It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Swing (15 titles)
A selection of films and documentaries that make the most of Jazz and Blues music. For all music lovers, but especially for my good friend and Jazz aficionado Alexandra.
80% from 1 member
Round Midnight
Revered by many to be the greatest film ever made about jazz
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Round Midnight
(1986)
Starring: Dexter Gordon, Francois Cluzet, Gabrielle Haker
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Certificate:
A moving story of an expatriate black jazz musician and his struggle to create the be-bop sound in 1959 Paris. First-time actor Dexter Gordon was nominated for an Academy Award as the aging sax player, and Herbie Hancock's score won an Oscar.
74%
from 27 members
Kansas City
Robert Altman directed this movie as an extended homage to the great jazz centre of Kansas City as it was in the 1930s. The film is notable for including live jam sessions - the plot is pretty much incidental in this one, just sit back and enjoy the music
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Kansas City
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte
Director: Robert Altman
Certificate:
Kansas City, 1934. Anything could happen here. One night it did.
59%
from 112 members
Bird
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Bird
on DVD
(1988)
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora
Director: Clint Eastwood
Certificate:
Charlie Bird Parker had been a hero of Clint Eastwood's since childhood, and Eastwood, having been disappointed in such jazz biopics as YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, really wanted to make a true jazz fan's movie about the music. He cast Forest Whitaker as Parker, the legendary alto sax player, and Diane ..read more »
63%
from 752 members
Can't You Hear The Wind Howl
Superior documentary about the life of the legendary delta bues musician Robert Johnson
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Can't You Hear The Wind Howl
(1997)
Starring: Peter Meyer
Certificate:
This is an in-depth documentary on Robert Johnson, one of the greatest folk/blues guitarists who ever lived. Hosted by Danny Glover and featuring interviews with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Robert Cray, and many more.
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Mo' Better Blues
Spike Lee's personal meditation on the life of a talented blues musician (played by Denzel Washington) and his attempts to reconcile his prodigious talent with the more down to earth realities of family life
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Mo' Better Blues
on DVD
(1990)
Starring: Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes
Director: Spike Lee
Certificate:
Opens with Bleek as a child learning to play the trumpet, his friends want him to come out and play but mother insists he finish his lessons. Bleek grows into adulthood and forms his own band - The Bleek Gilliam Quartet.
67%
from 399 members
Tune In Tomorrow
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Tune In Tomorrow
on DVD
(1990)
Starring: Barbara Hershey, Peter Falk, Keanu Reeves
Director: Jon Amiel
Certificate:
A veteran soap opera writer Pedro Carmichael (Peter Falk) assigned to save a failing radio show finds inspiration when he arrives and meets a young writer Martin Loader (Keanu Reeves) who has fallen madly in love with his older, twice-divorced aunt Julia (Barbara Hershey). Drawing on his ..read more »
52%
from 152 members
Lift to the Scaffold
The improvised Miles Davis score is a treat
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Lift to the Scaffold
on DVD
(1957)
Starring: Jeanne Moreau
Director: Louis Malle
Certificate:
Florence Carala and her lover Julien Tavernier, an ex - paratrooper want to murder her husband by faking a suicide. But after Julien has killed him and he puts his things in his car, he finds he has forgotten the rope outside the window and he returns to the building to remove it...
75%
from 702 members
Anatomy Of A Murder
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn composed the music for this mostly court based thriller
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Anatomy Of A Murder
on DVD
(1959)
Starring: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara
Director: Otto Preminger
Certificate:
Director Otto Preminger thrives in tense legal showdowns and this is perhaps his best, mostly for Jimmy Stewart's cagey performance as a deceptively wily small-town lawyer. The sensationalist trial revolves around an army lieutenant who shoots a bar owner for allegedly raping his wife, an ugly ..read more »
70%
from 2,767 members
Feel Like Going Home
Part one of seven in the epic Martin Scorsese produced series on The Blues. Each segment is directed by a different director and concerns itself with a different aspect and history of blues music
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Feel Like Going Home
on DVD
(2004)
Starring: Salif Keita, Taj Mahal, Othar Turner
Director: Martin Scorsese
Certificate:
Produced by Martin Scorsese and helmed by seven major film directors (including Clint Eastwood, Wim Wenders, and Charles Burnett), this seven-part collection traces the history of the blues. Beginning by discovering the earliest recorded works of the blues from the 1920s, and ending with the ..read more »
70%
from 224 members
The Soul Of A Man
Part two of the epic series, directed by Wim Wenders
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The Soul Of A Man
on DVD
(2003)
Starring: Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James
Director: Wim Wenders
Certificate:
Produced by Martin Scorsese and helmed by seven major film directors (including Clint Eastwood, Wim Wenders, and Charles Burnett), this seven-part collection traces the history of the blues. Beginning by discovering the earliest recorded works of the blues from the 1920s, and ending with the ..read more »
66%
from 270 members
Average rating for this collection:
80% from 1 member
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