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Bookmark this page50 greatest music films ever
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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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- Tobbe said...
- What.. why arent The Blues Brothers on this list.. Shuld be at the top five... Posted on Nov 18 2011 18:25
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- Matty said...
- Might have been pit already but lets have nowhere boy on the list somewhere, and somewhere high up because its a keeper Posted on Oct 17 2011 01:27
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- nick said...
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Let's Get Lost,about Chet Baker,should be on the list.
Bird,about Charlie Parker,should not. Posted on Apr 18 2011 16:07 - Report as inappropriate
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- Declan said...
- Titanic?? "She moved through the fair" in Micheal Collins?? Gladiator song?? Jurasic Park?? these should all be included Posted on Apr 14 2011 20:47
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- Gary Handman said...
- Hello. I think it's totally misguided and non-useful to lump fictional films about music and musicians togehter with documentaries. The language, intent, and cinematic strategies of these two kinds of film are often world's apart. For a more sensible listing of movies about music, see UC Berkeley's web page: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/musicmovies.html and UCB's Music Documentary page: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/music.html Posted on Mar 08 2011 20:20
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- Bop City said...
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MC5 - A True Testimonial poll:
http://tinyurl.com/MC5-ATT-poll
“It’s a great document of the band, it’s a great document of life, and it’s a great document of things ... far and beyond the band.” - Jackson Smith, Detroit-based musician son of Fred & Patti Smith
"Music so extraordinary that it transformed the lives of all who experienced it demands the release of a documentary that does the MC5 justice. Few bands have ever seen so much go so wrong so quickly and have been so misunderstood in the process. A True Testimonial represents a belated opportunity to set things straight, put things right. The fans deserve it. So does the band. And so does the music." - Don McLeese, author of Kick Out The Jams (Continuum 33 1/3 series) Posted on Feb 05 2011 22:21 - Report as inappropriate
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- andy said...
- what about Human Traffic or High Fidelity? Posted on Jan 06 2011 13:12
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- shar said...
- Loved the Last Waltz Too Jim... But more as a sound track than a Movie. Ray, Cadillic Records, The Contenders and even Walk the Line had a great story line . Some are good for CD/Sondtract, but lose it as a film. Posted on Aug 20 2010 21:01
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- Bill said...
- Wayne's World is number 1! Posted on Aug 20 2010 19:35
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- GONIC said...
- i think 'August Rush' is the one of best music films. the way you feel the muzic. and how we can belive in it. the power of music. and every thing Posted on Aug 18 2010 06:22
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- shar said...
- Cadillic Records and The Contenders Best ever Films and Great Sound Track Posted on Aug 09 2010 02:19
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- shar said...
- Cadillic Records and The Contenders Best ever Films and Great Sound Track Posted on Aug 09 2010 02:18
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- shar said...
- Cadillic Records and The Contenders Best ever Films and Great Sound Track Posted on Aug 09 2010 02:18
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- Jim said...
- Um, I'm not gonna try to reason with you, but let's just say you left out Woodstock and The Last Waltz. End of story. Also, Scott Walker is a godly artist (actually my favorite) but 30th Century Man is a terrible doc. Just a bunch of pretentious idiots and mediocre directing and editing. And if you're going to include movies about music, I would add Satyajit Ray's The Music Room. Posted on Jul 24 2010 02:13
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- Bill said...
- Wayne's World is number one Posted on Jul 11 2010 09:45
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