Friday Five: Musical Biopics

We watched Rocketman last night. I thought the film was excellent, despite not really liking the music of Elton John. The more I think about it; the more I realise that the reason I like the film so much is because it is not a straightforward biopic, which follows a chronological line of singer - and then he did this; and then he did that - but which explores themes of isolation, loneliness, addiction, desire to be loved and need for self-discovery.

The narrative is explored through the music, and Dexter Fletcher's direction is sharp from the forlorn childhood experiences through the magical realism of the dances of character development to the drug-addled performance scenes and the clinical frustration of the rehab clinic. Both Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin are excellent in their studied depiction of emotion rather than mimicry of artists, and, with the supporting cast, they create a cracker of a film.

From this, I deduce that the music of the artist is not necessarily what draws me to a biopic; it is more in the way the story is presented and the acting of the participants. No, I have not seen Bohemian Rhapsody, because the reviews I've read and the trailers I've seen do not interest me - but I will, because it won the best male actor Oscar and was nominated for the best picture. Meanwhile, here are some other musical biopics I have enjoyed (and yes, there are more than five):

24 Hour Party People

12 Musical Biopics:

1. 8 Mile (2002) - A film about a young man pushing boundaries and finding his voice, literally and metaphorically; Curtis Hanson directs Eminem playing a version of himself with some tightly-choreographed rap battles and strategically-placed moments of tension and explosion.
2. 24 Hour Party People (2002) - Manchester: my music; my era; my city; my club. With writing by Frank Cotterell Boyce and direction by Michael Winterbottom, it is as sharp and cutting a depiction of the Manchester music scene as you could hope to see. Steve Coogan captures the essence of Tony Wilson with wry bitchiness and straight-to-camera monolgues. The film is as irreverent as it is incisive as it rides the music train from punk to New Wave to acid house and the rave scene. 
3. 20,000 Days on Earth (2014) - Not only a fascinating insight into the more-than-mildly-bonkers mind of Nick Cave, but also a discourse on the transformative power of performance. Confidently directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the fusion of documentary and drama with talking heads and concert footage is absolutely excellent. It won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival; it deserved to win many more at many more.





4. Amadeus (1984) - I don't know a lot about Mozart, but I know what I like, and I like this film. It's got humour, passion, and pathos - all embodied in Peter Shaffer's adaptation of his original play and the art with which Tom Hulce (Mozart) and F. Murray Abraham (Salieri) enact the rivalry between the great composers. In an interview, Hulce claimed that he used John McEnroes's mood swings as a source of inspiration for his portrayal of Mozart's unpredictable genius. Director Milos Forman uses flashbacks, juxtapositions and anachronisms in a way that was revolutionary to me at the time (I was 13).  
5. La Bamba (1987) - The film that introduced the world to the star that shone so brightly as Lou Diamond Phillips, playing Ritchie Valens. Although I knew the music of Buddy Holly, Jackie Wilson, Eddie Cochran and The Big Bopper (thanks, mum and dad), I didn't really know anything about their background or their tragically shortened futures. Written and directed by Luis Valdez, the film is very straightforward and borders on bland, but it provides just the right level of detail for a teen learning about musical influences and has enough energy and emphasis on camaraderie to appeal to a young adult audience. 
6. Behind the Candelabra (2013) - one of my favourite films of the year. Yes, it really is as good as everyone says it is. Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are excellent. The flamboyance and excess are neatly captured with gentle ridicule but evident empathy, and confirm Liberace’s own conviction that ‘too much of a good thing is wonderful’.
7. Control (2007) - Great music; great acting (even from Samantha ‘yes, it-would-kill-me-to-smile' Morton); great directing; great city – what more can I say?
8. I'm Not There (2007) - Bob Dylan biopic with the shaggy haired folk-singer played by six different actors, to represent different aspects of his career and personality, most notably Cate Blanchett, whose performance earned her an Oscar nomination. Bits of it are inspired but it is also rather rambling and goes on too long.



9. The Pianist (2002) - Adrien Brody is spellbinding in this adaptation based on the autobiography of Polish-Jewish pianist, composer, and Holocaust-survivor, Wladyslaw Szpilman. The film was a co-production of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland, and is directed by Roman Polanski in what may be his best ever work. It is harrowing, as is to be expected with its WWII setting where concentration camps and death are ever-present, but it is also hopeful and even peculiarly uplifting. And it feels authentic. Since Polanski wanted the film to be as realistic as possible, any scene showing Brody playing was actually his playing overdubbed by recordings performed by Olejniczak. In order for Brody's playing to look like it was at the level of Szpilman's, he spent many months prior to and during the filming practising so that his keystrokes on the piano would convince viewers that Brody himself was playing
10. Shine (1996) - Directed by Scott Hicks and starring Geoffrey Rush, this film examines that fine line between musical creativity and mental illness in the person of concert pianist, David Helfgott. The device of three actors playing the pianist at different times of his life emphasises the deep and lasting effects that parental pressures can cause. There are a few mawkish moments, but overall it is sensitively handled and touching. 
11. Sid & Nancy (1986) - In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that I love Gary Oldman. Even when he is playing the whiny, narcissistic, petulant punk-boy, Sid Vicious. The film, directed by Alex Cox, has a fantastic soundtrack (including Joe Strummer and The Pogues alongside The Sex Pistols, of course) and a spectacularly bleak outlook. And yet, from the filth and the futility, Oldman and Chloe Webb (as Nancy Spungen) manage to unearth a love story, which is battered into a sublime submission. This is what happens when hype overtakes talent; nobody wins but the marketing moguls. 
12. La Vie en Rose (2007) - Absolutely brilliant: great acting; great singing; great cinematography; great film. End of.

Yes, I am fully aware that only one in twelve of these focuses on a female artist; I'd be keen to hear recommendations for decent musical biopics that do. I have not yet seen The Runaways, although I intend to. I am also aware that there is a fine line between documentary and biopic (the Nick Cave one especially straddles fences, but that shouldn't come as any surprise), and that it seems people are often more interested in the 'madness' than the music. 

Blurred Lines: How to Talk to Girls at Parties

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman; illustrated by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba

Dark Horse Books

Pp.62

This is the first graphic novel I have read since I sat with a box of comic books at school on those rainy days when we couldn’t access the playground – unless you count Viz, of course, which kept me amused through my late teens. It was published June 2016, although the original short story by Neil Gaiman was written in 2006. The artistic content is clearly as important as the narrative or the words themselves, and here the images are supplied by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá: a Brazilian duo (twin brothers), who have won awards and international acclaim for telling stories in comic book form. The pictures feature bright colours with strong outlines and bold details against watercolour-like backgrounds to the panels. It is impressive and efficient to be able to draw pictures in place of descriptions, but it can occasionally lead to confusion as details, humorous asides, and motivations are omitted.

The story is set in East Croydon, told by Enn, and framed as a narrative from 30 years ago. He is a fifteen-year-old boy with all the normal concerns of a heterosexual teenager: namely how to make girls notice him when everyone seems to be attracted to his best mate, Vic. The language is either deliberately teenaged and ignorant or woefully blokey and sexist as he talks of girls as objects. Vic tells Enn, “You just have to talk to them. They’re just girls. They don’t come from another planet”, which is not bad advice, although it may also turn out not to be true.

At a party, Vic abandons him to go upstairs with the best-looking girl present (presumably for intimate encounters). Enn is despondent but forces himself to talk to three girls: Wain’s Wain, who explains that she is a second – she has six fingers on one hand – and thus not allowed to breed; a second nameless girl who claims, “I love being a tourist” and regales him with stories of “swimming in sunfire pools with whales” and learning to breathe; and Triolet, who claims to be a poem.

The story plays upon the need to belong and the fear of being an outsider, with strong implications of other-worldliness. Women are clearly from another planet – Mars and Venus anyone? When Triolet kisses him, it blows his mind. He sees “towers of glass and diamond and people with eyes of the palest green and unstoppable beneath every syllable I could feel the relentless advance of the ocean.” The drawing is of a fantasy land with bridges and turrets; minarets and spires in green and gold – a bit like The Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz.

Vic interrupts his reverie as he runs terrified from the house and Stella stands looking down at him in fury. There are suggestions that he tried to sexually assault her, although it is all rather ambiguous (The short story includes the line, “Her clothes were in disarray, and there was makeup smudged across her face, and her eyes”, which makes it less so). When Enn looks back he finds he remembers impressions of the evening rather than facts, and perhaps it is all a metaphor for the mind-altering universe of teenage hormones.

Neil Gaiman is hailed as a hero by many of my fantasy-loving friends, but I can’t help but feel there is something distasteful about this story. The pictures are beautiful but the sentiments are not. In trying to blur the lines of sexual experimentation and assault, I think this is unhelpful – especially when considering the teenage market at which it is aimed.