Subgenre Sampler
Drama > Music: 148 Films to Buy & Rent
Puccini (Tony Palmer's Film about Puccini) (1984)
- Dir. Tony Palmer
Feat. Robert Stephens, Virginia McKenna
- TV MOVIE intercuts the story of Puccini's affair with Tony Palmer's real life attempts to stage Puccini's final opera.
Rembetiko (1983)
- Dir. Costas Ferris
Feat. Sotiria Leonardou, Nikos Kalogeropoulos, Michalis Maniatis
- Stirring fictionalized biopic of Marika Ninou, a Greek Rebetiko (urban Greek folk music) singer who lived through some of the most dramatic…
Svengali (1983)
- Dir. Anthony Harvey
Feat. Peter O'Toole, Jodie Foster, Holly Hunter
- Has been vocalist turned singing instructor O'Toole takes young rocker Foster under his wings. By all accounts a complete misfire. Though if you can…
Wild Style (1982)
- Dir. Charles Ahearn
- The Hip–hop movement had it first wide impact via this documentary–drama shot on the streets of The Bronx in 1982.
With its close…
Jazz Singer, The (1980)
- Dir. Richard Fleischer
Feat. Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier
- Tepid updating of the 1927 Al Jolson film, this has singer–songwriter Neil Diamond debut as a... er, songwriter, who must choose between…
One Trick Pony (1980)
- Dir. Robert M Young
Feat. Paul Simon, Blair Brown, Rip Torn…
- Interesting tale of rock–star, played by Paul Simon, undergoing personal crises.
Rude Boy (1980)
- Dir. Hazan, Mingay
Feat. Jimmy Pursey, Johnny Green
- Semi–doco in which a teenage punk is forced to choose political allegiances while scamming a roadie job with the Clash. Features nine Clash…
Rose, The (1979)
- Dir. Mark Rydell
Feat. Bette Midler
- Bette Midler's acting debut was this raunchy rock biopic based loosely on the antics of Janis Joplin. She is given plenty of room here to display her…
Bound for Glory (1976)
- Dir. Hal Ashby
Feat. David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon…
- Superbly made biopic of folksinger Woody Guthrie, set during the tail–end of the Great Depression as Guthrie makes his way across dustbowl…
That'll Be the Day (1973)
- Dir. Claude Whatham
Feat. David Essex, Ringo Starr, James Booth…
- Popstar David Essex plays a British working–class youth who rejects the staid conformity of 50's Britain and eventually drifts into the…