What is Your Favourite Rock Film?

Was just recently watching 'live at Pompeii' by Pink Floyd, and though I'm not much of a fan it struck me as a very interesting and well-filmed document in the band's history. Are there any similar films I should be watching? I'm personally more interested in rock films that feature the actual band than biopics but feel free to discuss any music-related film you love in here. (Doesn't have to be strictly limited to rock music as well, just think there's far more documents of rock history than those of any other genre)

Festival Express has nice footage of the Dead, The Band, and more circa 1970. Can Film (included in the CAN DVD set) is pretty mindbending. I like the Wire dvd, too. It's one hour of the band on German TV from right before 154.

Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll about putting together an All-Star Chuck Berry concert. Lot's of fun watching Keef and Chuck argue, or Bo Diddley, Little Richard and Chuck talk about how they got ripped off. From Taylor Hackford, same guy who made Ray.

This thread reminds me that Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains was finally released on DVD last fall.

MC5: A True Testimonial usually hovers at the top of my list.

I just watched X:The Unheard Music. It's well made on it's own right, and a very good document of the mid-80s zeitgeist beyond the band. Like X, it's both straightforward and artsy. While I knew about Billy Zoom's pre-punk career, it's cool to see Bonebreak whack out Hampton's "Flying Home" on the vibes, too. There was so much going on with that band.

The Kids Are Alright Shows the story of The Who with clips of amazing performances and interview moments without narration or
any overt sense of order. A brilliant documentary format, and full of laughs and noise.

Urgh! A Music War easy. It was a near-perfect snapshot of post-punk & I loved how it caught each aspect of the (non)movement at the time: the pioneers (Pere Ubu); the superstars in gestation (The Police); the awesome band at the peak of their powers (OMD); the nearly-fogotten-but-later-rediscovered (Klaus Nomi); and the merely forgotten (Athletico Spizz 80). And everything in between, really.

We Jam Econo - the Minutemen pic
Instrument - Fugazi pic
This is not a photograph - Mission of Burma pic
the Ramones bio pic - called The End of The Century, right?
some bits in loudQUIETloud -the Pixies pic
waiting with baited breath for Lemmy bio pic -
may get that fatomas/melvins thing that's out now ... it's good I hear

my three faves would be "no direction home" (scorsese on dylan, documentary with lots of interviews with friends), the miles davis story (documentary) and "let's get lost" (on chet baker). control, the corbijn film on joy division is pretty good too.

i forgot "the last waltz", the 1976 concert of the band with people like neil young, joni mitchell, van morrison, neil diamond, muddy waters, bob dylan etc. it captures the spirit of that time quite well. the band is pretty average but all in all this was a pretty amazing concert.

Unquestionably this:

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we jam econo

we jam econo disqualified itself when it included an interview with the 'get your war on' guy where he compared minutemen lyrics to wittgenstein

I haven't watched Urgh! A Music War in a few years but I remember loving it.

The music movie I've watched the most is the Fred Frith/Nicolas Humbert film Step Across The Border. Don't know if you'd call it a "rock film" but there are electric guitars. Umm...

devil and daniel johnston
fearless freaks
the roky erickson doc that i cant seem to remember the title of.

anyone seen the betty blowtorch documentary? it is on its way soon from netflix and i am curious to see if it is awesome or terrible.

Dig! is good for the sheer awfulness of lead Brian Jonestown guy.

And End of the Century about the Ramones is pretty sad stuff, along with having great archive footage.

This is Spinal Tap!

after browsing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Music_documentary_films i have settled on Tech N9ne: The Psychumentary

Don't Look Back, MC5: A True Testimonial. My actual favorite might be The Road to God Knows Where with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. It's hilarious!

The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King

It isnt all that well documented but film from the 1967 'monterey pop festival' includes some amazing performances by Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the mamas and the papas, Joplin and Hendrix. I think this might be the best live performance of Jimi Hendrix ever recorded.

school of rock
this is spinal tap
new york doll
fearless freaks

desperate man blues

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/michaelwalford/2008/05/03/brighton_rock_1.jpg

Kids Are Alright, original version with A Quick One. Midnight movie in Queens NY for a while in the 80s, so much fun.

The Stones own this shit ...

Performance
Gimme Shelter
Cocksucker Blues

in that order) and an honorable mention for Rolling Stones Rock N' Roll Circus

Just saw Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, which was pretty good lo-fi underground fun.

I keep catching Tommy on late night cable, and being knocked away by how much fun a film everybody seems to hate can be, but then - it's a Ken Russell movie!

Kids Are Alright
We Jam Econo
Step Across the Border (Fred Frith doc)

High School Confidential
The Girl Can't Help It

^^^need some shine

As does All You Need Is Cash.

Gawd so many but a looooooooong-time fave is the microbudget rocksploitation gem Rock, Baby, Rock It! (1957). Shot by a Dallas promoter named J.G. Tiger (sometimes Tigar) who chewed on raw garlic (and not for health reasons), it's a precious snapshot of rock 'n' roll's decentralized challenge to the Tin Pan Alley/Hollywood hotbeds. This film is so rock 'n' roll, in fact, that the typically scant narrative portions contain an explicit dig at capitalism (in 1957!!!). The most famous performer is probably Johnny Caroll. Watch his guitarist beat the hot poop out of his guitar at :37 here:

Shit, that's alright! I'll have to check it out.

Is anybody going to rep for any of those Alan Freed pictures with the lousy stories but the good performances from Little Richard and Chuck Berry, etc?

I will! They're essential viewing for how they reveal the difficulties (and ultimate impossibility?) of incorporating rock 'n' roll into a narrative film. Rock Around The Clock (1956) especially throws up its hands at this crazy new sound. Plus it releases a lot of anxiety about ball-busting career women. Alix Talton's performance as the perfectly coiffed, promoter-as-dominatrix Corinne Talbot stands alongside similar contemporary performances by Barbara Stanwyck in Executive Suite (1954) and Joan Crawford in The Best of Everything (1959). And Rock, Rock, Rock demonstrates how poorly suited rock 'n' roll is for the so-called "integrated musical" (a term I loathe but...). The film neatly divides the musical numbers between explicitly marked rock ‘n’ roll performances (Chuck Berry, Johnny Burnette, The Moonglows, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers) and fuckin' GODAWFUL spontaneous outbursts of song, two of which Tuesday Weld lip-syncs to Connie Francis. And then there's this nightmare (WARNING: the following cause the poking out of eyeballs):

the following MAY (WILL?) cause the poking out of eyeballs, that is

One of those movies finally hipped me to Little Richard's stage drummer, Charles Connor, who didn't usually get to record, although it was he, not Earl Palmer, who played the famous part on "Keep A Knockin'"

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000EXDSC0.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2004/09/23/movies/Meyer2650.jpg

25 X 5

This is The Kelly Affair soon to be dubbed "The Carrie Nations" performing "Sweet Talking Candyman" from Russ Meyer's 1970 film "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" :

I will rep here for the Alan Freed biopic American Hot Wax, which is incredible.

And I'll second The Girl Can't Help It, a great comedy that just happens to feature Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, etc.

all-time favorite:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C51ATPXWL._SS500_.jpg

Monk is possessed.
I am envious.

http://www.bethquick.com/ftp.bethquick.com/jesus_christ_superstar.jpg

I'm sorry; I'll stop now.

http://www.fabulousnowhere.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/BlackpoolDVD.jpg

Monk flick is great. "I'm famous? Ain't that a bitch."

http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/media/images/music/dvd/ggallin.jpg

Hype (a fabulous look at the effects of media overexposure on the Seattle grunge scene)

Another State Of Mind (great interviews with early 80's punks interspersed with killer live footage)

Decline Of Western Civilization has its moments also.

surely there is a similar thread in the archives?

Best movies about Rock Bands

Rock movies: Head, Gimmie Shelter, etc....

HELP. Movies about music

just sayin'.

Live in Pompeii is incredible. 'Step Across the Border' seems great from that clip, and I had no idea there was an Alan Freed biopic out there!

have there been any good films made about the whole 60s/70s LA/Laurel Canyon scene? or a biopic with some crossover at least, i've got a craving...

Velvet Goldmine

also, saying this is a "rock" film is a huuuuge stretch, but someone needs to mention tony conrad and the invasion of thunderbolt pagoda on this here page...

I don't think there are many good rock films, which seems odd. Some films roughly about music that are good:

Style Wars - early graff and general hip hop PBS doc

Wild Style - first and prolly still best hip hop fiction film

Stop Making Sense - Wonderful Talking Heads concert film

Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker doc shot in mellow, arty way

24 Hour Party People - Joy Division/Happy Mondays but a larf

Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme - Infectious, edumacational doc

People who do not know the music involved should enjoy all of these esp. in a theater, with the possible exceptions of Wild Style, which is a a great indie film snapshot of a scene disguised as a narrative, therefore not too concerned with plot and acting and things, and Let's Get Lost maybe.

Nobody's mentioned Scorsese's The Last Waltz, is it shit?