2. music
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Great films where music is a central theme.

I'm a film lover for as long as I can remember. There's nothing like a film that combines my passion for music and film. I'm going to leave out concert films from this, as there are plenty of threads on that. Lets stick to other films - dramas or documentaries - that use music as a central theme, or have it as a key element in the narrative. Here are a few of my own favorites to get the ball rolling.

As it is in Heaven
The Bands Visit
Schultze Gets the Blues
Troubled Water (the Erik Poppe film)
Sweet and Lowdown
Bird
'Round Midnight
I'm Not Here

Documentaries:

Throw Down Your Heart
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Lets Get Close (Bruce Weber)
Buena Vista Social Club
Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

So it's really could be split into two threads; Narative films and Documentaries. But lets try leaving it open to both, just no concert films. What are some of your favorites?
jax2
richard_stacy
686 posts
 
To piggyback on Marco's comments regarding Von Trier, I would also like to add Beavis and Butthead Do America. I would say that music is central to the theme of the film and also would parallel the Von Trier comments in that it can be polarizing, painfully difficult to watch and disturbing in content. I must admit to being a fan of the film as well as the series and am pleased that they are being revived to educate a new generation.
jax2 OP
3,031 posts
 
Richard - I didnt know Von Trier was involved with the Beavis and Butthead film!? You learn something new every day!
nick_sr
263 posts
 
Jax2, true, music is not central to Antichrist.

Here is another suggestion that comes to my as I listen to Swan-lake. Black Swan. It must have been mentioned already...
richard_stacy
686 posts
 
Yes Marco, very influential and responsible for the Cornholio as a Christ figure subtext. Glad I could further your film education.
jax2 OP
3,031 posts
 
Yes Marco, very influential and responsible for the Cornholio as a Christ figure subtext. Glad I could further your film education.

Thanks for the schoolin' on movin' pitchers, Richard. Thanks also for making me blow a fair amount of bubbly water through both nostrils when I read your treatise on Cornholio. The nostrils were in need of a bit of a flush anyway.

Nick_sr - yeah, I mentioned Black Swan a while back. Which leads me to think of one of his earlier films, which has a great soundtrack and no qualifying musical content otherwise, Requiem for a Dream - but since you like dark and disturbing films, I'm sure you're familiar with it. This of course brings to mind a more recent soundtrack by the same guy who did Requiem, Clint Mansell; he also did the haunting soundtrack to, Moon. Again, sadly, no musical content and the film does not belong in this thread, though it is an excellent film with a great performance by Sam Rockwell. Oh, damn, now I'm doing it! You see what you guys made me do?!

On a redeeming note, I just watched Wim Wenders installment, The Soul of a Man, of Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues series. I promptly ordered the soundtrack. Yes, it is entirely musical content, of course. A documentary.
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