MovieChat Forums > Impromptu Discussion > other composer biopics

other composer biopics


I'm looking for movies about composers. The ones I know about are

Immortal Beloved (Beethoven)
Amadeus (Mozart)
Impromptu (Chopin)
Spring Symphony (Schumann)
The Music Lovers (Tchaikovsky)

are there any others out there?

reply

Beethoven Lives Upstairs (tho' I haven't seen it)
Rhapsody In Blue (George Gershwin)

reply

There are other movies made by HBO for cable starting with Beethoven Lives Upstairs. These were a series of Composer's Specials made especially for kids. They were actually based on Susan Hammond's Classical Kids audio stories which I also recommend if you are a music teacher. Beethoven Lives Upstairs was the first to be produced as an audio story and first to be "transposed" into television film.

The movies are as follows arranged by me in historical order:

BACH'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM (1995) set in the year 1717,
HANDEL'S LAST CHANCE (1995) set in 1742
BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS (1992) set in 1824-1827,
LISZT'S RHAPSODY (1996) set in 1846
ROSSINI'S GHOST (1996) set in 1862 and 1816,
STRAUSS: THE KING OF 3/4 TIME (1996) set in 1868,
BIZET'S DREAM (1994) set in 1875,

The audio stories, which are available on compact disc are as follows:

MR. BACH COMES TO CALL (1989) set in the present,
VIVALDI'S RING OF MYSTERY (1991) set in around 1732,
HALLELUJAH HANDEL! (1995) set in 1759,
MOZART'S MAGIC FANTASY (1990) set in the present,
MOZART'S MAGNIFICENT VOYAGE (1998) set in 1791,
BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS (1989) set in 1824-1827,
TCHAIKOVSKY DISCOVERS AMERICA (1993) set in 1891

Don't forget to look these up also
LISZTOMANIA (1975)
MAHLER (1974)

reply

Just the other day, I saw Song of Love on TMC. It was about the relationship between Robert Schumann, played by Paul Henreid, and his supportive wife, Clara Vieck, played by Kathryn Hepburn. It came out in 1947.

reply

There's another one (I think in Polish) about Chopin and George Sand...

reply

A Song to Remember (Chopin)
Song Without End (Liszt)
Song of Love (Schumann and Brahms)
Til the Clouds Roll By (Kern)
Words and Music (Rodgers and Hart)
Topsy Turvy (Gilbert and Sullivan)
De-Lovely (Cole Porter)

reply

"Farinelli", which is not strictly about a composer but an Italian castrato; Jeroen Krabbe (sp?) plays Handel to great effect. Apparently the real Farinelli was not particularly physically prepossessing (much less so than Stefano Dionisi). Not perhaps strictly factual, but, as they say, "a good romp."

reply

Deep in My Heart (1954) about composer Sigmund Romberg who was sort of an American Franz Lehar. his operettas are still performed and quite lovely. It's a sweet film with a great performance by Jose Ferrer. Check it out

Merle Oberon is in Deep In my heart BTW and she's also in:

A Song to Remember (1945)

playing... George Sand!(yes it's a Chopin biopic, but a meleodramatic one)

reply

Not quite a biopic but more a double biopic (focusing on one aspect of Louis XIV and his court composer Lully): Le Roi Danse

reply

Deep in my Heart is one of the sweetest, best biopics I've ever seen. Not sure how exact it is, but very nicely done.

reply

Wagner (1983) starring Richard Burton is excellent.


reply

"Mahler" directed by Ken Russell. Bizarre biopic but GREAT opening shot.
"Beethoven's Nephew." Not good.
There's a French movie "La Note Bleue" about Chopin & Sand's relationship and her children's breaking them up. Haven't seen it. Same subject: the Polish film "Chopin - Desire For Love." On a side note: "Children of the Century" with Juliette Binoche as George Sand, but no Chopin.

reply

Great Thread!

Bride of the Wind (Alma Mahler, also Gustav Mahler, but not centering on him)
Song of Norway (Edvard Grieg)

-EdM.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

reply

I'll See You In My Dreams - Danny Thomas as song writer (composer?) Gus Kahn

reply

A really weird one I remember is called MAHLER directed by Ken Russell. Don't know if it's in release even. It has an outstanding opening shot. Russell did a whole bunch of composer films, some were shorts. Some were more like psychedelic riffs than biopics.

reply