# Lives of composers that would make great films



## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

Hello TC! Since I am a newcomer here, I can't be sure whether someone came up with a similar discussion. This thread is dedicated to highlight the (lives/periods of lives) of composers that would make great films (like Amadeus! (Amadues wasn't historically accurate though)).

I've always thought that the young Brahms and his relationship with Robert Schumann and his wife Clara during the last 2 years of Robert's agonizing life would make a great plot of a film. Brahms seemed an exceptionally promising young man looking forward to make a career while Robert had been increasingly suffering from mental illness and harsh critics about his later works. A very sensitive artist, he lost his mind and gave up on life irreversibly, attempted suicide and later died in a sanatorium. What makes it more intriguing is the special and unclear relationship between Brahms and Clara who was 17 years older than Brahms. After this unique experience for a young and bright guy like Brahms, he seemed to have intentionally refused to build any strong relationship with anyone in his mature life.

What other historically accurate/semi-accurate intriguing lives/experiences of other major composers you heard of/knew about, that, if well implemented, may make a very good film?


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

micro said:


> ...
> I've always thought that the young Brahms and his relationship with Robert Schumann and his wife Clara during the last 2 years of Robert's agonizing life would make a great plot of a film.
> ...


You should be quite young if you don't remember
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Love_(1947_film)


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

GioCar said:


> You should be quite young if you don't remember
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Love_(1947_film)


OMG! it actually happened! I am not that young (almost 27 yo) but I live in the middle east so my knowledge about films is expected to be much poorer than a guy who lives in Europe or in the US.


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## kartikeys (Mar 16, 2013)

I think any composer's life -- well written. 
There lies the challenge. 

(I would consider Schubert, for personal reasons.)


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Mine is Impromptu the life of Chopin and George Sand. :tiphat:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102103/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_39


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

No one has come close to beating _Lisztomania!_. No one is allowed to die without seeing Lisztomania first. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania_(film)


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Strange Magic said:


> No one has come close to beating _Lisztomania!_. No one is allowed to die without seeing Lisztomania first. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania_(film)


Umm - no. Much as I love and admire most of the people involved, just no.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Paganini. Don't waste your time with the Kinski debacle. Even the trailer is bad...


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Most films about creative artists either take incredible liberties (Lisztomania being at the head of the pack), or are incredibly boring -- because the act of creation is lonely and uncinematic, and most are fairly guarded about their personal lives. The exception being Beethoven who was in all things larger then life, although mercurial and misanthropic.


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

Thank you for all the comments! I only watched Impromptu 1991 from all mentioned above.

But I think most of you *misunderstood* what my thread is about. I didn't mean to list your favorite films about composers. I meant that you mention some of your favorite. preferably major composers, that their lives or a period of their lives can make a great plot of a movie. For example, I mentioned in my OP that the young Brahms and his relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann can make a great film.

What other historically accurate/semi-accurate intriguing lives/experiences of other major composers you heard of/knew about, that, if well implemented, may make a very good film?


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

_Fifty Shades of Grainger_ is literally crying out to be made.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Carlo Gesualdo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Gesualdo

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/19/prince-of-darkness


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2016)

It's been done already, apparently (I just Googled it), but I'd love to see a new film about *Wagner* directed by Scorsese. It would have everything, warts and all: music, politics, revolutions, royalty, escapes, sex, infidelity, exotic satin underwear and soft furnishings, cross-dressing, drugs... (I just made that last part up). Who to play the main character, though?


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

TalkingHead said:


> It's been done already, apparently (I just Googled it), but I'd love to see a new film about *Wagner* directed by Scorsese. It would have everything, warts and all: music, politics, revolutions, royalty, escapes, sex, infidelity, exotic satin underwear and soft furnishings, cross-dressing, drugs... (I just made that last part up). Who to play the main character, though?


Alas, probably DiCaprio.

Who *should* play Wagner is another story.


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

TalkingHead said:


> It's been done already, apparently (I just Googled it), but I'd love to see a new film about *Wagner* directed by Scorsese. It would have everything, warts and all: music, politics, revolutions, royalty, escapes, sex, infidelity, exotic satin underwear and soft furnishings, cross-dressing, drugs... (I just made that last part up). Who to play the main character, though?


Maybe a complete madman like Daniel Day-Lewis?


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

micro said:


> Maybe a complete madman like Daniel Day-Lewis?


A fine actor, but perhaps he's too lean and lanky. At least Richard Burton was roughly in the same ballpark as Wagner height-wise, and even his head was about the right shape! However, Tony Palmer's movie starring Burton (and a host of other "big names") was a bit of a potboiler, to be honest, and either Burton's characterisation and/or the script just didn't seem believable. He was also a bit old for the rôle, at least in terms of portraying the younger and middle-aged Wagner... a factor which would lead me to rule out Sir Anthony Hopkins, who otherwise would be a good fit. As a skilled pianist (and amateur composer), at least Hopkins would know how to play and conduct music properly, which is more than could be said of most actors, Burton included.


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2016)

micro said:


> Maybe a complete madman like Daniel Day-Lewis?


I was thinking maybe of Gary Oldman? He's already played Beethoven (The Immortal Belovèd), and he's a very convincing actor.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

That's hilarious.


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2016)

Yes, the film was hilarious for its historical verisimilitude!! Still, Oldman in my book would be a fine candidate to play RW.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> _Fifty Shades of Grainger_ is literally crying out to be made.


I'm sorry about the previous "that's hilarious" quote. I was referring to this statement. A Fifty Shades movie about Percy Grainger would go beyond the pages of fiction.

Personally, I think Gary Oldman nailed Beethoven in his personification of him.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Has anyone made a movie about Erik Satie? That would be interesting. He knew everyone and worked with everyone, from composers to painters.


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

Manxfeeder said:


> Has anyone made a movie about Erik Satie? That would be interesting. He knew everyone and worked with everyone, from composers to painters.


Erik Satie himself





Seriously, he reminds me of Ben Kingsley every time I think of him.


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## Guest (Jun 22, 2016)

Manxfeeder said:


> Has anyone made a movie about Erik Satie? That would be interesting. He knew everyone and worked with everyone, from composers to painters.


I made a quick Google check and nothing came up at first glance. Personally, I do wonder if his life lends itself to cinematic treatment. The same could be said of Bruckner, but there has been made a film about his OCD - it's on YouTube somewhere


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Weston said:


> Umm - no. Much as I love and admire most of the people involved, just no.


I'll bet you didn't like _Amadeus_ either!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

While no composer, Mozart's ace librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte lived a life of amazing variety and adventure. His life story would be a great film. Also, the checkered life and then descent into madness of Hugo Wolf would be a dark and gloomy film.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Ken Russell, who directed "Lisztomania" did a number of "composer" films as both documentaries and features.

List below..

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1030584/


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Julian Barnes just published a novel, _The Noise of Time_, comprising three key episodes in Shostakovich's life. William T. Vollmann has over 100 pages devoted to a fictionalized Shostakovich in his novel _Europe Central_. It would be easy to make an excellent flick about Shostakovich.

One could also make an excellent movie about Prokofiev but he would come off like a scumbag and it would be unutterably depressing.

Berlioz and the whole Harriet Smithson/Symphonie fantastique episode would be a wonderful subject, as long as one stopped there and ignored what happened later.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

EdwardBast said:


> Julian Barnes just published a novel, _The Noise of Time_, comprising three key episodes in Shostakovich's life. William T. Vollmann has over 100 pages devoted to a fictionalized Shostakovich in his novel _Europe Central_. It would be easy to make an excellent flick about Shostakovich.


Wasn't there a movie already?


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

.......................................


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

EdwardBast said:


> One could also make an excellent movie about Prokofiev but he would come off like a scumbag and it would be unutterably depressing.
> 
> Berlioz and the whole Harriet Smithson/Symphonie fantastique episode would be a wonderful subject, as long as one stopped there and ignored what happened later.


Prokofiev certainly was "politically incorrect" in both the Soviet and Western worlds in that he was only ever interested in who would let him compose, would perform his works, and pay him what he thought he was worth. His abandoning his first wife Lina to the wolves of the Soviet state was also less than gallant, to be sure, but I would stop short of a projected film being "unutterably depressing". Maybe it should be titled Life of an Egomaniacal Genius. If so, it would then be one of a vast library.

I second the motion about Berlioz and Smithson, but the whole story could and should be told, banal as it is.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

micro said:


> Maybe a complete madman like Daniel Day-Lewis?


Yes, he's the guy. That man can superbly play anyone.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Rule 34

You read nothing


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> Rule 34
> 
> You read nothing


This is a mystery


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Henry Litolff certainly. Eloped young and fled that marriage, always staying one step ahead of the law. Caught, heavily fined and imprisoned, and escaped with the help of the jailer's smitten daughter. Taught Hans von Bulow piano!

Maybe not boffo box office -- he's barely remembered today. Liszt dedicated his first piano concerto to Litolff.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Dr. John Bull, composer and professor of music, possibly engaged in espionage on behalf of Queen Elizabeth (of course a movie would treat this as fact, even if the record isn't clear).

Often got himself into trouble (particularly women), he was eventually run out of the country due to an adultery charge. The Archbishop of Cantebury said of him:

_The man hath more music than honesty and is as famous for marring of virginity as he is for fingering of organs and virginals._

All this notwithstanding, I'm not sure if he or any others of these would actually make good film subjects. I'm not a fan of biopics.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

A lot of people think Debussy was a unique maverick. I think a good psychological portrait of him that was musically well informed, like Rossellini's biopic's of Pascal and similar people.


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

The Polish composer Karlowicz: his difficult experiences as a young composer in pre=war Germany and his death in that avalanche -accident or?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Wasn't there a movie already?


Apparently there was! Ben Kingsley huh? How did I miss this one all these years? This is the man (James Urbaniak) to play Shostakovich in the next one. He's already got the glasses. Just eliminate the smile and voila!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Strange Magic said:


> Prokofiev certainly was "politically incorrect" in both the Soviet and Western worlds in that he was only ever interested in who would let him compose, would perform his works, and pay him what he thought he was worth. His abandoning his first wife Lina to the wolves of the Soviet state was also less than gallant, to be sure, but *I would stop short of a projected film being "unutterably depressing"*. Maybe it should be titled Life of an Egomaniacal Genius. If so, it would then be one of a vast library.
> 
> I second the motion about Berlioz and Smithson, but the whole story could and should be told, banal as it is.


I was thinking of the last five years of his life when his "soul hurt." Got what he deserved, really. He could just as easily have sold his soul to Hollywood instead of the Soviet state and he and his family would at least have been treated with respect. Maybe it was all of those prizes they kept giving him? "Soul of a goose?"


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

Mahlerian said:


> Wasn't there a movie already?


The films looks good in IMDB reviews. I will definitely watch it soon. Thanks!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

EdwardBast said:


> I was thinking of the last five years of his life when his "soul hurt." Got what he deserved, really. He could just as easily have sold his soul to Hollywood instead of the Soviet state and he and his family would at least have been treated with respect. Maybe it was all of those prizes they kept giving him? "Soul of a goose?"


I suppose that one could say that P "got what he deserved" in deciding to return to the land of his birth. There, he was offered adulation, good living, and guaranteed performances of his works. He was so obsessed with his music that he truly was apolitical--nothing much else really mattered to him. The "soul of a goose" quote comes from Shostakovich, and refers to P's quickness to quarrel with others (usually other composers) and to take offense (though he seems to have gotten along famously with Eisenstein, Richter, and Oistrakh). The hypertension that killed him could be deduced from this choleric streak in his character. But all the praise and goodies offered by the State were increasingly seen to have strings, or chains, attached, and it probably corroded his spirit to find himself no longer the Golden Boy of Soviet music. But I can understand Prokofiev making the choice that he did, at the time he did--the bad stuff would come much later, and by the time it did, he was locked into the cage.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Strange Magic said:


> I suppose that one could say that P "got what he deserved" in deciding to return to the land of his birth. There, he was offered adulation, good living, and guaranteed performances of his works. He was so obsessed with his music that he truly was apolitical--nothing much else really mattered to him. The "soul of a goose" quote comes from Shostakovich, and refers to P's quickness to quarrel with others (usually other composers) and to take offense (though he seems to have gotten along famously with Eisenstein, Richter, and Oistrakh). The hypertension that killed him could be deduced from this choleric streak in his character. But all the praise and goodies offered by the State were increasingly seen to have strings, or chains, attached, and it probably corroded his spirit to find himself no longer the Golden Boy of Soviet music. But I can understand Prokofiev making the choice that he did, at the time he did--the bad stuff would come much later, and by the time it did, he was locked into the cage.


Bartok didn't fare too well in the United States. Maybe P. disliked the idea of scoring film? Many great composers didn't do it. Maybe he saw what happened to Bartok? Not sure of the chronology at the moment. I am in no way advocating what the Soviet Union was at that time.


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Simon Morrison's 'The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev' does not paint a very flattering portrait of Sergei.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

regenmusic said:


> Bartok didn't fare too well in the United States. Maybe P. disliked the idea of scoring film? Many great composers didn't do it. Maybe he saw what happened to Bartok? Not sure of the chronology at the moment. I am in no way advocating what the Soviet Union was at that time.


According to everything I've read about P, he loved working with directors, especially Eisenstein, writing music for films. Evidently he appreciated being closely consulted throughout the process, and worked very rapidly to produce what was wanted. This is Prokofiev as the anti-goose. The scores for _Kije_, reworked as the suite, and for _Alexander Nevsky_, reworked as the cantata, may be the best-known music written originally as film music by a "classical" composer.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

manyene said:


> Simon Morrison's 'The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev' does not paint a very flattering portrait of Sergei.


Deservedly so. Prokofiev's history with Lina started well, but he was so self-absorbed that things went steadily downhill. Does this behavior remind us of any other composers?


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

How about a film on the closeted homosexual life of Felix Mendelssohn?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

How about a film on the open heterosexual life of Arnold Schoenberg? But really, it is quite ridiculous to zero in on someone's sexuality considering that a human being is a lot more than _that_.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> How about a film on the closeted homosexual life of Felix Mendelssohn?


I SLEPT WITH FELIX MENDELSSOHN's music playing quietly in the background.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

What do you think I will _possibly_ reply in response to this thread? 

Someone please make a "most sober composer" or "healthiest composer" thread so that I _won't_ be able to respond with my now-cliche answer to everything on this forum. I'm boring myself even.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Plenty of 20th century composers around the world wars, that fought in the wars have quite moving but depressing stories. But obviously if they where turned into movies they would be far to dramatised


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

How about a movie about how Ernst Krenek tries to poison Arnold Schoenberg because he knows he will never be as good a composer.

Oh wait....


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

violadude said:


> How about a movie about how Ernst Krenek tries to poison Arnold Schoenberg because he knows he will never be as good a composer.
> 
> *Oh wait....*


Waaait... Is there something I'm missing here?!


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Anton Webern. At the beginning of WWII he expressed enthusiam for the Third Reich but ended up suffering terribly as the regime solidified its power. His music was branded 'decadent' and banned from performance, his son was killed in the war and he himself followed suit by the bullet of an American soldier.

Let's hope Hollywood doesn't get ahold of the rights and casts Tom Cruise in the lead.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

violadude said:


> How about a movie about how Ernst Krenek tries to poison Arnold Schoenberg because he knows he will never be as good a composer.
> 
> Oh wait....


_Ernst and Arnold._ The inspiring tale of the passionate, doomed friendship between two of history's most beloved men of music! Now playing at your neighborhood Cinemax. Free admission for children under twelve.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

violadude said:


> How about a movie about how Ernst Krenek tries to poison Arnold Schoenberg because he knows he will never be as good a composer.
> 
> Oh wait....


Mozart and Salieri reboot? Hah...

There are Soviet films about the Russian composers, quite a few: Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, etc. I recommend them if you can find them in English subtitles! In the Glinka one, young Sviatoslav Richter has cameo appearance as Liszt which is pretty awesome.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> How about a film on the closeted homosexual life of Felix Mendelssohn?


Must be a box office wonder :lol:


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> How about a film on the closeted homosexual life of Felix Mendelssohn?


Working title: "Love, Fanny"

...now I'm in trouble


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Working title: "Love, Fanny"
> 
> ...now I'm in trouble


You're probably safe unless someone else comments and draws attention to it.

But no one would do that.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I was reading about Dvorak's life, and I think a more comprehensive life film should be in order! He struggled and worked, adventured, suffered, and thought big. He also had more 'natural ability' than is often explicitly referred to in the grand scheme of classical music.

Apparently a Czech language film was made about Janacek! I do know where I could get it, but he definitely had a very interesting life and a more than a little atypical career as a composer. 

Both of them wrote enough music that could dazzle and compel audiences watching a film about their life, when making up a soundtrack.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Call Scarecrow Video, in Seattle, for at least the correct title, they might have it or know about it, and then do a search on it from that.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

Joseph Boulogne, Le Chevalier de Saint-George

Swashbuckling his way through age of enlightenment with a fiddle in one hand and a sword in the other. Perfect, where's Kubrick when I need him?


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Someone should make a 6-hour long biopic of LaMonte Young.

Working title: "Game of Drones"


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Metairie Road said:


> Joseph Boulogne, Le Chevalier de Saint-George
> 
> Swashbuckling his way through age of enlightenment with a fiddle in one hand and a sword in the other. Perfect, where's Kubrick when I need him?


Would have been a good conceptual sequel to Barry Lyndon, for the old boy. It's too bad.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Movie about Philip Glass driving a taxi. And the entire film consists of him driving around the city while telling the passengers the same things over and over again.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Movie about Philip Glass driving a taxi. And the entire film consists of him driving around the city while telling the passengers the same things over and over again.


Love it!
******


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

> Movie about Philip Glass driving a taxi. And the entire film consists of him driving around the city while telling the passengers the same things over and over again.


...or the taxi wouldn't move and you would sit there in complete silence looking at the back of his head for four and a half minutes.

An existential journey. Of course the meter would have to be set for duration rather than mileage.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> Movie about Philip Glass driving a taxi. And the entire film consists of him driving around the city while telling the passengers the same things over and over again.


His own music on the radio I presume?


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## Rosie (Jul 4, 2016)

I don't like movies about composers, I love the music but the movies I've seen have been boring. What are some good ones? Thx


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Rosie said:


> I don't like movies about composers, I love the music but the movies I've seen have been boring. What are some good ones? Thx


I see you found it then .


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## Rosie (Jul 4, 2016)

Pugg said:


> I see you found it then .


Thanks Hun for helping me, I don't know where stuff is yet


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

I think we're long overdue for a Disney movie set in the world of classical music and composers.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Abraham Lincoln said:


> I think we're long overdue for a Disney movie set in the world of classical music and composers.


Yeah, I'd love to see that book series remade into another movie series, again! ut:


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Xenakiboy said:


> Yeah, I'd love to see that book series remade into another movie series, again! ut:


?? 

spacefillerspacefiller


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## acitak 7 (Jun 26, 2016)

I dont know if a film about the life of Dmitri Shostakovich has been made, but i would like to see one. He suffered a tremendous amount of political pressure which i think took its toll. I love some of his music


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Charles Ives - the movie.
Because the world needs a dramatic blockbuster about the insurance industry.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

With proper make-up, Steve Carell could do the life of Anton Bruckner: _The 72-year-old Virgin_

A good film about the trials and tribulations of Hugo Wolf could be called _Mad About Me_

I'd love to see Steve Martin as John Cage in _4'33"_

I wouldn't mind seeing Bridget Bardot as Martha Argerich in _A Recital To Remember_


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg Schoenberg
At least i got 15 characters


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

A couple of scenes we need to see in films:

A re-enactment of the premiere of _Le Sacré_, incorporating all the recorded anecdotes: Saint-Saens walking out, Debussy asking everybody to be quiet so he could hear the music, Ravel shouting "Genius!" over and over, alleged chaos and confusion both on stage and in the audience, a man pounding his fists on top of another man's head in time with the music. Great stuff, true or not.

Maurice Maeterlinck, the enraged author of _Pelleas_, bursting through the front door brandishing his cane and threatening to thrash Debussy while the latter jumps out the nearest window (ground floor, to be sure) and makes his getaway.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Sort of related:

I always thought the life of Ariadna Scriabina would make a great story/movie. Daughter of the great composer. Poet. Founder of the Zionist resistance movement in Nazi occupied World War II France. Killed by the Milice in 1944, aged only 38 years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadna_Scriabina


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

And yet again...

A blockbuster biopic of Dame Ethel Smyth! She is, after all, the only strong woman NOT to have been played by Helen Mirren. Yet.


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## Guest (Jul 11, 2017)

I vote for (new) films about Dvorák, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. Their lives were/are all interesting enough to carry a film. Hollywood no doubt disagrees.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

carol235 said:


> I vote for (new) films about Dvorák, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. Their lives were/are all interesting enough to carry a film. Hollywood no doubt disagrees.


For most of his career, Brahms got up in the morning, composed, went for a long walk, got home to write down a few things he thought of during his walk, went out, insulted a few people, went home, slept. Rinse and repeat for years on end, creating the most sublime music out of the most ordinary life imaginable. Not necessarily good movie material. The soundtrack will be great though.

Tchaikovsky, on the other hand... Especially now that his sexual orientation no longer needs to be carefully glossed over.

Alas, in biopics they always just have to take such liberties with real history that I don't see the point, except in films like _Amadeus_ where there really was some other point.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

brianvds said:


> For most of his career, Brahms got up in the morning, composed, went for a long walk, got home to write down a few things he thought of during his walk, went out, insulted a few people, went home, slept. Rinse and repeat for years on end, creating the most sublime music out of the most ordinary life imaginable. Not necessarily good movie material. The soundtrack will be great though.
> 
> Tchaikovsky, on the other hand... Especially now that his sexual orientation no longer needs to be carefully glossed over.
> 
> Alas, in biopics they always just have to take such liberties with real history that I don't see the point, except in films like _Amadeus_ where there really was some other point.


Don't forget Brahms's involvement with Clara Schumann! That could make for a pretty interesting biopic.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

My life would make a great film.....with a lot of added fictional additions


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Bettina said:


> Don't forget Brahms's involvement with Clara Schumann! That could make for a pretty interesting biopic.


Brahms? You're going with Brahms before Schumann? :lol: Just his times at the Wieck household are worthy of a movie. Of course, it would a porno, but that's Klassik's type of movie! :devil:


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Klassik said:


> Brahms? You're going with Brahms before Schumann? :lol: Just his times at the Wieck household are worthy of a movie. Of course, it would a porno, but that's Klassik's type of movie! :devil:


Yeah, I'd love to see a (probably fictionalized) biopic about Brahms's threesomes with Robert and Clara! :lol:


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

Bettina said:


> Yeah, I'd love to see a (probably fictionalized) biopic about Brahms's threesomes with Robert and Clara! :lol:


Depending on Brahms' age, a threesome with him is more like a foursome. He'd probably block you from seeing any of Clara's good parts. Then again, we wouldn't have to see Schumann's "wound!"


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Bettina said:


> Yeah, I'd love to see a (probably fictionalized) biopic about Brahms's threesomes with Robert and Clara! :lol:


B: "Hello Clara....that is a nice....dress you happen to be wearing"

R: "Stay away...from my....wife....you sick man..."

C: "Oh Brahms....not....now....I'm with Robert...."

B: "Oh....sorry Clara....I just....want to see your ankle..."

R: "You perverse....evil...man...."

C: "Robert, maybe not....we could...."

R: "What do you....suggest....dear..."

Clara whispers to Robert, Roberts reaction:










R: "Take of your socks....for Brahms....dear"

.......no words for this....why the hell did I type this ****?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ST4 said:


> B: "Hello Clara....that is a nice....dress you happen to be wearing"
> 
> R: "Stay away...from my....wife....you sick man..."
> 
> ...


Put some music under these lyrics and you will have a hit.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

ST4 said:


> B: "Hello Clara....that is a nice....dress you happen to be wearing"
> 
> R: "Stay away...from my....wife....you sick man..."
> 
> ...


Starring: Brahms the foot fetishist! :lol:


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

ST4 said:


>


The truth of the matter is that Brahms, like Hank Hill, had a narrow urethra.

Ok, maybe not. Maybe Brahms' urethra is fine. Was he even all that into Clara? Maybe for a while, but things change. As far as I can tell, he viewed her as a needy old woman! That's not the stuff of blockbusters! :lol:

A movie about Gesualdo or Lully might be interesting though!


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Bettina said:


> Starring: Brahms the foot fetishist! :lol:


B: "Those ankles...your toes...such pleasantry miss"

C: "Oh thank you....Brahms...how...nice...of you to say"

R: "I massaged them....yesterday"

B: "How....delightful....I have never been so....excited...in my life"

R: "Yes, they are....nice....to look at..."

B: "I shall write a symphony....about....her....feet and ankles"


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Bettina said:


> Don't forget Brahms's involvement with Clara Schumann! That could make for a pretty interesting biopic.


Yes, his younger days were more dramatic. problem is, nobody really knows what exactly did or did not go on between him and Clara, leaving the door wide open to absurdist film makers to invent things.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

brianvds said:


> Yes, his younger days were more dramatic. problem is, nobody really knows what exactly did or did not go on between him and Clara, leaving the door wide open to absurdist film makers to invent things.


His son is a piano, Clara died when a flower popped through the floor and whenever they look at each-other a beam of light illuminates the room where a little midget says "Eat the corndogs, it's meretricious"

Go. Write a script for it, NOW!


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## Forss (May 12, 2017)

Bresson's masterpiece "Diary of a Country Priest" could easily be a depiction of Bruckner's wrestling with God.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Georg Friedrich Haas...probably couldn't be played in a lot of theaters, though.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Blancrocher said:


> Georg Friedrich Haas...probably couldn't be played in a lot of theaters, though.




Yes, but it'd have a crowd


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Beethoven, I'm thinking a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Napoleon Dynamite


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

I read somewhere once that the life of almost anyone, examined closely, would make suitable material for a biography. I am not at all sure that it is true, although it is an interesting idea.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> No one has come close to beating _Lisztomania!_. No one is allowed to die without seeing Lisztomania first. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania_(film)


I must repeat this: No one is allowed to die without seeing _Lisztomania_ first. That's an order. From God.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Strange Magic said:


> I must repeat this: No one is allowed to die without seeing _Lisztomania_ first. That's an order. From God.


I can now be assured of living forever!


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Blancrocher said:


> Georg Friedrich Haas...probably couldn't be played in a lot of theaters, though.


I don't know the composer but Wikipedia says:

Personal life
"Haas is the dominant partner in a BDSM relationship with his wife, Mollena Williams-Haas."

And that's it. So I guess that's what's interesting about his personal life.
Well, I don't want to know!!!! Who cares!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The Mozart/Salieri connection might make a good film.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

DeepR said:


> I don't know the composer but Wikipedia says:
> 
> Personal life
> "Haas is the dominant partner in a BDSM relationship with his wife, Mollena Williams-Haas."
> ...


BDSM? eh, nothing shocking or new. Mollena, meh.

But the fact that he composes such ethereal contemporary music, added to that leaves a level of at least...intrigue?


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## Jacob Brooks (Feb 21, 2017)

A movie that covers the lives of both Wagner and Bruckner, throughout their lives. It would make excellent contrast, especially with timid Bruckner celebrating Wagner's music. Bruckner rushing to end his most beautiful testament to God in his final movement of the 9th symphony before being cut off by death (the hand dropping, the ink spilling) would make an excellent ending.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

I think the key players at Darmstadt would make a great Avengers-style drama.

8-10 significant composers from one of the most tragic and difficult points in history, gather in Germany to bring new pieces, ideas, concepts, innovations to the world, whilst undergoing the attempt to live with the terror many of them have narrowly escaped. The movie telling of their personal struggles, feuds, monumental cornerstone works and impact on the future.


It'd be a wonderful film. I don't think there has been enough coverage of their lives from a more social and personal perspective, once that is covered people may understand their own musical approaches a little clearer? (from the perspective of a newbie to their work and lives)


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Brahms' screwed up love of Clara is so yesterday.

More interesting to me is Brahms' love affair with Agathe von Siebold, because these two actually got engaged; Brahms realized he got himself into deep psychological doo doo; wrote a letter to her, showing how screwed up he was (I can relate!); she returned his ring and they never saw each other again.

Angelina Jolie as Agathe. George Clooney as Brahms. Brad Pitt as Robert.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Angelina Jolie as Agathe. George Clooney as Brahms. Brad Pitt as Robert.


Nah, we need Schwarzenegger as Brahms: he can do the right kind of accent.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Xenaxis would make a good movie, we have the lead playing in our middle.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

ST4 said:


> I think the key players at Darmstadt would make a great Avengers-style drama.
> 
> 8-10 significant composers from one of the most tragic and difficult points in history, gather in Germany to bring new pieces, ideas, concepts, innovations to the world, whilst undergoing the attempt to live with the terror many of them have narrowly escaped. The movie telling of their personal struggles, feuds, monumental cornerstone works and impact on the future.
> 
> It'd be a wonderful film. I don't think there has been enough coverage of their lives from a more social and personal perspective, once that is covered people may understand their own musical approaches a little clearer? (from the perspective of a newbie to their work and lives)


The problem is it would start out that way, and then someone with an eye on the market would decide to spice it up with international intrigue, say, a subplot about covert funding from the CIA designed to break German cultural traditions.


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