Music and the movies have always been intertwined, from the days of in-theatre piano players accompanying silent films to purpose-written scores and on. With the glittering mayhem of , let’s whizz through a few melodious highlights of our .
Purple Rain
It’s impossible to do justice to legendary musician, singer-songwriter extraordinaire, gifted producer and impeccably sexy performer Prince in a pithy paragraph. The Minneapolis-born legend transcends words and reshaped musical history in his own slinky image. Just go crazy for his star-making cinematic debut, 1984’s dystopia-destroying rock musical featuring his badass band The Revolution. Prince fought hard to make it happen and was richly rewarded. Picking up an Oscar for best song score, the film, the album of the same name and single ‘When Doves Cry’ all came in at number one simultaneously, marking the first time in history any artist had scored such an astounding trifecta.
Purple Rain is streaming at SBS On Demand and will also air at 9.40pm Thursday 15 May on SBS World Movies.
Stream free On Demand
Purple Rain
drama • musical • 1984
drama • musical • 1984
Bran Nue Dae
Arrente and Kalkadoon filmmaker Rachel Perkins comes from a staunch line of Aboriginal activists, carrying that fire into her sizzling screen career, including delivering ground-breaking SBS documentary series . Jimmy Chi’s 1990 rock musical Bran Nue Dae – which Chi composed with his band Kuckles, The Pigram Brothers and Scrap Metal – spoke to her. A pioneering breakthrough for First Nations voices in Australian theatre, she adapted it for the big screen in 2009, bringing this tale of young lovers Willie (Rocky McKenzie) and Rosie (Jessica Mauboy) to life with an abundance of love and joyous song. It also features a bevy of brilliant co-stars, including Deborah Mailman, Magda Szubanski and .
Bran Nue Day is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Bran Nue Dae
comedy • musical • 2009
comedy • musical • 2009
Amadeus
Fake news stories have been going viral since way before social media. The scurrilous rumour that once-renowned composer Antonio Salieri poisoned young pretender Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart just before Christmas rocked the Habsburg court in 1791, persisting to this day despite being utter poppycock. Poet, playwright and author Alexander Pushkin first saw the scandalous potential, spinning the tall tale into a short play. Almost 150 years later, Liverpudlian Peter Shaffer’s new stage version soared, inspiring Czech filmmaker Miloš Forman’s () bravura biopic. F. Murray Abraham is deliciously wicked as the internally twisted Salieri to Tom Hulce’s doomed mover and shaker Mozart in this lush, loose-with-the-truth costume drama set to the latter’s greatest symphonic triumphs.
Amadeus is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Amadeus
biography • Historical drama • 1984
biography • Historical drama • 1984
The Home Song Stories
Chinese-Australian filmmaker Tony Ayres’ tribute to his complicated mother, in all her beauty and mayhem, is an only lightly fictionalised drama. Impossibly glamorous Twin Peaks star Joan Chen is magnetic as Rose, a Hong Kong nightclub singer who struggles to settle into the suburbs of Melbourne after being whisked away by Australian sailor Bill (Steven Vidler). But we join the story in medias res after she’s already high-tailed it to Sydney, working through a procession of ‘uncles’ before crawling back and spiralling from there. All of this is seen through the glinting eyes of a young boy, Ayres’ stand-in Tom (Joel Lok) who’s just trying to get a handle on what stops her from finding peace and anchoring him and his teenage guitar-playing sister May (Irene Chen, no relation). The melancholy of a musical life arrested is integral to lost soul Rose’s journey.
The Home Song Stories is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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The Home Song Stories
drama • 2007
drama • 2007
Aline
Céline Dion battling through Stiff Person Syndrome to perform live from the Eiffel Tower was one of the highlights of the rain-drenched but nevertheless . Her radiant aura also illuminates this quite surreal 2020 ‘biopic’, or ”fiction freely inspired by”, as the trailer cheekily has it. Writer/director Valérie Lemercier also plays Aline Dieu, picking up a César Award for her performance as our not-quite-Céline, rattling through a rags-to-riches story that bears an uncanny resemblance to that of the mother-ship. To confuse matters further, Lemercier’s Aline also performs many legit Dion hits, though lip-syncing to vocals by French pop star Victoria Sio. It’s fabulously bonkers.
Aline is streaming at SBS On Demand (but be quick - it's only there until 2.45pm 25 May).
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Aline
biography • comedy • 2021
biography • comedy • 2021
Heavy Trip
Any music-forward film featuring a heavy metal band called Impaled Rektum will get a specific subset of folks signing up, sight unseen, and another chunk running for the hills. Either way, first-time Finnish directorial duo Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren’s out-there comedy isn’t exactly what you think it is. Featuring a rag-tag bunch of riotous, small-town rockers led by Turo ( actor Johannes Holopaine), they’re determined to play at a major Norwegian metal fest whether they’re invited or not. Even if one of them is technically, umm, incapacitated. A buddy movie with road-trip bones, it’s a highway-to-hell of a lot sweeter than it sounds.
Heavy Trip is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Heavy Trip
comedy • Heavy metal • 2018
comedy • Heavy metal • 2018
Good Morning and Good Night
If you need a soulful pick-me-up that’s ever so gentle on the heart, hitch a lift with writer/director Chung Chi Cong’s Before Sunrise-channelling treat. In the early hours of an exceptionally well-shot Saigon, guitar-playing indie musician Tam (Ha Quoc Hoang) jumps on the back of for-hire rider Thanh’s (Tran Le Thuy Vy) motorbike. But instead of heading straight to his home, they shoot the breeze from dawn till dusk, circling the city and singing as they go. While the promise of connection hangs palpably, one must leave tomorrow in this tender love song for the almost was.
Good Morning and Good Night is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Good Morning and Good Night
drama • musical • 2019
drama • musical • 2019
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
There was . Otherwise known as Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the ‘they-go-low’ jokers may or may not be self-cancelled and/or no longer besties, but way back in 2006, the long-running alternative comedians who can play electric guitar were having a gas in their big screen debut, The Pick of Destiny. Quite literally, with a plethora of fart jokes unleashed in a stoner movie that’s less This is Spinal Tap and more in vibes, right down to battling Satan himself after strumming with the titular supernatural pick. Theirs is certainly an acquired taste, but their fans are legion.
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
comedy • 2006
comedy • 2006
Catch more great musical stories in the Music in the Movies focus on SBS World Movies (weeknights 5 May to 16 May; see for details) and in the .
