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50 greatest music films ever
Top 50 index | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
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| A right song and dance: Gilbert and Sullivan's 'The Mikado' gets a screen outing in Mike Leigh's 'Topsy Turvy' |
5 Topsy-Turvy
(Mike Leigh, 1999)
Leigh’s Gilbert and Sullivan film is arguably also his finest; an improbable (to those not especially enamoured of the pair’s operettas) masterpiece that manages the rare feat of making us understand how much the world has changed since the historical era on view – well, mightn’t you have been wary of telephones, too? But more importantly, this superbly performed account of how ‘The Mikado’ came about is a spot-on (and inevitably self-reflexive) study of the creative process in all its messy complexity. Oh, and it actually makes the music seem pretty good, after all. Geoff Andrew
Greatest hit It's Mike Leigh, so scenes of rehearsals rather than of a finished performance of ‘The Mikado’ take precedence.
What Time Out critics have said about the film
4 24 Hour Party People
(Michael Winterbottom, 2002)
Steve Coogan is the unreliable narrator as the Factory Records boss and Granada TV reporter Tony Wilson, setting the tone for Michael Winterbottom’s frenetic tour through the Manchester music scene of the late ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s via Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, New Order and the Happy Mondays. Frank Cottrell Boyce’s script is very funny and never more so than when spoken by Coogan as Wilson – ‘a minor character in my own story’ – who frequently breaks the narrative and addresses the audience, even at one moment pointing to the real Tony Wilson in a two-second cameo. The film manages to feel utterly real while still freely admitting that it’s trading in myth-making. How many other films would dare to sketch the first meeting of Shaun Ryder and Bez by having the latter land in Manchester in a UFO? Dave Calhoun
Greatest hit A young Ryder (Danny Cunningham) and his brother Paul (Paul Popplewell) feed rat poison to 3,000 pigeons.
What Time Out critics have said about the film
3 Gimme Shelter
(David Maysles/Albert Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
Brothers David and Albert Maysles couldn’t possibly have predicted the events that would unfold as their cameras rolled on a chilly December day in 1969 during a free Rolling Stones gig at the Altamont Speedway, nor the sociological significance the finished film would assume. The American filmmakers were unaware of what they’d recorded until... READ MORE
What Time Out critics have said about the film
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| Maximum Bob: Dylan's shades-indoors look proved timeless, the filmmaker's top hat, less so |
2 Don’t Look Back
(DA Pennebaker, 1967)
It seems a shame to leave Martin Scorsese’s epic and mind-blowing ‘No Direction Home’ documentary on Bob Dylan off our list, but without DA Pennebaker’s film from four decades earlier, there would be no ‘No Direction Home’. Nor would there be Todd Haynes’ new film, ‘I’m Not There’, in which Cate Blanchett’s turn as Dylan in the mid-’60s is heavily indebted to the musician’s energetic, petulant and wired appearance in this film of his 1965 tour of Britain.
Most memorable are his weird encounters with the press, from the journalist at the beginning of the tour who asks him to put an exact figure on the number of protest singers in existence in the world at that very moment to the corpulent, odd character from Time magazinewho sits in near-silence listening to a rant from Dylan about their differing interests and who looks as if he’s enduring an encounter with a being from another planet – which isn’t so far from the truth.
As well as offering early evidence of the developing battle between the music world and the press, Pennebaker is right there in Dylan’s hotel room when he's throwing a fit about someone chucking a glass out of the window or when he’s sitting back and listening to fellow traveller Donovan singing and playing guitar. Pennebaker – whose reputation was made with this film – is also there in the back of the car with Dylan and manager Albert Grossman after gigs, and as they travel around a country that still looks too backwards to accommodate him, his talent and his ego. Dave Calhoun
Greatest hit The meeting between Albert Grossman and a Denmark Street talent agent as they try to negotiate a fee for Dylan to appear on British television.
What Time Out critics have said about the film
1 Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story
(Todd Haynes, 1987)
Not to be confused with the distinctly ropey TV movie, ‘The Karen Carpenter Story’, which emerged two years later, this is Todd Haynes’ version of the fragile American singer’s story – told with emaciated Barbie dolls, archive footage, fake talking heads and ample, unauthorised use of The Carpenters’ music. If all this sounds a little mocking, even distasteful... READ MORE
What Time Out critics have said about the film
Top 50 index | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
Author: Dave Calhoun. Written by Derek Adams, Geoff Andrew, Dave Calhoun, Wally Hammond, Michael Hodges, Martin Horsfield, Martin Hoyle, David Jenkins, Trevor Johnston, Eddy Lawrence, Sharon O'Connell, Chris Parkin, Graeme Thomson, Peter Watts
User comments on this story
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- Harry said...
- The Chuck Berry film Hail Hail Rock'n'Roll is a great documentary about the contrary genius. And your admiration for Keith Richards can only increase - he displays inifinite patience when Chuck corrects his playing. Posted on Mar 29 2008 20:49
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- A Sad Man said...
- What about the Monkees film "Head" its a surrealist, psychadelic classic. And Velvet Goldmine too. Posted on Jan 31 2008 15:22
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- Holly said...
- Nice...personally, i like "Raise your voice!", "Confessions of a teenage drama queen"...something more modern :D:D Posted on Jan 31 2008 14:22
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- KevinT said...
- I would have to include the documentary 'A Great Day In Harlem' - one of the best films about jazz musicians. Posted on Oct 17 2007 17:20
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- Brendan Thorpe said...
- How about "Born to Boogie"? Marc Bolan at the height of TRextasy - the arty bit may not be great, but the concert stuff is excellent! Posted on Oct 16 2007 15:37
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- J said...
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Taste is subjective, so we'll cut you some slack... But how could you snub "Ray" or the Cash film "Walk the Line?" "Rockers" was pretty amazing. "The Wall..." and the new release of "The Grateful Dead Movie" is hot. The bonus features (esp. the performances uncut) kick ass. AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock" & come on... "Yellow Submarine."
Personally I think "Spinal Tap" & "Hedwig & The Angry Inch" should be included. The bands may have been born out of the movies (the original play in Hedwig's case), but they are rocking bands nonetheless. Posted on Oct 14 2007 12:52 - Report as inappropriate
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- Alex Murillo said...
- Just to correct a common mistake..."This Is Spinal Tap" is not "Christopher Guest's mockumentary", as you said...it was directed by Rob Reiner. Guest was indeed a co-writer, and of course the film bares a resemblance to Guest's later films, but I think it's unfair to both Reiner and the other members of Spinal Tap (McKean, Shearer) to label the film as Guest's alone. Posted on Oct 11 2007 02:49
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- alex said...
- Actually I'm positive Spinal Tap did a few novelty shows back in the L80's/E90's (8 in all I believe) one at the lamented CBGB/OMFUG in NYC. Even one novelty show brings a band into the plane of existence as anyone knows who has ever been in bands. I've been in a lot, some did only one show, and they ALL existed even if no one but the three of us knew it. So Spinal Tap existed. QED. Posted on Oct 10 2007 16:23
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- Graz said...
- I also forgot to metion the Rock n' Roll, Australian Japanese Surfing Road Movie " Bondi Tsunami". 2004. Check it out. Posted on Oct 10 2007 04:32
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- Graz said...
- What about B.Middler in t"The Rose". Garland and Striesand in thier versions of " A Star is Born" . The briilant "Hair" and now also "Hairspray". But absoutley " Once" is brillant. Who compiled this list? Posted on Oct 10 2007 03:28
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- kay said...
- where the hell is PURPLE RAIN?!?!?! this surely has to be in the list?! Posted on Oct 08 2007 14:58
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- Don said...
- You've missed some of the truly great performances by real bands while playing up other performers imitating the stars. And some are as much fantasy as reality based on someone's interpretation of what happened. That is not a true documentary, just fiction passed off as one. Posted on Oct 08 2007 13:42
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- kanna77 said...
- this is great ! Posted on Oct 08 2007 03:47
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- Vince said...
- this list is horse shit, wot's the deal, because the brits hate the irish you can't out "the commitments" or "once" up in the top 50? and did you forget about a movie one of your own made called "the wall"? and the number one film listed is a bloody movie about the world's worst singer karen carpenter? wot the hell???? Posted on Oct 06 2007 05:04
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- Massimo said...
- The worst movie ever, with the best soundtrack ever: Streets of Fire! Posted on Oct 05 2007 20:53
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