The Lives of Others (2006), Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (2008), Monterey Pop (1969), Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (1998), Shut Up and Sing (2006), Victor Victoria (1982), Trumbo (2007), Trumbo (2015) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Artistic Freedom movies.
Storyline: Gerd Wiesler is an officer with the Stasi, the East German secret police. The film begins in 1984 when Wiesler attends a play written by Georg Dreyman, who is considered by many to be the ultimate example of the loyal citizen. Wiesler has a gut feeling that Dreyman can't be as ideal as he seems, and believes surveillance is called for. The Minister of Culture agrees but only later does Wiesler learn that the Minister sees Dreyman as a rival and lusts after his partner Christa-Maria. The more time he spends listening in on them, the more he comes to care about them. The once rigid Stasi officer begins to intervene in their lives, in a positive way, protecting them whenever possible. Eventually, Wiesler's activities catch up to him and while there is no proof of wrongdoing, he finds himself in menial jobs - until the unbelievable happens.
Plot Keywords: political thriller, surveillance, espionage, moral dilemma, humanity, totalitarianism, betrayal ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: African singer Youssou N'Dour ignites controversy in his native Senegal and other Muslim countries by recording and releasing an album about Islam.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, islam, cultural conflict, musician biography, faith, documentary, musical journey ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Legendary California music festival (pre-Woodstock) that launched the state-side careers of several performers, most notably Jimi Hendrix. Check out Mama Cass being absolutely blown away while watching Joplin sing. Here there be REAL acid rock.—Raymond Clay <banquosa@concentric.net>
Plot Keywords: music festival, documentary, rock music, live performance, 1960s, american culture, counterculture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Comedian Lenny Bruce struck a subversive chord in an era of change in America. After getting his start as a conventional stand-up comic, Bruce's increasingly iconoclastic act transformed him into a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture. This is his story.
Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, comedy, stand-up comedy, social commentary, counterculture, 1960s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 2003, the female country band, The Dixie Chicks, are at the top of their game being one of the most successful bands of all time. However with the US invasion of Iraq about to begin over frustrated worldwide objections about this needless war, one of the Chick vents off the cuff in concert about being ashamed of US President George W. Bush. This statement sparks a firestorm of organized and personal right wing attacks against the Chicks for daring to think they have the right to express a negative personal opinion about the President. This film covers the band's effort to ride out the turmoil that would leave their careers under a cloud, but would eventually give them a opportunity to grow as great artists who bow to no one.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, country music, controversy, political, iraq war, feminism ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1934 Paris, trained coloratura soprano Victoria Grant, a native Brit, can't get a job as a singer and is having trouble making ends meet. She doesn't even have enough money for the basics of food and shelter. Gay cabaret singer Carole 'Toddy' Todd may befall the same fate as Victoria as he was just fired from his singing gig at a second rate club named Chez Lui. To solve both their problems, Toddy comes up with what he considers an inspired idea: with Toddy as her manager, Victoria, pretending to be a man, get a job singing as a female impersonator. If they pull this scheme off, Toddy vows Victoria, as her male alter ego, will be the toast of Paris and as such be extremely wealthy. That alter ego they decide is Polish Count Victor Grazinski, Toddy's ex-lover who was disowned by his family when they found out he was gay. The Count auditions for the city's leading agent, Andre Cassell, who, impressed, gets him a gig performing in the city's best nightclub. In the audience on the ...
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, paris, cabaret, song and dance, gender issues ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Through a focus on the life of Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), this film examines the effects on individuals and families of a congressional pursuit of Hollywood Communists after World War II. Trumbo was one of several writers, directors, and actors who invoked the First Amendment in refusing to answer questions under oath. They were blacklisted and imprisoned. We follow Trumbo to prison, to exile in Mexico with his family, to poverty, to the public shunning of his children, to his writing under others' names, and to an eventual but incomplete vindication. Actors read his letters; his children and friends remember and comment. Archive photos, newsreels and interviews add texture.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: biography, history, drama, hollywood, screenwriter, cold war, political persecution ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was Hollywood's top screenwriter until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. TRUMBO (directed by Jay Roach) recounts how Dalton used words and wit to win two Academy Awards and expose the absurdity and injustice under the blacklist, which entangled everyone from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) to John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger.
Plot Keywords: biography, history, drama, hollywood, screenwriter, cold war, political persecution ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the early 1950s Howard Prince, who works in a restaurant, helps out a black-listed writer friend by selling a TV station a script under his own name. The money is useful in paying off gambling debts, so he takes on three more such clients. Howard is politically pretty innocent, but involvement with Florence - who quits TV in disgust over things - and friendship with the show's ex-star - now himself blacklisted - make him start to think about what is really going on.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: political persecution, hollywood, screenwriter, cold war, deception, reputation, loyalty ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Bruce Macdonald follows punk bank Hard Core Logo on a harrowing last-gasp reunion tour throughout Western Canada. As magnetic lead-singer Joe Dick holds the whole magilla together through sheer force of will, all the tensions and pitfalls of life on the road come bubbling to the surface.—<Ummagumma@sos.on.sa>
Plot Keywords: rock music, independent film, canadian film, mockumentary, black comedy, road movie, antihero ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The film explores the life, philosophy and impact of one of the most influential early 20th century modernists, Marcel Duchamp. The film breaks down Duchamp's ideas and applies them to both historical events and the modernist explosion that blanketed the early 20th century. Art of the Possible isn't simply a biopic; rather, the film shows how Duchamp's ideas changed the public consciousness, and our understanding of aesthetics, art, and culture. The film highlights the singular impact of Duchamp's philosophy on art, and, more importantly, examines how Duchamp's revolutionary ideas from the early 20th century have shaped the 21st century and modern day.
Plot Keywords: artist, documentary, modern art, art history, avant-garde, creativity, art documentary ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Oliver Stone's homage to 1960s rock group The Doors also doubles as a biography of the group's late singer, the "Electric Poet" Jim Morrison. The movie follows Morrison from his days as a film student in Los Angeles to his death in Paris, France at age 27 in 1971. The movie features a tour-de-force performance by Val Kilmer, who not only looks like Jim Morrison's long-lost twin brother, but also sounds so much like him that he did much of his own singing. It has been written that even the surviving Doors had trouble distinguishing Kilmer's vocals from Morrison's originals.
Plot Keywords: musical biography, rock music, 1960s, counterculture, psychedelic rock, american film, music legend ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1950s Czechoslovakia circus manager Karel Cernik is planning an escape from Communism to freedom.His idea is to force his way across the guarded border using his entire circus.Three years in the making his idea is ready to be tested when he's suddenly summoned to a Secret Police routine questioning about his circus' program.To Cernik it's clear that he has an informer among his staff who reports his activities and private talks to the Secret Police. The Americans are just across the river in a nearby border village but Cernik needs a special permit from the Secret Police allowing his circus freedom of movement in the border areas to perform his shows.This hard to get permit is vital to his escape plan.To make matters worse his wife is being unfaithful, his daughter has fallen in love with the new stables boy,his circus is falling apart and his longtime rival, Barovik, wants to take over Cernik's circus.—nufs68
Plot Keywords: adventure, drama, thriller, escape, circus, cold war, eastern europe ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Morbid biographical story of Sid Vicious, bassist with British punk group the Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. When the Sex Pistols break up after their fateful US tour, Vicious attempts a solo career while in the grip of heroin addiction. One morning, Nancy is found stabbed to death and Sid is arrested for her murder.
Plot Keywords: rock music, love story, drug abuse, self-destruction, london setting, musician's life, underground culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Recently widowed well-to-do Laura Henderson is at a bit of a loose end in inter-war London. On a whim she buys the derelict Windmill theatre in the West End and persuades impresario Vivian Van Damm to run it, despite the fact the two don't seem to get on at all. Although their idea of a non-stop revue is at first a success, other theatres copy it and disaster looms. Laura suggests they put nudes in the show, but Van Damm points out that the Lord Chamberlain, who licenses live shows in Britain, is likely to have something to say about this. Luckily Mrs Henderson is friends with him.
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, drama, historical, biographical, world war ii, theater ...
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