Best movies like The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach? Share your expertise to steer others to tv series and movies you've watched previously that might similarly absorb them. Aid in expanding the network of people mentioning videos to each other. We encourage your involvement!
Plot Summary:
Using letters Anna Magdalena Bach wrote to her husband, seminal composer Johann Sebastian, filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet created one of the most precise, rewarding biopics ever put to screen. CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH's intense emotional pull can be understood by its status as a musical film in the most thorough sense: its performances – staged as extended sequences set within the very spaces once occupied by Bach himself, with trained performers both donning and playing items accurate to the period – are immense, bringing us closer to the sound than was ever thought possible. Immaculately restored on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH invites viewers to experience a bygone age.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: West Germany, Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: contemplative, spiritual, atmospheric, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy, baroque, concert film
Best tv shows and movies like The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968):
Similar in 85%
Eroica (2003)
Plot Summary:
British filmmaker Simon Cellan Jones directs the BBC drama Eroica, starring Ian Hart as Ludwig van Beethoven. Shot on digital video, this TV film depicts the first performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony, June 9th, 1804, in Vienna, Austria. Prince Lobkowitz (Jack Davenport) has invited friends to listen to Beethoven conduct his new symphony for the first time. Among the aristocratic attendees are Count Dietrichstein (Tim Pigott-Smith), Countess Brunsvik (Claire Skinner), and composer Josef Haydn (Frank Finlay). The actual musical score is performed by the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 657
Genere: Drama, History, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 83%
The Devil's Violinist (2013)
Plot Summary:
The life story of Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini, who rose to fame as a virtuoso in the early 19th Century.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Musical
Country: Germany, Italy
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, atmospheric, factual, costume drama, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 77%
Paganini (1989)
Plot Summary:
Kinski believed that he lived through the same experiences as the legendary "devil violinist" Niccolo Paganini, who set whole Europe of the 19th century into frenzy and through whose personality Kinski offers us an incredibly profound and honest insight into his own life; a life of extremities.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, sincere, touching, melancholic
Similar in 90%
Spring Symphony (1983)
Plot Summary:
"Spring Symphony" is the story of Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck. Both were music entities. Robert Schumann turns out to have been a second tier composer, if that, never rising to the heights of a Beethoven or Mozart. In contrast, Clara Wieck was a master technician in the playing of the piano, a composer (probably not at Schumann's level), and was a child prodigy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 358
Genere: Biography, Music
Country: West Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 77%
I, Don Giovanni (2009)
Plot Summary:
A drama based on the life of 18th century Italian lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte, who collaborated with Mozart on his "Don Giovanni" opera.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 617
Genere: Drama, History, Music
Country: Italy, Spain, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, weird
Similar in 87%
Farinelli (1994)
Plot Summary:
Farinelli is a 1994 biopic film about the life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: France, Italy, Belgium, UK
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: realistic, heartbreaking, factual, sexy, emotional, disturbing, touching, erotic, dramatic, visual
Similar in 75%
Cornelis (2010)
Plot Summary:
”Cornelis” is the unique chronicle about one of Sweden’s greatest music legends - Cornelis Vreeswijk. An honest and gripping account of an exceptionally talented, but self-destructive artist’s intense life both on and behind the stage. A man who during his whole life was searching for love and confirmation.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Sweden
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: captivating, contemplative, atmospheric, psychological, factual, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The King Is Dancing (2000)
Plot Summary:
Louis XIV, the French sun-king has two passions, establishing absolute rule over the realm -after decades of religious/civil wars- by divine right and artistic brilliancy as a dancer.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Music
Country: France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, stylized, serious, realistic, captivating, dramatic, visual, historical drama, mesmerizing, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Wagner (1983)
Plot Summary:
A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 605
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: UK, Austria, Hungary
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: historical drama, sentimental, epic, serious, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 78%
All the Mornings of the World (1991)
Plot Summary:
It's late 17th century. The viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe comes home to find that his wife died while he was away. In his grief he builds a small house in his garden into wich he moves to dedicate his life to music and his two young daughters Madeleine and Toinette, avoiding the outside world. Rumor about him and his music is widespread, and even reaches to the court of Louis XIV, who wants him at his court in Lully's orchestra, but Monsieur de Sainte Colombe refuses. One day a young man, Marin Marais, comes to see him with a request, he wants to be taught how to play the viol.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: visually stunning, emotional, stylized, romantic, gothic, spiritual, anthology, historical drama, mesmerizing, crying
Similar in 83%
Mahler on the Couch (2010)
Plot Summary:
Alma Mahler's affair with the young architect Walter Gropius sets in motion a marital drama that forces her husband Gustav Mahler to seek advice from Sigmund Freud.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 486
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Austria
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, realistic, serious, art house
Similar in 85%
Mahler (1974)
Plot Summary:
The film begins on a train journey with Gustav Mahler (Robert Powell) and his wife Alma (Georgina Hale) confronting their failing marriage. The story is then recounted in a series of flashbacks (some of which are surrealistic and nightmarish), taking one through Mahler's childhood, his brother's suicide, his experience with anti-semitism, his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism, his marital problems, and the death of his young daughter. The film also contains a surreal fantasy sequence involving the anti-Semitic Cosima Wagner (Antonia Ellis), widow of Richard Wagner, whose objections to his taking control of the Court Opera were supposedly removed by his conversion to Catholicism. In the process, the film explores Mahler's music and its relationship to his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: road movie, psychedelic, art house, historical drama, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 87%
Immortal Beloved (1994)
Plot Summary:
The life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Beside all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was. Not easy as Beethoven has had many women in his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Mystery, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: emotional, visual, costume drama, informative, dramatic, visually stunning, touching, epic, intellectual, gothic
Similar in 89%
Song of Norway (1970)
Plot Summary:
Like the play from which it derived, the film tells of the early struggles of composer Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music. It stars Toralv Maurstad as Grieg and features an international cast including Florence Henderson, Christina Schollin, Robert Morley, Harry Secombe, Oskar Homolka, Edward G. Robinson and Frank Porretta (as Rikard Nordraak). Filmed in Super Panavision 70 by Davis Boulton and presented in single-camera Cinerama in some countries, it was an attempt to capitalise on the success of The Sound of Music.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Biography, Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, 70mm film
Similar in 78%
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)
Plot Summary:
A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Canada, Netherlands, Portugal, Finland
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: existential, independent film, spiritual, anthology, serious, realistic, contemplative, philosophical, atmospheric, thought provoking
Similar in 79%
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)
Plot Summary:
A biography of Ian Dury, who was stricken with polio at a young age and defied expectations by becoming one of the founders of the punk-rock scene in Britain in the 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, cult classic, teen, offbeat, biting, uplifting, suspense
Similar in 78%
In His Life: The John Lennon Story (2000)
Plot Summary:
A film about the early life of the rock musician and his burgeoning career as a member of the Beatles.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 695
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, rockumentary
Similar in 77%
Hilary and Jackie (1998)
Plot Summary:
The tragic story of world-renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, as told from the point of view of her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré-Finzi.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: emotional, philosophical, independent film, depressing, steamy, tense, sentimental, clever, serious, captivating
Similar in 75%
Copying Beethoven (2006)
Plot Summary:
A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Germany, UK, Hungary
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, realistic, serious, stylized, period piece, psychological, inspirational, sincere, spiritual
Similar in 89%
The Music Lovers (1971)
Plot Summary:
Composer, conductor and teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexual tendencies by marrying, but unfortunately he chooses a wonky, nymphomaniac girl whom he cannot satisfy.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: historical drama, psychological, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010)
Plot Summary:
A glimpse at the life of French singer Serge Gainsbourg, from growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s to his death in 1991 at the age of 62.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, lyrical, visually appealing, captivating, sincere, touching, thought provoking, stylized, intense
Similar in 79%
Scott Joplin (1977)
Plot Summary:
Details the life story of Scott Joplin and how he became the greatest ragtime composer of all time.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, period piece
Similar in 90%
Bride of the Wind (2001)
Plot Summary:
A biopic of Alma Mahler, the wife of composer Gustav Mahler (as well as Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel), and the mistress of Oskar Kokoschka.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: UK, Germany, Austria
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, heartbreaking, visual, visually stunning, independent film, period drama
Similar in 86%
For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1970s, Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (Andy Garcia) is torn between his own musical dreams and the dreams of his wife, Marianela (Mía Maestro), a fervent supporter of the ideals of the Castro revolution. Also starring Charles S. Dutton as Dizzy Gillespie and José Zúñiga as Paquito D'Rivera, this gripping jazz biopic is at once a detailed portrait of a musician and a stinging critique.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, serious, independent film
Similar in 80%
The Overture (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on the life of Luang Pradit Pairoh (Sorn Silapabanleng) the most revered traditional Thai music master who lived during the reigns of Kings Rama V to VIII, the movie traces the life of Sorn, who picked up the ra-nad ek (Thai xylophone) mallets as a small child and played all his life. The backdrop to Sorn's life tale is the story of Thailand's classical music from its golden age during the reign of King Rama V to near extinction after the end of the absolute monarchy when the government banned it as uncivilised in the 1930s -- a time when Field Marshall Plaek Pibulsongkram tried to push the Kingdom into the modern era.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: Thailand
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, emotional, serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 88%
Nina (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of the late jazz musician and classical pianist Nina Simone including her rise to fame and relationship with her manager Clifton Henderson.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, touching, serious, controversial, thought provoking, anamorphic, realistic, black cinema
Similar in 82%
Two Sons of Francisco (2005)
Plot Summary:
The story of Francisco, a very simple and poor man whose dream was to see his children become country music stars, and who made all the efforts to make it happen.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Western
Country: Brazil
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, stylized
Similar in 82%
King of Salsa (2006)
Plot Summary:
The rise and fall of salsa singer, Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993), as told from the perspective of his wife Puchi, who looks back from 2002.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, informative, sentimental, vintage
Similar in 79%
Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013)
Plot Summary:
A drama based on Jimi Hendrix's life as he left New York City for London, where his career took off.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA, Ireland, UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, atmospheric, captivating, retro, cult classic, serious, black cinema
Similar in 88%
Bird (1988)
Plot Summary:
Saxophone player Charlie Parker comes to New York in 1940. He is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 161 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological, factual, stylized, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic