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Films with theme "Jazz films", sorted by rating
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Mo' Better Blues (1990)
, 2h9Directed by Spike Lee
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn
The film begins with a scene set in Brooklyn, New York in 1969. A group of four boys walk up to Bleek Gilliam's brownstone and ask him to come out and play baseball with them. Bleek's mother insists that he continue his trumpet lesson, to his chagrin. His father becomes concerned that Bleek will grow up to be a sissy, and a family argument ensues. In the end, Bleek continues playing his trumpet, and his friends go away.
Paris Blues (1961)
, 1h38Directed by Martin Ritt, Bernard Farrel
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about racism, Le blues, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, André Luguet, Barbara Laage
On his way to see Wild Man Moore (Louis Armstrong) at the train station, Ram Bowen (Paul Newman), a jazz musician, encounters Connie Lampson, (Diahann Carroll), a newly arrived tourist, and invites her to see him perform that night at Club 33. Connie isn't interested but her friend, Lillian (Joanne Woodward) insists they go to see him. After Ram finishes performing with his friend Eddie (Sidney Poitier) offers to take both women to breakfast. When Ram suggests that he and Connie go off and have a private breakfast together she is offended and Ram is angered at being rejected. However Lillian, undeterred that Ram prefers her friend, pursues him and the two sleep together while Connie and Eddie spend the night walking around Paris.
The Benny Goodman Story (1956)
, 1h56Directed by Valentine Davies
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Steve Allen, Donna Reed, Herbert Anderson, Robert F. Simon, Sammy Davis Jr., Hy Averback
The young Benny Goodman is taught clarinet by a Chicago music professor. He is advised by bandleader Edward Ory to play whichever kind of music he likes best, but to make a living, Benny begins by joining the Ben Pollack traveling band.
The Gene Krupa Story (1959)
, 1h41Directed by Don Weis
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Sal Mineo, Susan Kohner, James Darren, Susan Oliver, Yvonne Craig, Lawrence Dobkin
King of Jazz (1930)
, 1h45Directed by Paul Fejos
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical, Animation
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors John Boles, Laura La Plante, Jeanette Loff, Bing Crosby, Glenn Tryon, William T. Kent
Évocation à travers des séquences musicales magiques de l'importance du jazz dans la musique américaine des années 30. Entre spectacle de music-hall, animation et comédie musicale classique.
Blinkity Blank (1955)
Directed by Norman McLaren
Genres Musical, Animation
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Court métrage expérimental explorant les possibilités de l'animation par intermittence et des images spasmodiques. Norman McLaren joue avec les lois de la persistance rétinienne dans une œuvre de pure imagination faisant penser tantôt à un feu d'artifice très nourri, puis ensuite à un dessin lent à se former et dont on ne perçoit que des touches rapides et éphémères. Film sans paroles.
The Tic Code (2000)
, 1h31Directed by Gary Winick
Origin USA
Genres Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Gregory Hines, Chris Marquette, Robert Iler, Polly Draper, Tony Shalhoub, Carol Kane
The film tells the story of a young boy, Miles Caraday (Marquette), a jazz piano prodigy who has Tourette syndrome, and his divorced mother Laura Caraday (Draper). Miles has a school friend, Todd (Desmond Robertson) who seems not to be bothered by Miles' condition. Miles wants to become a jazz pianist against the wishes of his classical-oriented instructor Miss Gimpole (Carol Kane). At a local nightspot, Miles becomes friends with a jazz saxophonist, Tyrone Pike (Hines), who also has Tourette's but has learned ways to cover up his condition.
Boogie-Doodle (1941)
, 4minutesDirected by Norman McLaren
Origin Canada
Genres Animation
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
A Man Called Adam (1966)
, 1h39Directed by Leo Penn
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Sammy Davis Jr., Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Peter Lawford, Johnny Brown, Mel Tormé
Adam Johnson is a talented African-American jazz cornetist, plagued by ill health, racism, alcoholism and a short temper, as well as guilt over the deaths years before of his wife and child. The result is a caustic personality that wears even on those who care the most about him, such as his best friend Nelson, and Vincent, a young Caucasian trumpeter whom Adam mentors. Arriving unexpectedly at his New York home drunk after walking out on his jazz quintet, Adam finds prominent Civil Rights worker Claudia Ferguson and her grandfather, Willie, who is himself a well-known jazz trumpeter, in his apartment. The two have been given access to the apartment by Nelson, but despite having authorized this, the drunken Adam is rude to both, that including making a vulgar pass at Claudia.
The Cotton Club (1984)
, 2h7Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical theatre, Musical, Crime, Romance
Themes Mafia films, Films about music and musicians, Films about racism, Jazz films, Musical films, Gangster films
Actors Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, James Remar
A musician named Dixie Dwyer begins working with mobsters to advance his career but falls in love with the girlfriend of gangland kingpin Dutch Schultz.
Moscow on the Hudson (1984)
, 1h55Directed by Paul Mazursky
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance
Themes Films about alcoholism, Circus films, Films about immigration, Films about music and musicians, Politique, La précarité, Jazz films, Political films
Actors Robin Williams, María Conchita Alonso, Cleavant Derricks, Elya Baskin, Alejandro Rey, Paul Mazursky
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War and Soviet political repression of the early 1980s prior to perestroika, Vladimir Ivanoff (Robin Williams), a saxophonist with the Moscow circus, lives in a crowded apartment with his extended family. He stands in lines for hours to buy toilet paper and shoes. When the apparatchik assigned to the circus (Kramarov as Boris) criticizes Vladimir for being late to rehearsal and suggests Vladimir may miss the approaching trip to New York, Vladimir gives Boris a pair of shoes from the queue that made Vladimir late.
Space Is the Place (1974)
, 1h25Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Action, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films, Space opera
Actors John Bailey
Sun Ra, who has been reported lost since his European tour in June 1969, lands on a new planet in outerspace with his crew "The Arkestra" and decides to settle African Americans on this planet. The medium of transportation he had chosen is music. He travels back in time and returns to the Chicago strip club where he used to play piano with the name "Sonny Ray" in 1943. There he confronts The Overseer (Ray Johnson), a pimp-overlord, and they agree on a duel at cards for the fate of the Black race. Each card drawn is a minor goal to achieve for Ra or The Overseer which will determine the winner of the duel. Then, to present time, Ra disembarks from his spaceship at Oakland and tries to spread his word by meeting with young Blacks at an Oakland youth centre and opening an "employment agency" to recruit people eager to move to the planet. He also agrees with Jimmy Fey (Christopher Brooks), the minion of The Overseer, to arrange radio interviews, a record album, and eventually a concert that will help him dictate his message. At the end, Ra takes Fey's "Black parts" with him to the spaceship, leaving him with his White parts. Fey, now acting white, leaves The Overseer who loses the duel. The planet Earth is destroyed after Ra's spaceship flies into space.
Miles Ahead (2016)
, 1h40Directed by Don Cheadle
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Historical, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Ewan McGregor, Don Cheadle, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lakeith Stanfield, Austin Lyon
Durant la parenthèse de sa carrière (1975-1981), Miles Davis, à la dérive chez lui, se fait dérober une bande enregistrée. Le trompettiste se fait aider par Dave Brill, un journaliste de Rolling Stone, afin de la retrouver. Entre-temps, il se remémore ses années glorieuses sur scènes et ses années malheureuses avec son épouse Frances Taylor sous l'emprise d'alcool et de drogues avant son grand retour en 1981…
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947)
, 1h25Directed by George Seaton
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about classical music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films, Children's films
Actors Betty Grable, Dick Haymes, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Revere, Gene Lockhart, Elizabeth Patterson
Cynthia Pilgrim (Betty Grable) is the top typewriting (Typewriter) student of the first graduating class of the Packard Business College in New York City, and as such she is offered a position with the Pritchard Shipping Company in Boston. There, she finds an office of men overseen by office manager Mr. Saxon (Gene Lockhart). When Cynthia introduces herself to company co-owner John Pritchard (Dick Haymes), he tells her he thought all expert typists were male and his policy is to hire only men. Cynthia asks for an opportunity to prove she's as efficient as her male counterparts, but John refuses and offers her train fare back to New York.
The Jazz Singer (1928)
, 1h30Directed by Alan Crosland, Gordon Hollingshead
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about religion, Théâtre, Jazz films, Musical films, Films about Jews and Judaism, Films based on plays
Actors Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer, Myrna Loy, Otto Lederer
Cantor Rabinowitz wants his son to carry on the generations-old family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side. But down at the beer garden, thirteen-year-old Jakie Rabinowitz is performing so-called jazz tunes. Moisha Yudelson spots the boy and tells Jakie's father, who drags him home. Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!" Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away — and never come back!" After the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, true to his word, runs away. At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight – but now I have no son." As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother.