The best Elvis Costello’s documentary movies
We present our ranking of the best Elvis Costello’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Elvis Costello.
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
7.8/10
The Beatles stormed through Europe's music scene in 1963, and, in 1964, they conquered America. Their groundbreaking world tours changed global youth culture forever and, arguably, invented mass entertainment as we know it today. All the while, the group were composing and recording a series of extraordinarily successful singles and albums. However the relentless pressure of such unprecedented fame, that in 1966 became uncontrollable turmoil, led to the decision to stop touring. In the ensuing years The Beatles were then free to focus on a series of albums that changed the face of recorded music.
Live Aid
8.5/10
Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast. It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for: Live Aid...
Live Aid
4 × DVD, The broadcast of the biggest benefit concert in history, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief. This entry is for the compilation box set released in 2004.
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
8.9/10
Recorded live at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, Roy is joined by an eclectic ensemble of rock and roll superstars including Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett, J.D. Souther, Jennifer Warnes, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits.
In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story
8/10
Roy Orbison - In Dreams is the ultimate exclusive music documentary of the life of Roy Orbison. It provides in-depth insights into his legendary career with classic performances, personal home movies and photos, location footage and interviews with the great and the humble that he touched with his music.
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
7.4/10
A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.
Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile
7.9/10
This film tells (using modern day interviews and archival footage and sound tapes) the story of how in 1967, while his band The Beach Boys triumphantly toured abroad, Brian Wilson was trying to push the boundaries of conventional pop music with a new follow-up to the Beach Boys' cutting-edge mega-hit, Pet Sounds. The new album was to be called "SMiLE". SMiLE pushed the envelope both musically and lyrically, and was supposed to out-do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper record. But Brian wasn't able to sell the project to his band-mates when they returned. The project was shelved and Wilson's well-documented decline into depression, drug abuse, recluseness, and obesity had begun. Thirty-odd years later, Wilson announced that in 2004, SMiLE would be performed live in its entirety in London. This film tells the story of a damaged but healing artist bringing his greatest work to light.
Classic Albums - U2 - The Joshua Tree
7.4/10
This Classic Albums feature on The Joshua Tree is a fantastic look into the production of the legendary album. The new interviews with Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Flood are very warm and filled with personality and information. The highlights are the conversations with Edge, where he plays guitar along with "With or Without You", discussing his favorite guitar moments on the song, and when he shares the original demo of "Where the Streets Have No Name" produced in his home. Daniel Lanois (producer) shares his favorite instrumental moments, and Bono seems actually humble throughout (an amazing feat, it must have been done in editing).
Before the Music Dies
7.6/10
B4MD tells the story of American music at this precarious moment. Filmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. The answers they found on this journey are what makes B4MD both riveting and exciting.
Philip K Dick: A Day in the Afterlife
7.7/10
A poetic look at the life and legacy of legendary author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), who wrote over over a hundred short stories and 44 novels of mind-bending sci-fi, exploring themes of authority, drugs, theology, mental illness and much more.
I Was There: When the Beatles Played the Cavern
7.9/10
I Was There…When the Beatles Played The Cavern tells the story of the underground venue which has become synonymous with one of the world’s greatest bands – The Beatles. The programme includes rare archive footage of the Cavern Club in the sixties, including film of The Beatles performing ‘Some Other Guy’ at the club. On 9 February 1961, having recently returned to Liverpool from performing in Hamburg, The Beatles played at The Cavern for the first of nearly 300 appearances at the club. By the time they played their last gig there, Beatlemania had swept Britain and the band was conquering the world.
Tony Bennett: Duets - The Making of an American Classic
6.4/10
Tony Bennett's most recent album Duets: An American Classic featured Bennett recording duets of his greatest hits with today's greatest stars including Bono, Elton John, Paul McCartney, John Legend, Sting, Billy Joel, Michael Buble, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, and many more! Now, Duets: The Making Of An American Classic goes into the studio for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tony Bennett's acclaimed 2006 album. Features Elton John, Bono, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Sting, the Dixie Chicks, and others who participated in this musical celebration of Bennett's 80th birthday.
Weird Nightmare
8.2/10
A tribute to Charles Mingus.
Dusty
A career retrospective celebrating the timeless music of one of the world's greatest singer–Dusty Springfield. For the first time, Dusty contributes to her own intriguing story with plenty of outrageous assistance from hosts Jennifer Sanders and Dawn French.
Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued
7.7/10
A documentary that goes behind the scenes with some of today's most talented songwriters as they make new music based on long-lost, newly discovered lyrics from Bob Dylan's legendary Basement Tapes sessions. T Bone Burnett brings Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Taylor Goldsmith, Jim James and Marcus Mumford together in a dramatic two-week studio session in the basement of Capitol Records. Features an exclusive interview with Bob Dylan.
If It Ain't Stiff: The Stiff Records Story
7.6/10
Adrian Edmondson narrates a documentary chronicling the story of Stiff Records, a tiny independent that took music out of the boardroom and gave it back to the fans. Stiff's successes included Nick Lowe, the Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Madness, Tracey Ullman and the Pogues. Contributors include Captain Sensible, Jonathan Ross, Suggs, Shane MacGowan and label founders Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson.
Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story
Brit Award-winner Sam Fender goes in search of a musical hero from another era - the late, great, Alan Hull of Lindisfarne, in this one-off BBC Four documentary.
Johnny Cash: The Last Great American
8.6/10
This first major retrospective of Cash's life, times and music features contributions from his daughter Rosanne Cash and son John Carter Cash, his longtime manager Lou Robin and fellow musicians including Little Richard, Cowboy Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Elvis Costello.
Experience Montreux
Filmed in high definition 3D, this set brings together the Experience Montreux film plus concert performances from the Montreux Jazz Festival by Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones and the Global Gumbo All-Stars. Experience Montreux, filmed at the 44th Festival in 2010, contains full live tracks by a range of artists that reflects the breadth and eclecticism of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The performances are interspersed with interviews with festival founder Claude Nobs and many of the artists involved and are accompanied by stunning footage of the festival setting, the town of Montreux, Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps. Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock have both been frequent visitors to Montreux over the years and it s fitting that their performances form a part of this 3D celebration of the magic of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance
6.8/10
Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance, the first-ever documentary portrait of one of the greatest musicians and songwriters of our time. Assured of Costello’s full collaboration, exclusive access to his extensive archive and with the full participation of his record company, the film is a definitive portrait of a major music icon.
