
The Commitments
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Woodstock
Amadeus
Evolving Deep Southerner
For the greatest “band’s home movie flick” of all time, there’s The Song Remains the Same. Parts of that cracked me up even as a fifteen-year-old. Jimmy Page must be the most overrated guitarist of all time, and John Paul Jones had one of the most under-rated careers of all time. I guess Robert Plant and Bohnham both ended up about where they deserved, historically.
Angela
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I am amazed at their level of focus. How do you go back and play well and close after that?
raven
@Angela: They are warriors and he is their brother. They may not have seen that specific injury but you don’t spend your life on the court/field without seeing nasty injuries. I could tell you stories.
raven
@Angela:
I do think that it showed up a bit in the Ville’s jump shooting.
Jebediah
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
So sorry… my condolences.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Angela: I’m thoroughly impressed. I expected Louisville to need the halftime to recover from the shock. When they bought out the backboard, we were saying they might as well cancel the rest of the half, because neither team would be able to concentrate. I thought Duke had a chance to refocus because it wasn’t their teammate/leader/best friend.
low-tech cyclist
Nobody’s mentioned Gillian Armstrong’s 1982 Aussie flick, Starstruck?
Here’s a couple of the songs.
dance around in your bones
I think Stop Making Sense was the first videocassette we ever purchased. I can still remember David Byrne coming out onto a bare stage with only a tape player and a guitar? And then one by one the other musicians join him.
The second video we ever bought was Dances With Wolves because you could get it for $5 at McDonald’s when you bought a hamburger. What the hell, we thought.
Citizen_X
The von Trapp family is disappointed that no one has mentioned The Sound of Music, so I’ll throw that out there. I mean, come on: it’s got the Alps! Nazis! Music!
And for great performances, great cinematography, and real-life horror: Gimme Shelter.
But do I know those movies by heart? No, I do not. So I guess The Decline of Western Civilization has to have had the biggest influence on me.
angler
Artie Johnson’s “Keep a Going” is the best.
Angela
@raven: Flow. It’s a beautiful thing.
hamletta
I’m so late to the party, even my obscure favorites have been mentioned.
But I did find this religious review of Still Crazy interesting. She posits that the movie is a re-telling of the Gospels and Brian Lovell is the Christ figure.
She presents some semi-plausible arguments, but as a semi-serious scholar of both theology and rock & roll history, I find it a stretch.
raven
@Angela: If you can get it.
Angela
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I thought the same thing. Duke seemed destined to pull ahead. I am so glad to be wrong.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Just saw a report confirming that it was a compound fracture.
There’s also a vid up. Triggers memories of Theisman.
Heliopause
Got to be honest with you, I like Nashville about as well as I liked Pret-a-Porter or Prairie Home Companion. The episodic style is not my favorite.
hamletta
Also, I don’t get how a band called “Strange Fruit” would have made it even into, not to mention out of, 1970s America alive.
I mean, really.
wasabi gasp
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
p.a.
The Harder They Come, Quadrophenia.
Denali
There’s always My Vie en Rose and Chicago.
Denali
And, also, too, will there ever be a Rochester meet up?
Melissa
Yes. All of the above. Let me add Hard Core Logo. Also I was an extra in Alice’s Restaurant. We smoked dope with Arlo Guthrie.
ranchandsyrup
some good documentaries:
1. Dig! — the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols
2. Meeting People is Easy — Radiohead
3. Beats, Rhymes and Life — A Tribe Called Quest
4. Loud Quiet Loud — the Pixies
Kathleen
Standing In The Shadow of Motown, Spinal Tap, Mighty Wind, Music and Lyrics, Rattle and Hum, Hard Day’s Night
Patricia Kayden
Dreamgirls (2006) with Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson. Even liked Eddie Murphy’s performance.
dance around in your bones
Ok, this also makes me think about when my husband and I were in Nepal, and we were hired as extras for an Indian film called Hare Rama Hare Krishna, mostly because they paid us 40 paisa a day plus food to act like hippies in the movie. There is a scene where I can see myself jumping out of a jeep for some unknown reason.
We smoke chillums with hash and tobacco for the cameras until we ran out of hash, then we just smoked tobacco. That made me dizzy as hell.
I still remember this song being played ad infinitum Dum Maro Dum. I’m looking to see if I can myself in the video.
handsmile
Most of the great and good ones have already been mentioned, but here’s a few more nominations:
Round Midnight (fictional film starring tenor sax legend Dexter Gordon)
Aria (ten short films by different directors of opera excerpts)
Humoresque (John Garfield as a young violin virtuoso and Joan Crawford as his besmitten patron)
From some of the earlier recommendations, the definition would seem to be flexible enough to include Quadrophenia as well.
@Citizen_X: Brilliant selections each one!
maya
@Citizen_X:
Yes. My fave song is –How do you solve a problem like Scalia?
DougJ, Friend of Hamas
@Denali:
Yeah, we’re working on it.