Joni Mitchell Movies

The Best of the Johnny Cash Show captures a number of memorable performances from the variety show hosted by the country music legend. This collection includes performances by Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Neil Young, Ray Charles, Pete Seeger, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Widely considered one of the landmark albums in history and the starting point for jazz-rock fusion, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew ranked as one of the one hundred greatest albums of all time in a Rolling Stone magazine poll published in 1987. Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue captures Davis performing the album at the 1970 Isle of Weight Music Festival. Along with the music, interviews with performers as varied as Carlos Santana and Joni Mitchell are included. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Members of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame are honored in this program. Performers like Denny Doherty of the 1960s' Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, and Blood, Sweat, & Tears' David Clayton-Thomas are shown performing some of their greatest hits. Neil Young, the Guess Who, Gordon Lightfoot, Glenn Gould, and Anne Murray are also featured. ~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide

For about a year after the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969, it seemed as though everyone wanted to stage a rock festival. However, The Rolling Stones' disastrous Altamont free concert (documented in the film Gimme Shelter) forever tarnished the image of the rock festival in the U.S., while in Europe, the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was fortunately less deadly than Altamont, but nearly as controversial. Staged by two men with greater ambitions than practical experience (not unlike Woodstock), the festival was held on a small island off the British coast, where some of the finest rock talent of the day -- Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, and Kris Kristofferson, among many others -- were scheduled to play over the course of five days. But while at Woodstock no one had given much thought about keeping gatecrashers out, at the Isle of Wight those without tickets were greeted with corrugated steel fences that sealed off the festival grounds. Huge numbers of visitors simply camped on hills surrounding the grounds, while others broke down the fences by force after refusing to pay the three pounds admission. This led to heated conflicts between the promoters (who railed bitterly against the audience from the stage), the festival's security staff (who had to deal with the many gatecrashers), the concert-goers (who were upset with both the admission price and the site's facilities, one spectator calling it "a psychedelic concentration camp"), and the performers (who had to deal with unruly audiences and the prospect of not being paid). It was estimated that 600,000 people attended the festival, but less than 50,000 actually paid to get in, spelling financial ruin for the promoters. American documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner brought a crew to record the festival on film, but thanks to the festival's bad publicity and uneven reviews, he was not able to obtain completion funds for the project until 1995, hence the presence of many musicians who had since passed away, such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Miles Davis. Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival examines the concert both on-stage and behind-the-scenes, capturing performances from many of the artists who appeared. We see Joni Mitchell and Kris Kristofferson angrily confronting the rowdy crowd, and The Who at the peak of their form (their full set was released as a separate film), alongside the numerous catastrophes and conflicts that dominated the festival's five days. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This musical performance features Joni Mitchell and her musical expression with video imagery. ~ All Movie Guide

Director Jean-Luc Godard pokes fun at the follies and injustices of small-time filmmaking in this drama-comedy about two apparent has-beens who are trying their best to get together the funds and the cast for a last, desperate bid for cinematic fame and fortune. The duo (Jean-Claude Mocky and Jean-Pierre Leaud) and their assistants mull over the meaning and purpose of cinema, but at the same time, the cattle-call for their proposed new production does not rise above its bovine metaphor. While eyeing beauteous new actresses with a dash of lasciviousness, the pair are also keeping track of would-be backers with more than a dash of cunning manipulation. Along the way, everything from hypocrisy to Roman Polanski gets a drubbing. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In 1983, musician Joni Mitchell set off on what was then the longest tour of her career with her new husband, bassist Larry Klein. The tour was captured here, along with studio performances and scenes from Mitchell and Klein's home movies, creating an intimate picture of an otherwise private singer-songwriter. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

One of the most revered women in both folk and rock music circles, Joni Mitchell performs over a dozen songs on this video that documents her 1979 world tour. Among the songs performed during the show are "Coyote", "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", and "Edith and the King Pin". ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Bob Dylan made this concert film that chronicles a 1975/1976 performance of his Rolling Thunder Revue. In between songs he, his wife Sara Dylan, along with Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, and other counterculture figures perform philosophically based improvisational pieces. During the skits, Dylan plays the ambiguous Renaldo, while Ronnie Hawkins and Ronee Blakely play Dylan and his wife. Songs include "Isis, I Want You," "It Ain't Me Babe," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Hurricane," "Romance in Durango," "One Too Many Mornings," "One More Cup of Coffee," "Sara," "Patty's Gone to Laredo," "Just Like a Woman," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowland," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," (Bob Dylan), "Chestnut Mare" (Roger McGuinn), "Diamonds and Rust" (Joan Baez), "Suzanne" (Leonard Cohen), "Need a New Sun Rising" (Ronee Blakely), "Salt Pork West Virginia" (Jack Elliott), "Kaddish" (Allen Ginsberg), "Cucurrucucu Paloma" (Tomas Mendez), and "Time of the Preacher" (Willie Nelson). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This documentary chronicles the 1969 Big Sur Festival and features the folk-rock tunes of many of the era's most influential musicians. Included is Joan Baez singing "I Shall Be Released" and "Song for David." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Kent (Kent Lane) is a college-dropout-turned-drifter who travels South from Big Sur down the California coastline. His worried father (Jack Albertson) tries to bridge the ever-widening generation gap with his son, but Kent is born to wander through his life with no apparent sense of direction, searching for something elusive and unknown. One woman commits suicide after Kent declines her invitation to stay. Michele Carey is Julie, the woman working for a carnival who almost gets our anti-hero to settle down. Soundtrack music is provided by Tim Buckley, Kim Weston (who has a bit part in the film), Judy Collins, Mickey Stevenson and Neil Young. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide