This fall, highly anticipated movies may be garnering a more melodic Oscar buzz than usual.
While movies about musicians and music have a history of being popular with music lovers, history buffs and film aficionados, this season is especially stacked. With the critical and commercial success of recent musical biographies such as “Ray” and “Walk the Line,” more and more filmmakers are finding inspiration in music.
In these films, the music of the subject artist has a crucial part in the story itself. In “I’m Not There,” the Bob Dylan biopic opening Wednesday, the music differentiates among the time periods portrayed and different actors portray the lead as he ages. The music Dylan made during each decade plays as that portion of his life unfolds on screen, serving an important role in the storytelling.
In “Control,” a recent release that follows the life of Ian Curtis, the tortured frontman of British post-punk band Joy Division, concert scenes were a huge indicator of Curtis’ current state of mind and served to chronicle his descent into a deep depression.
“The music (is) more than just a window dressing,” said screenwriting professor Richard Walter. “People love music, they love film ““ you marry the two and, ideally, it ought to be a great story.”
A mark of a popular film trend is the magnitude of the spoofs that follow it. Like the onslaught of “Not Another Teen Movie” films that came out after dozens of high school comedies, this winter’s “Walk Hard,” directed by Jake Kasdan, is a parody of the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” and other films like it. Advertising for the film has also imitated the iconic image of a shirtless Jim Morrison of the Doors.
Mary Simonson, who teaches Music History 7, explained that people are drawn to stories about musicians because, while it’s easy to feel like they understand the stories by being fans of the music, they don’t really know that much at all.
“Musicians are mysterious figures to a lot of us,” Simonson said. “We hear their music, and we buy their albums and we know them through their music, but we don’t know much about their lives and who they are as people. Part of the popularity of the trend has to do with getting to know the lives of these people.”
Greg Ruben, a second-year Design | Media Arts student, recently saw “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten,” a film about the legendary Clash front man, and enjoyed learning about the life of one of his favorite musicians.
“The cool thing about that movie was that they tried to relate his life to things that were beyond just him, but what was happening in society at the time,” Ruben said. “There was a lot of (footage), and it explained his life in that context. With period pieces like that, and with “˜Control,’ too, it adds a great deal of understanding to the music.”
However, fans of an artist’s music cannot be sure that they will view a good film.
“The Bobby Darin film that Kevin Spacey made (“Beyond the Sea”) was embarrassing, and I’m a huge Bobby Darin fan,” Walter said. “It was sort of celebrity karaoke. I thought it was pretty dreadful.”
Even for those who are unfamiliar with a musician, can still have an illuminating cinematic experience when watching a movie about their music, as the life story of artists can lend more interest to their work.
“I’m sure there are people who didn’t really know the music all that well, or thought they didn’t like it, and then in watching and getting to know the person behind it, maybe they gained some respect or sympathy or empathy for that person, and they’re able to understand the music a little bit better,” Simonson said.
“That’s really what the music does; it helps to capture our attention and keep us focused, and it sort of creates an imaginary face we can be while we’re watching that film.”
Though films about musicians can transcend their base material and become more than an extended music video, Walter still finds that when a film focuses so closely on a musician, it is necessary for the music to be to one’s taste.
“When you have movies about (musicians), such movies are inevitably going to have a lot of music by the artists,” Walter said. “If it’s by an artist I don’t like, then I think it would be a real challenge.”
With films about music, it may be helpful to know a little bit about the musician’s work, but for a true work of cinema, it is not necessarily a prerequisite for enjoyment.
“I think the movies are directed towards fans,” Ruben said. “But if a movie is legitimately good, it should be able to appeal to everyone no matter what ““ everyone should be able to relate to it. “˜Control’ (for example) could appeal to a larger audience.”
On the other hand, too much music can be a bad thing, weakening the other elements that make the most important thing, a good film. Walter cites Clint Eastwood’s film “Play Misty and Me” as one that had great music, but not much of a story.
“It’s beautiful jazz, but the movie stops dead,” Walter said. “You have to be moving the story forward and expanding the audience’s appreciation of those characters. It’s hard to do that. … You don’t go to the movies to hear a soundtrack, you go to see a story.”