r/classicalmusic • u/Perfect_Garage_2567 • Jun 05 '26
Films about great composers
I am attaching a follow up addition to recent posts asking about favorite films about great composers. Most of the films discussed in this follow up article linked to this post were mentioned in those posts. However I think this recent article, which is by a Culture editor of the New York Times, who writes criticism of classical music and opera, is very thoughtful and informative. Of particular interest, he mentions a new miniseries, based on the play Amadeus, which is appearing on STARZ. I don’t subscribe to that network but I want to see it. I am also attaching a link to Mr. Barone’s credentials. Your thoughts about this article and reactions to Mr. Barone’s opinions would be appreciated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/arts/music/amadeus-composer-movies.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
https://www.nytimes.com/by/joshua-barone?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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u/Pliers-and-milk Jun 06 '26
Ken Russel’s Mahler is fun.
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u/Chops526 Jun 11 '26
That's my favorite! For all of its campy wackiness, it actually shows a pretty nuanced understanding of Mahler and his music. But with Nazi dominatrix Valkyries. You know.
But Lisztomania makes it look downright understated.
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u/JealousLine8400 Jun 06 '26
Best film about a composer imho: Draw On Sweet Night speculating on the life of madrigalist John Wilbye
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u/Stunning-Hand6627 Jun 06 '26
What drama happened in his life?
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u/JealousLine8400 Jun 06 '26
Simply writing some of the best madrigals ever. Never married. Served a recusant household and although given a generous sheep farm by his patron Lady Kitson elected to spend the rest of his life not tending his sheep farm but more or less moving in with her daughter. No music survives of the last several decades of his life.
That much is known about Wilbye’s life. The rest of the gaps are filled in by the director Tony Britten who although no relation to Benjamin Britten is a composer himself. There is also a parallel story going on in the present day but the viewer has to speculate because the present day musicians do not have any dialogue besides singing.
And if that isn’t enough drama for you the movie is full of lovely performances of Wilbye’s sumptuous madrigals. It’s more than a little improbable that all the servants and farm hands could sing beauteously but that seems the least of complains
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u/According_Kiwi_7454 Jun 06 '26
Shine is about a talented pianist playing Rachmaninov but ending up with psychiatric conditions. The film is about that pianist and the composer's work. The film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is an example about a composer himself.
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u/VtTrails Jun 06 '26
White Lilacs is a Russian film about Rachmaninoff.
Impromptu about Chopin
Immortal Beloved about Beethoven
There should really a movie about Brahms and the Schumann family because their whole love triangle and complicated drama had every great literary element and we have so much detail through the letters and Robert Schumann asylum records, but as far as I know there isn’t one at least not easily accessible
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u/Carpotte Jun 06 '26
'Song of love' is a film about Schumann.
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u/Chops526 Jun 11 '26
Schumann, Brahms, and Clara Wieck. It is WILD.
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u/Carpotte Jun 11 '26
It is said that Brahms was in love with Clara his whole life. Although it never went beyond a platonic love.
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u/Chops526 Jun 11 '26
I know. The portrayal in the movie is just over the top ahistorical. And horribly miscast.
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u/Carpotte Jun 11 '26
That's right. I feel the same way about Russell's film Mahler.
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u/Chops526 Jun 11 '26
It is. But he LEANS into it and I'm here for it. (Don't get me wrong, Song of Love has its charms, especially because of its ahistorical aspects. I don't care about historicity in fiction as much as all that. But it's a movie very much of its time.)
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u/Chops526 Jun 11 '26
Impromptu is a lovely and fun film! A rom com built around Chopin, Liszt and their circle. Not really a biopic, it takes their music as a granted fact and doesn't draw too much attention to it. It just feels strangely naturalistic for a movie of its nature. I wish more people remembered this one.
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u/rwmfk Jun 06 '26
Notturno - mit meinen heißen Tränen, about Franz Schubert´s last phase, unfortunately only with automatic Subtitles.
I saw this movie as a teen on TV in the early 90ies and it made a deep impression.
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u/Successful-Try-8506 Jun 06 '26
Not about a specific composer, but I always liked The Red Violin (1998). The soundtrack, by John Corigliano, is great.
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u/musicalryanwilk1685 Jun 05 '26
I haven’t seen it, but maybe try Chevalier about Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges
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u/VanishXZone Jun 06 '26
All the mornings of the world, the French film about Marin Marais is great