"Based on a True Story": Music
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- DirectorAlain CorneauStarsGérard DepardieuJean-Pierre MarielleAnne BrochetThe story of Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, fierce and somber man, grand master of the viola da gamba and professor of Marin Marais, prestigious musician in the court of Louis XIV.
- DirectorGérard CorbiauStarsStefano DionisiEnrico Lo VersoElsa ZylbersteinThe story of castrato opera singer Carlo Broschi, who enthralled 18th-century European audiences under his stage name Farinelli.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
- DirectorBernard RoseStarsGary OldmanJeroen KrabbéIsabella RosselliniThe life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Besides all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved, and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was--not easy, as Beethoven has had many women in his life.
- DirectorJames HawesStarsJessie WallaceRichard ArmitageShaun ParkesIn the first decade of the twentieth century Miss Marie Lloyd is the biggest female entertainer in England, adored by her public, in a biography commented on in song by 'the Showman'. Marie's first marriage is to fellow music hall entertainer Alec Hurley but it ends in divorce. She then marries Percy Courtenay, an adoring fan, but he is side-lined as Marie's popularity grows and this marriage also ends in disaster. Whilst Marie is a huge hit with the public because of her down-to-earth attitude, some fellow performers, such as Nelly Powers, find her act vulgar and a Mrs. Chant takes Marie to a tribunal, claiming that her songs are obscene. Marie simply points out that any vulgarity is in the minds of the listener and is acquitted. However, she is considered too rude for the Royal Command Performance, in which Alec appears, and finances a very successful 'Command' performance of her own. Ever unlucky in love, however, her last relationship is with a much younger jockey, who abuses her and spends her money. Not in the best of health and drinking heavily, Marie collapses on stage, ironically whilst singing, 'One of the Ruins that Cromwell Knock'd About a Bit' and later dies at the comparatively young age of fifty-two.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsMax AdrianMaureen PryorChristopher GableTraces last 5 years of the life of Frederick Delius through the eyes of the young composer Eric Fenby
- DirectorJan KounenStarsAnna MouglalisMads MikkelsenElena MorozovaParis 1913. Coco Chanel is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor's work parallel Coco's radical ideas. She wants to democratize women's fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign. Coco is moved but Igor is inconsolable. Paris 1920, Coco is newly wealthy and successful but grief-stricken after Boy's death in a car crash. Igor, following the Russian Revolution is now a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris. Coco is introduced to Igor by Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. The attraction between them is instant and electric. Coco invites Igor along with his wife - now sick with consumption - together with his four children and a menagerie of birds to stay at her new villa, Bel Respiro, in Garches.
- DirectorTim RobbinsStarsHank AzariaRubén BladesJoan CusackA true story of politics and art in the 1930s U.S., focusing on a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
- DirectorCharles VidorStarsDoris DayJames CagneyCameron MitchellA fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom.
- DirectorBrian PercivalStarsJane HorrocksTom HollanderEllie HaddingtonIn 1939 Gracie Fields, the 'Queen of Hearts', is at the height of her success as a singer and actress and the whole nation seems to wish her a speedy recovery from cervical cancer. When World War Two breaks out, Gracie sings for the troops despite poor health, to the dismay of her fussy husband, film director Monty Banks, an Italian, born Mario Bianchi. With Italy's entry into the war Monty is in danger of being interned so Gracie consents to his moving to America whilst she tours Canada, fund-raising for the war effort. She is accused of deserting the country which made her famous and booed offstage, though she later tours battlefields as a singer. With the war over she regains popularity, performing 'Take Me To Your Heart Again' at the London Palladium. Banks dies in 1950 and, though still a successful singer, Gracie never regains her pre-war iconic status.
- DirectorOlivier DahanStarsMarion CotillardSylvie TestudPascal GreggoryBiopic of the iconic French singer Édith Piaf. Raised by her grandmother in a brothel, she was discovered while singing on a street corner at the age of 19. Despite her success, Piaf's life was filled with tragedy.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsJudi DenchBob HoskinsChristopher GuestLaura Henderson (Dame Judi Dench) buys an old London theater and opens it up as the Windmill, a performance hall which goes down in history for, amongst other things, its all-nude revues.
- DirectorJim McBrideStarsDennis QuaidWinona RyderJohn DoeThe life and career of wildly controversial rock 'n' roll star Jerry Lee Lewis.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsTom HanksAustin ButlerOlivia DeJongeThe life of American music icon Elvis Presley, from his childhood to becoming a rock and movie star in the 1950s while maintaining a complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
- DirectorJames MangoldStarsJoaquin PhoenixReese WitherspoonGinnifer GoodwinA chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
- DirectorRob CohenStarsRay LiottaJoe MantegnaDon CheadleThe public and private lives of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford.
- DirectorNick MoranStarsCon O'NeillKevin SpaceyPam FerrisA music-infused drama about Joe Meek, the flamboyantly gay, tone deaf, songwriter-producer behind the '60s hits "Have I the Right," "Just Like Eddie," "Johnny, Remember Me" and "Telstar."
- DirectorBill PohladStarsJohn CusackPaul DanoElizabeth BanksIn the 60s, Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson struggles with emerging psychosis as he attempts to craft his avant-garde pop masterpiece. In the 80s, he's a broken, confused man under the 24-hour watch of shady therapist, Dr. Eugene Landy.
- DirectorScott HicksStarsGeoffrey RushArmin Mueller-StahlJustin BrainePianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
- DirectorAisling WalshStarsAlfred MolinaFrancesca AnnisRory KinnearIn 1953, William Barrington-Coupe - known as Barrie - spots concert pianist Joyce Hatto and recognizes her talent. They marry and Barrie becomes Joyce's agent. Joyce makes several records, which achieve some popularity, though stage fright restricts the success of her concert tours. Barrie, still a wheeler-dealer, serves a short prison term for tax evasion. Joyce's career is curtailed by cancer, but many years later, Barrie discovers that there is some interest in her old recordings, which are selling well online. This gives Barrie an idea for a new scam; he will pass off recordings made by other pianists as Joyce's work. Although initially shocked, Joyce goes along with him and is pleased when the critics are fooled. However, there is one suspicious critic. Joyce dies before their deception is exposed. Barry maintains that she knew nothing of the fraud.
- DirectorOtto BathurstStarsAnne-Marie DuffPenelope WiltonCon O'NeillAt the age of forty, Dame Margot Fonteyn (Anne-Marie Duff) is considered to be past her best as a prima ballerina and Dame Ninette de Valois is reducing her roles at the Royal Ballet. Then the exciting young Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev (Michiel Huisman), a recent defector to the West, comes into her life and her bed and revitalizes her career. Frederick Ashton (Sir Derek Jacobi) creates a new ballet for them and they become the golden couple of the ballet world. However, Margot is married to Roberto "Tito" Arias (Con O'Neill), a Panamanian politician of dubious repute who is not sympathetic to her calling and is probably faithless. When he is shot and paralyzed for life, Margot must carry on dancing well into her sixties in order to pay for his costly treatment, though she still collaborates with Rudolf in the occasional ballet.
- DirectorColin TeagueStarsRuth NeggaLesley SharpBabou CeesayIn 1938 mixed race baby Shirley Bassey, her mother and eight siblings are living in a poor area of Cardiff after her father is imprisoned for sexual offences. The teen-aged Shirley will help the family finances bringing her big, impassioned singing voice to local clubs and, in 1954, aged seventeen, she moves to London, impressing agent Mike Sullivan. To further her career however she must give up her illegitimate daughter Sharon to be raised as her own child by Shirley's sister Iris. After winning over the famously hostile Glasgow Empire audience Shirley has arrived. Impresario Jack Hylton stars her in the West End and she has hit records. She rides out gutter press interest in Sharon and, after a row with Mike, takes fledgling film producer Kenneth Hume as her agent and husband. Not only does he fail to further her career but he turns out to be a homosexual. Yet Shirley is a born survivor, weathering her divorce from Ken in 1965 and, decades later, still every inch a star, belting out the autobiographical song 'My Life'.
- DirectorCaroline CatzStarsCaroline CatzHonor-Ray Caplan-HiggsRichard GloverA portrait of the character and legacy of electronic sound pioneer Delia Derbyshire, who realized the Doctor Who theme tune in 1963 and explores the idea that this extraordinary composer lived outside of time and space as other people experience it.
- DirectorEdmund CoulthardStarsChristopher EcclestonChristopher FairbankAllan CordunerA profile of John Lennon in the late 1960s as the Beatles are set to fall apart.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsMichael DouglasMatt DamonScott BakulaA chronicle of the tempestuous six-year romance between megastar singer Liberace and his young lover Scott Thorson.
- DirectorNicholas RentonStarsDomhnall GleesonIan HartAntonia Campbell-HughesIn October 1984, rock musician Bob Geldof is appalled by the misery of starving Ethiopians as seen on television and persuades his pop musician friends to record the million-selling charity single 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'. Bob goes to Ethiopia and, horrified at the scale of the famine, plans a global rock concert to be staged simultaneously in England and America the next summer. He brings in hard-headed rock promoter Harvey Goldsmith who provides a realistic anchor to Bob's idealistic wish-list of performers. Preparations are fraught with arguments, and Bob is especially disappointed not to secure Bruce Springsteen, in anticipation of whose services he postponed the event. Five days before the big event, he visits his old school, where he was less than bright academically, but hopes to inspire the students. After that, he gets involved with the complicated matter of financial logistics and organizing international broadcasts but gets Prince Charles and Princess Diana to attend simply by asking them. Finally the day of the concerts arrives and, as Paul McCartney sings 'Let it Be', Harvey and Bob know that they have triumphed. The show over, the two men sit alone to reflect on matters.
- DirectorJonas ÅkerlundStarsRory CulkinEmory CohenJack KilmerA teenager's quest to launch Norwegian Black Metal in Oslo in the early 1990s results in a very violent outcome.