Highest-Rated Movies about 'Artistic Pursuit'

A Merry War (1997), Burden of Dreams (1982), And Punching the Clown (2016), Waiting for Guffman (1996), Little Women (1994), Wild Rose (2018), Young Man With a Horn (1950), To Joy (1949) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Artistic Pursuit movies.

#1. A Merry War (1997)

Storyline: When successful advertiser Gordon Comstock (Richard E. Grant) abruptly walks away from his career to pursue his dream of being a poet, his path is much more difficult than expected. At first encouraged by a prior publishing of his work, Comstock has trouble finding work, and soon financial problems begin to pile up. Also frustrating is that his former co-worker and girlfriend, Rosemary (Helena Bonham Carter), seems uninterested in sex, although she does stand by him despite his struggles.

Plot Keywords: comedy, romance, british film, literary adaptation, satire, black comedy, social commentary ...

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#2. Burden of Dreams (1982)

Storyline: A documentary on the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's epic Fitzcarraldo (1982), showing how the film managed to get made despite problems that would have floored a less obsessively driven director. Not only does he have major casting problems, losing both Jason Robards (health) and Mick Jagger (other commitments) halfway through shooting, but the crew gets caught up in a war between Peru and Ecuador, there are problems with the weather and the morale of cast and crew is falling rapidly.—Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>

Plot Keywords: documentary, film production, behind the scenes, director's perspective, cultural clash, adventure, obsession ...

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#4. Waiting for Guffman (1996)

Storyline: A town of Blaine, Missouri is preparing for celebrations of its 150th anniversary. Corky St.Clair, an off-off-off-off-off-Broadway director is putting together an amateur theater show about the town's history, starring a local dentist, a couple of travel agents, a Dairy Queen waitress, and a car repairman. He invites a Broadway theater critic Mr. Guffman to see the opening night of the show.

Plot Keywords: comedy, mockumentary, musical, small town life, over-the-top acting, satire, improvisation ...

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#5. Little Women (1994)

Storyline: Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts in the 1860s. With their father fighting in the American Civil War, sisters Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth are at home with their mother, a very outspoken women for her time. The story tells of how the sisters grow up, find love and find their place in the world.

Plot Keywords: female coming-of-age, family dynamics, sisterhood, social class, female independence, moral dilemmas, historical drama ...

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#6. Wild Rose (2018)

Storyline: Fresh out of jail after one year imprisoned for narcotics possession, Rose-Lynn Harlan is a 23 years-old working-class girl from Glasgow, Scotland, who tries to rectify her chaotic life: foul-mouthed, streetwise, rebellious and free-spirited, Rose-Lynn reunites with her children, older Wynonna and younger Lyle, cared for during her imprisonment by their grandmother Marion, who openly despises her daughter's lifestyle. A worker in the bakery of a shopping center for twenty years, Marion struggles to understand her daughter, who becomes determined to travel Nashville, Tennesse (country music's cradle) to become a famous country singer. Due to a lack of resources and her poor academic studies, Rose-Lynn tries to return to her former job as a singer in the country bar Grand Ole Opry, having been fired by owners Jackie and Alan after they learn about her conviction. Thanks to Marion's good name, Rose-Lynn gets a job as a cleaning lady in the house of Susannah, an upper-class woman married to James, and mother of little children Rory and Nell. Blessed with talent, charisma, cheek, and a powerful voice, one day Rose-Lynn is discovered singing in her daily work by Susannah, who befriends Rose-Lynn and decides to help her to travel to Nashville by throwing a fund-raising party especially for her. Therefore, troubles are around the corner: Wynonna and Lyle are time and time again neglected by a mother unable to reconcile with them who hides their existence to Susannah, James mistrusts Rose-Lynn by the way that Susannah is interested in her, and Marion sends an ultimatum forcing her to make a choice between her dream to be singer, or her reality to be mother. Troubled, auto-destructive and badly influenced by her friend and occasional lover Elliot (a fan of alcohol, night and wild partying), Rose-Lynn finds herself trapped in a crossroads struggling against her worst enemy: herself.—Chockys

Plot Keywords: musical, drama, british film, female lead, country music, dreams, coming of age ...

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#7. Young Man With a Horn (1950)

Storyline: Aimless youth Rick Martin learns he has a gift for music and falls in love with the trumpet. Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard takes Rick under his wing and teaches him all he knows about playing. To the exclusion of anything else in life, Rick becomes a star trumpeter, but his volatile personality and desire to play jazz rather than the restricted tunes of the bands he works for lands him in trouble.—Jerry Milani <jmilani@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Keywords: musical, drama, biography, jazz, golden age hollywood, film noir, romance ...

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#8. To Joy (1949)

Storyline: Stig, a visiting soloist to a small Swedish orchestra, marries fellow musician Martha, but the inner torment and sense of failure in Stig leads to an extra-marital affair and a tragic ending.—Edward Terence Ferrari <e.t.ferrari@sheffield.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: romance, marriage, musician, dream, failure, hope, pain ...

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#9. For Me and My Gal (1942)

Storyline: Set during WW I, Palmer and Hayden team up as vaudeville artists. Harry Palmer deliberately injures his hand to avoid being drafted to the army. Later, he makes up for this. WW I patriotism for a WW II audience, very sentimental, great musical episodes and songs.—Gerhard Gonter <g.gonter@ieee.org>

Plot Keywords: musical, romance, song and dance, world war ii, golden age hollywood, judy garland, broadway ...

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#10. Sons and Lovers (1960)

Storyline: It's the early twentieth century. The Morel family lives in the coal mining community of Bestwood, England, just outside of Nottingham. There is little connection now between husband and wife, Walter and Gertrude, due to their differences, while each quietly or not so quietly is able to manipulate emotionally their now adult sons. While eldest son William has escaped the clutches of his parents by moving to London, each of the two remaining sons have ended up having a natural alliance or connection to one parent. Arthur, like brusque Walter, works in the mines, something that Walter believes is their duty and legacy. Artistically inclined Paul, who is self-taught in his art, instead has a lower paying office job, in Gertrude's mind it a longer path but to greater financial gain, Paul who is never to work in the mines. Paul, arguably, would live as a painter if he was able. Paul's relationship with two women is shown in light of the influence Gertrude has had in his life, he who has separated the concepts of love, sex and marriage in his mind. The first is childhood friend, farm girl Miriam Leivers, who Paul has also instilled a romantic notion of the arts and literature. Their relationship is also affected by Mrs. Leivers, who has taught Miriam to have an ugly view of physical sex, it purely a means to procreation. The second is work colleague Clara Dawes, an emancipated woman separated from her laborer husband, Baxter Dawes.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: literary adaptation, family drama, coming of age, psychological conflict, mother-son relationship, love triangle, working class ...

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#11. Of Human Bondage (1934)

Storyline: Abandoning artistic ambitions, sensitive and club-footed Philip Carey enrolls in medical school and falls in love with a waitress Mildred Rogers. She rejects him, runs off with a salesman and returns unmarried and pregnant. Philip gets her an apartment and they become engaged. Mildred runs off with another medical student. Philip takes her back again when she returns with her baby. She wrecks his apartment and burns the securities he needs to pay tuition. He gets a job as a salesman, has surgery on his foot, receives an inheritance, and returns to school where he learns Mildred is dying.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: classic film, black and white, drama, romance, literary adaptation, 1930s, golden age of hollywood ...

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#12. Moulin Rouge (1952)

Storyline: A fictionalized account of the latter part of the life of French artist Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) is presented, he who is arguably most renowned professionally for immortalizing the characters of the Paris can-can dance hall, the Moulin Rouge, on canvas. This phase of his story begins in 1890. Born into aristocracy, Toulouse-Lautrec moves to Paris to pursue his art as he hangs out at the Moulin Rouge where he feels like he fits in being a misfit among other misfits. His misfit status is due to his diminutive physical stature, his legs which were broken and stopped growing following a childhood fall down some stairs. Because of the way he looks, he believes he is never destined to experience the true love of a woman. That lack of love in his life may change as he meets two women. The first is prostitute Marie Charlet, who he saves from imprisonment in a white knight act. Their relationship ends up being a turbulent one, the downs where each feels the need to hurt the other with their core issues, namely Toulouse-Lautrec's disability and Marie's profession. The second is socialite Myriamme Hayam. In more indirect acts, Toulouse-Lautrec also ends up being her savior, one of those indirect acts being his painting, one which she has purchased, its subject making her reflect on what she sees as the troubles with her own life.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: musical, romance, drama, historical, france, paris, 19th century ...

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#14. The Moon and Sixpence (1942)

Storyline: Loosely inspired by Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-class life, his family, and his duties to start painting, as he has always wanted to do. He is from then on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.—Yepok

Plot Keywords: literary adaptation, self-discovery, artistic pursuit, moral dilemma, psychological conflict, loneliness, creativity ...

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