50 greatest music films ever

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

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

User comments on this story

• 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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• vagabondjohn said...

  What? No "Sunshine Daydream" or "Renaldo and Clara"? But at least "Be Here To Love Me" broke the top ten... Posted on Oct 05 2007 20:43

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• Marc said...

  ...and that Carpenters film told with dolls is better than "The Kids Are Alright"?
  Man, April Fools Day comes earlier every year. Posted on Oct 05 2007 17:39

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• kanchi said...

  RISE ABOVE - THE TRIBE 8 STORY directed by TRACY FLANNIGAN this is such a cool film about the lesbian punk band from california who are on the dead kennedys label - alternative tenticles. even if u don't like their music it is a well-made, interesting and inspiring film. i was sad (but not suprised) to see this (and other riot grrl/ women in music etc) films missing from the list. is it still uncool to be a feminist? Posted on Oct 05 2007 16:19

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• Matthew W said...

  Some amazing films here but c'mon, you're just trying to get a rise out of us with Superstar at No 1. What about Rockers, Stardust & That'll be the Day, Quadropeinia, Woodstock, (Slade in) Flame? Posted on Oct 05 2007 14:15

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• jules henry said...

  What about Babylon (1980)? Posted on Oct 05 2007 13:37

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• steven menkin said...

  What? Where is The Great Rock & Roll Swindle Posted on Oct 05 2007 13:30

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• Matt said...

  anyone any ideas on how I could find a copy of "So You wanna be a rock 'n' roll star?", or will I have to wait until it comes back on BBC four?
  any help would be much appreciated.
  cheers. Posted on Oct 05 2007 12:35

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• monkeystar said...

  I dont want to be funny but how could you leave out The Blues Brothers??? Really, with Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown and all the other superstars, this is one of the best films about a band and top music ever..
  MS Posted on Oct 05 2007 12:30

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• Matt said...

  anyone any ideas on how I could find a copy of this film, or will I have to wait until it comes back on BBC four?
  any help would be much appreciated.
  cheers. Posted on Oct 04 2007 13:50

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