Great films where music is a central theme.

"Un Cour en Hiver" fits the bill and uses a wonderful performance of Ravel's string quartet . . . but what a depressing movie!

I also think "Super Fly" needs to be mentioned, as one of the most significant aspects of the film is how Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack conflicts with the plot glamorization of Priest's life, and becomes the main point of the story.

I'm trying my best here to keep the thread on track, but I guess my command of the English language is not good enough. I'll continue to post'em as I think of'em. Hopefully we'll get more material that is to the point of the thread and fewer folks posting films that simply have great soundtracks (not at all what I was after here - so Dogfight, Thin Red Line, Apocalypse Now, The Mission, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Journey into Amazing Caves and Local Hero have no place in this thread, though all may have compelling musical scores or soundtracks there is no content to their stories that has anything to do with music as part of the central story of the film). The Big Chill...I don't think so, Bill. I think someone else mentioned that. The only connection to music in the film is that dishwashing scene - but I don't think that really puts music as part of the actual story - great soundtrack for sure, and music makes that film in many ways, but it is not part of the story, it simply enhances it and sets the period firmly. Music as content of the actual plot/story is mandatory, and what this thread is about. It can't be just incidental, such as a scene in the movie where a band plays a song, or someone wears headphones and talks about their favorite music. No. Music must have some roll in the actual story....please! The thread Nazi has spoken.

Naratives:

Departures (wonderful!)

Documentary:

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Jax, I think you may be running out of "great" films, now to the "B" ones as follows.

The Benny Goodman Story
The Gene Krupa Story
The Glenn Miller Story

The only really great one left that I can recall that isn't included in the above "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

OK. Don't watch those or listen to the music if you do then.

A movie guide would be a good source of info for movies with a pure music theme.

Would "Walk the Line" qualify?

Mr Holland's Opus comes to mind. HAven't seen it in a while but I recall a strong central music theme that reached me.

I think "A HArd Day's Night" qualifies. This is a good one to watch with closed captioning on to really be able to understand the bantering humor behind those heavy Brit accents.

Mapman - yep, you got it. Exactly. Both those films are exactly what I'm after. Where the subject or some key aspect of the plot has something to do with music. It does not have to be the entire story, though that's fine too, but some aspect of it must include music as a key element.

Tubegroover, I think there's plenty of films out there that still have not been mentioned. No need to go to the mediocre selections (though I've never seen any of those you posted I'm taking that as your inference).

Certainly you could go to a movie guide and look up examples. I guess I was interested in films folks had seen and might recommend to others here, since we're all a bunch of music lovers here. This applies to everything I've mentioned thus far - I'd recommend any one of them, some more than others, but not a dud in the bunch, IMHO.