Tony Palmer Movies

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Stanley Kubrick was one of the most acclaimed and controversial filmmakers of his generation, but he was also an intensely private man who rarely gave interviews and produced most of his films under a shroud of secrecy, which tended to foster a great deal of rumor and speculation about his working methods. Jan Harlan, who worked as Kubrick's assistant and executive producer on several projects (and was also his brother-in-law), directed this documentary, which offers a rare in-depth look into Kubrick's career as a filmmaker, structured around interviews with a number of actors, writers, technicians, composers, friends, and family who speak on the record about his relentless perfectionism, his creative vision, his life both on and off the set, his relationships with actors, his unrealized projects, and his importance and influence as an artist. Among those who share their thoughts in Stanley Kubrick -- A Life In Pictures are actors Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Malcolm McDowell, Peter Ustinov, and Keir Dullea; writers Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Herr; special effects artist Douglas Trumbull; composers Wendy Carlos and Gyorgy Ligeti; filmmakers Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Paul Mazursky, and Sydney Pollack; and Kubrick's spouse Christiane Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick -- A Life In Pictures was originally produced as a television project, to be aired in three parts, though the project was shown in its entirety at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Director Tony Palmer explores the mysterious life of English composer Henry Purcell in this award-winning film. Recognizing that little is known about the secretive Purcell, a group of 1960s-era actors travel back to the 16th Century in search of clues to the composer's mystery shrouded past. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An artist best known for his orchestral compositions Grande messe des morts and Symphonie fantastique, French Romantic composer Hector Berliosz (1803-1869) arguably obtained far greater recognition posthumously than he did during his lifetime. The celebrated music documentarist Tony Palmer tackles a biographical profile of Berlioz in this unique nonfiction work from 1992. The program places strongest emphasis on the influence that Berlioz wielded on subsequent generations of musicians. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This film is a portrait of the illustrious violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Born in New York April 22, 1916, Menuhin was a child prodigy on the violin. He went to San Francisco to study, and gave his first public performance with the Mendelssohn concerto at the age of seven. At age 15, he recorded what is still considered the high water mark of the Elgar Violin Concerto, conducted by the composer himself. Always exploring new directions, Menuhin studied and played with the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, and the French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. In addition to performing throughout decades of a long and brilliant career, Menuhin also started several orchestras, and was involved in numerous philanthropic enterprises. The film uses personal interviews, photographs and footage of live performances from Switzerland, France, Germany, Poland, Austria, England and America, giving the viewer an in depth look at this beloved musician. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide

Ben Kingsley stars as celebrated Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in this lengthy historical biography. Along with Prokofiev, Shostakovich is considered among the elite of the 20th-century composers to emerge from his country. Striving to be true to his art form, the composer was caught in the political crossfire of the Stalin regime and was criticized for being politically ambiguous. Under constant pressure, Shostakovich silenced many of his critics when he remained in Leningrad during the Nazi siege to complete his stirring 7th symphony. Terrence Rigby plays Stalin, with Ronald Pickup as the ill-fated Soviet official Tukhachevsky, another of Stalin's many victims. Shostakovich lived until 1975. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A preeminent figure in 20th century music, William Turner Walton O.M. (1902-1983) raised the bar for composers from Britain. Turner excelled at traditional symphony and operatic composition, as well as scoring for motion pictures. This award-winning 1981 biographical production features segments from nearly two dozen of Walton's most famous works, including "Belshazzar's Feast" and "Crown Imperial" (written for the coronation of King George VI). It also features selections from scores for Sir Laurence Olivier's productions of Shakespeare's Richard III, Hamlet, and Henry V. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide