Movies about composers

Ken Russell's 'The Music Lovers' is about Tchaikovsky, but it's rather nightmarish.

Lisztomania, with Roger Daltrey as Liszt - I saw it over 40 years ago and can't remember much.

Till the Clouds Roll By about Jerome Kern - It's worth it for the musical performances: Lena Horne and Judy Garland, among others. Otherwise, blah.

Rhapsody in Blue (1945), the George Gershwin story

Anyone see CoCo and Igor?

What’s with the over-the-top laugh that Mozart has in the Amadeus film? Was he known to have a shrill laugh?

I thought the added scenes just called attention to how awful Elizabeth Berridge was.

Impromptu (1991) isn’t a bad film. Judy Davis and Bernadette Peters are fun in it, and Hugh Grant, as Frederic Chopin, is cute & young, broody & funny. It’s light fare, but worth a viewing.

Immortal Beloved is a good watch. It is fairly faithful to Beethoven's life, although there are some simplifications and a few legends are accepted as unquestioned truth, but it is still worth watching. I think it is one of Gary Oldman's best performances, and the way he pulls you into Beethoven's agony as he slowly loses his hearing is profound. In fact, I think I might watch it again this afternoon.

Dirk Bogarde was in a movie about Liszt (with Capucine?) - from what he says it was a pretty bad movie. I think it was Liszt. Not even sure now.

^ That movie was "Song Without End". It actually won an Oscar for best music score and Golden Globe for best film (musical).

I always wanted to see a good movie made about Robert and Clara Schumann and their relationship with Chopin. I think a very bad one was made in the 40s of 50s, but it’s a terrific story and could make a very rich ad messy film.

^ Was that with Cornell Wilde and Merle Oberon?

R12 you are right - it's called "Song of Love" (1947) with Kate Hepburn. The film is a bore except in the beginning when we see Hepburn actually playing the piano. The only time I respected her for learning a skill for films, like any other good actress. She didn't play piano before. I think she was usually a lazy actress who depended too much on the unique idea of Hepburn herself instead of being an actress. Babs is the same way.

R5 Years ago. I remember enjoying it. I saw it around the time I watched "Coco Avant Chanel". I'll have to watch it again, now that I think about it. I'm sure it's streaming somewhere.

You would think there would be tons of movies about composers but maybe not.

The Music Lovers (1971) directed by Ken Russell, turned me off composer biopics for years.

Much later I saw a pedestrian but fairly decent Italian tv one about Puccini, my favorite opera composer.

[quote] You would think there would be tons of movies about composers but maybe not.

Because as films, they are rarely as good as the music they created.

[italic]The Great Waltz[/italic] was based on Johann Strauss.

The Great Waltz (starring former DL fav Luise Rainer) is a pretty entertaining film. Of course it has little to do with the life of real Johann Strauss Jr. but it's still worth watching for the Oscar-nominated performance of Miss Miliza Korjus, who totally steals the film (even if her soprano is a bit headache-inducing).

Hitchcock (of all people) also made a Strauss biopic in the 1930s but I've never seen that one (it's supposed to be pretty terrible).

Song of Norway.

I write the songs that make the whole world flee

Because I sing them weakly and off-key

And Mrs. Brady sings much better than me,

But nonetheless, I write the songs, ja!

None of these films are any good at the biographical component. The tell all these stories, fictional mostly, any neglect to tell the story of the composer.

any = and

"I'll See You In My Dreams," about Gus Kahn. With DL faves Danny Thomas and Doris Day.

Farinelli was good but Farinelli was the singer and his brother the composer.

All the mornings of the world 1991 with Depardieu and his son. The son presents hole (and the fuzzy dice) at some point, but when it aired on Bravo in the mid 90's or so, TPTB distorted the frame to keep it off screen. What bastards

Is this it?

On R28 's Pandora playlist

De-Lovely about Cole Porter:

R11 Dirk Bogarde still hated making it, and wrote about it at length in at least one of his autobiographies.

R12 [quote]Robert and Clara Schumann and their relationship with Chopin

Wasn't it rather with Johannes Brahms?

All the films mentioned so far are turkeys. They may have a great music soundtrack but they're lousy as drama.

This one was a turkey even though it was filmed on location.

It stars an unknown effete homosexual pretending to be Richard Wagner and it's vulgarised by a Canadian fishwife (who had the fake name 'Yvonne De Carlo") pretending to be a European noblewoman.

^ That lurid vulgarity had an antidote in TV Mini-Series in1981 called 'Wagner'.

It had Richard Burton and Vanessa Redgrave but it couldn't sustain 9 hours.