Tony Palmer Movies

Cause-célèbre British documentarian Tony Palmer helmed this biographical documentary on the life and work of English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934. Though best known for his orchestral suite The Planets (1914-16), Holst in fact led one of the most colorful lives of any composer in history - one that witnessed him living among brothels in Algiers, cycling in the Sahara Desert, teaching himself Sanskrit, distributing Socialist newspapers, and much more. Palmer explores the major events of Holst's life chronologically, then discusses his death from cancer as a lonely and broken man, before his 60th birthday. Tamas Vasary and Sian Edwards conduct the film's musical score. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

 

This in-depth, feature length documentary explores the controversial life of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Often dismissed as a happy folk hero, Williams was in fact often frustrated and unhappy with both his small town life and his obligations to care for his invalid wife. Exploring both his musical and personal legacy, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the artist. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

Don't Look Now director Nicholas Roeg steps back behind the camera for the first time in fifteen years to weave this macabre tale of a young architect who finds her unborn child in danger after moving deep into the Irish countryside. Liffrey (Kelly Reilly) has had enough of the big city, and now she's looking to escape her overbearing boss (Donald Sutherland) by moving to the hills of Ireland with her American boyfriend Richard (Oscar Pearce) and restoring a crumbling cottage. The previous inhabitants of the cottage are the Tuckers, who have since taken up residence at a nearby farm. Mabs Tucker (Miranda Richardson) is mother to three ethereal daughters, though her desire to have a son is evident from the first moment she meets her new neighbors. Something about the Tuckers just doesn't seem right to Liffrey and her suspicious beau, and when Liffrey becomes pregnant the mood around their cottage becomes downright ominous. It seems that Mabs' mother Molly (Rita Tushingham) has been dabbling in magic in order to ensure herself a grandson, and soon it's revealed that eldest daughter Audrey (Leona Igoe) possesses some strange, otherworldly powers. As the word about Liffrey's pregnancy begins to spread, the Tucker women become convinced that the unborn child was actually intended for Mabs, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to claim the baby as their own. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Tony Palmer, music aficionado, occasional rock performer (the albums See You at the Knee, Long Time Comin' Home), and director of classic performance films from multiple musical genres such as Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (1971), the massive Wagner (1983), and Maria Callas: La Divina (1987), helms the 3 hour documentary Tony Palmer's Film About the Salzburg Festival (aka The Salzburg Festival). The Austrian Film Commission granted Palmer nearly limitless access to their archives, from which he collected and assembled over 85 years' worth of footage of the world's foremost opera venue, studded with oratorios from the most accomplished practitioners of the craft - everyone from Toscanini to Callas to Anne-Sophie Mutter to Mitsuko Uchida. Some of the dozens of highlights include: Brandauer and Schell's distinct interpretations of Federmann; Furtwanger's 1954 performance in Don Giovanni; Nazi footage at Salzburg, shot during the Hitler regime; and interviews with everyone from Domingo to Levine to Rattle. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

What sort of man kills one of the most beloved musicians in the world, and what prompts him to pull the trigger? Filmmaker Andrew Piddington explores these questions in this fact-based drama which examines several weeks in the life of Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon. Chapman (played by Jonas Ball) is a self-obsessed young man who has an emotionally distant relationship with his parents and a failing marriage to Gloria (Mie Omori). Unable to hold down a job, Chapman spends a lot of time at the public library, where he rereads J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and browses though a photo book on John Lennon, and the two begin to fuse in his imagination, as he links Holden Caulfield's grousing about "phonies" with the fame and wealth of one-time activist Lennon. Chapman hops a flight to New York City and visits the sights Caulfield talked about in the novel when not busy standing vigil outside the Dakota, the luxury apartment building Lennon calls home, with a gun in his possession. The first time Chapman crosses paths with Lennon as he's leaving the Dakota, he asks the former Beatle to sign a copy of Double Fantasy, Lennon's new album; several hours later, Lennon returns home and Chapman approaches him with a very different intent. The Killing of John Lennon was primarily filmed in the locations where the real-life events took place, and all of Chapman's dialogue in the film was taken from his diaries or interviews he's given since his arrest and imprisonment. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Renee Fleming: A Film by Tony Palmer documents the life of one of the most respected American sopranos of her time. The film includes many clips of the artist performing many well-known works. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

In this unusual period drama from 1999, classical music expert and filmmaker Tony Palmer delves into the final years of Polish-born Romantic composer Frédéric François Chopin to unearth a compelling and tragic love story that developed between Chopin and Delfina Potocka, a Polish countess who served as the great musician's muse. Chopin and Potocka's voluminous exchanged correspondence radiated passion, but Palmer argues that their relationship created sad ripple effects years into the future, including the mysterious death (and possible suicide) of Potocka's granddaughter, Paulina Czerina. She apparently knew of Chopin's almost obsessive interest in her grandmother from her own possession of the letters, and found this knowledge too difficult to bear. In lieu of merely quoting or excerpting the letters, Palmer works the events referenced in them into individual scenes and uses those scenes to draw events from the last few years of Chopin's life. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Andre Previn has enjoyed an inarguably remarkable career, rising from humble beginnings as a German refugee to become one of the world's best respected composers and orchestral directors. Previn has won Academy awards for his film scores, served as conductor for the London Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and recorded a series of well-received albums as a jazz pianist. In 1998, Previn expanded his horizons to include opera as he wrote the score for an operatic adaptation of Tennessee Williams' classic drama A Streetcar Named Desire, and this documentary offers a look at Previn's remarkable career as he prepares for the world premier of his opera. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A visionary best known to many for his 1937 cantata Carmina Burana, German composer Carl Orff (1895-1982) built his reputation largely by pioneering a unique and groundbreaking system of music education for young children called the 'Orff Schulwerk.' Developed in tandem with Gunild Keetman, the system drew on instrumental and vocal performance, movement and improvisation to teach children the fundamentals of musical theory. As directed and edited by documentarist Tony Palmer, with accompaniment by The Bayerischer Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir under the baton of Donald Runnicles, this unique documentary carries audiences inside of Orff's astonishing life and career, making fervent use of archival footage featuring Orff. The program also features accompaniment by vocalists Susan Chilcott, Gwyneth Jones, Roland Hermann and Robert Johnston, directed b chorus master Udo Mehrpohl. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi