With the forthcoming releases of Control and I’m Not There – the folks over at Time Out (London) brought their collective of film and music critics together to chart the top films pertaining to music legend. The Top 50 list manages to make no mention of a recent Hollywood-ized bio-tales of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash (thank you!) and from the chunk of films that I have seen the positioning seems a propos. Todd Haynes’ who has his Dylan creation coming out soon tops this list with one of my favorite films from the helmer in Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story.
Personally I would have found space another DA Pennebaker film in Depeche Mode 101 and Grant Gee’s Meeting People is Easy – a brilliant Radiohead doc. Here’s the top 50 list –
1 Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987)
2 Don’t Look Back (DA Pennebaker, 1967)
3 Gimme Shelter (David Maysles/Albert Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
4 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002)
5 Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999)
6 Monterey Pop (DA Pennebaker, 1968)
7 Be Here to Love Me (Margaret Brown, 2004)
8 Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould (Francois Girard, 1993)
9 Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank, 1972)
10 Bird (Clint Eastwood, 1988)
11 The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978)
12 Rude Boy (Jack Hazan, David Mingay, 1980)
13 Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (Stephen Kijak, 2006)
14 Bound for Glory (Hal Ashby, 1976)
15 The Decline of Western Civilization Parts I & II (Penelope Spheeris, 1981, 1988)
16 The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005)
17 Sweet Dreams (Karel Reisz, 1982)
18 Notes from a Jazz Survivor (Don McGlynn, 1982)
19 Elgar (Ken Russell, 1962)
20 Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young, 1979)
21 The Future is Unwritten (Julien Temple, 2006)
22 ‘DiG!’ (Ondi Timoner, 2004)
23 Some Kind Of Monster (Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, 2004)
24 A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
25 Jimi Hendrix (Joe Boyd, 1973)
26 Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986)
27 Elvis (John Carpenter, 1979)
28 The Last of the Blue Devils (Bruce Ricker, 1980)
29 Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed (Hasan Shah & Dom Shaw, 1981)
30 Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
31 Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)
32 Charlie is My Darling (Peter Whitehead, 1966)
33 Magic Fire (William Dieterle, 1955)
34 A Joyful Noise (Robert Mugge, 1980)
35 Coal Miner’s Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980)
36 Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2006)
37 Wonderful Life (Sidney J Furie, 1964)
38 ‘Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 1986)
39 Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid (Gimpo, 1995)
40 The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1968)
41 Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders, 1999)
42 Soul to Soul (Dennis Sanders, 1971)
43 Hilary and Jackie (Anand Tucker, 1998)
44 Made in Sheffield (Eve Wood, 2001)
45 Jazz on a Summer’s Day (Bert Stern, 1959)
46 So You Wanna Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star? (Mark Kidel, 1976)
47 Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Aki Kaurismäki, 1989)
48 MC5: A True Testimonial (David C Thomas, 2002)
49 Sign O’ The Times (Prince, 1988)
50 Catch Us If You Can (John Boorman, 1965)
