From Metallica to Kurt Cobain via Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan, discover our selection of the 10 best rock documentaries.
Cinema has always loved giving actors the opportunity to play a rock star, to pretend to be an iconic musician or singer. But still, nothing beats the real thing… On the occasion of the release of the film Get Back by Peter Jackson, which retraces the preparation of the album in six episodes Let It Be by the Beatles as the band began to fall apart, we've compiled a list of the 10 greatest music documentaries of all time: the concert films, tour chronicles and time capsules that set the standard and stood the test of time.
10 – Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
If Metallica had a taste for the absurd, the band could have been accused of staging its sessions with its therapist, Phil Towle, as an attempt to make its own Spinal Tap. But when Lars Ulrich begins to respond to his long-time companions in the style of couples therapy, we no longer really know what to think. Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were there only for a small making-of shoot, but when it became clear that one of the biggest rock bands in the world was in the midst of an existential crisis, they stayed behind and indelibly captured the dynamics and connections that make any creative endeavor work, and often doom it to failure. How bad Some Kind of Monster is it a good documentary? It almost makes you want to listen again St. Anger. -ITS
09 – Homecoming (2019)
From the moment Beyoncé Knowles, dressed like a modern-day Nefertiti, proudly descended her staircase at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the first of two headlining concerts, we knew these concerts would be historic. This year's edition didn't end up being nicknamed “Beychella” for nothing… Yes Homecoming had been nothing more than a succession of raw images of his iconic performances, it would still be considered one of the best music documentaries of recent decades. But this insight into the creation of these epic concerts, directed by Beyoncé herself, also allows viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the hard work she put into creating this mix of marching bands, dancers and revised renditions of her biggest hits, as well as how she used this moment in the spotlight to pay tribute to civil rights leaders, historically black colleges and black culture past and present. Glory to Queen B. -DF
08 – Monterey Pop (1968)
We should never downplay the importance of a documentary being in the right place at the right time. And from June 16 to 18, 1967, the right place was the Monterey County Fairgrounds. With his cameras moving through the crowd in the hands of Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles, director DA Pennebaker captured not only musical performances (mostly phenomenal, by the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and many others) but also the flower-power culture that underpinned them. Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire remains the iconic image of Monterey Popbut Otis Redding bringing Southern soul to the hippie nation was no less revolutionary. -ITS
07 – Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
A multimedia mix of home movies, diary excerpts, drawings, notebook scribbles and audio recordings of Kurt Cobain (with, of course, excerpts from period interviews and concerts), Brett Morgen's documentary is more than a must-see for Nirvana fans. It is a collective, loving effort that offers an unfiltered insight into the singer-songwriter's state of mind, from his first creative impulses to the downward spiral. When Cobain thanks the audience for Unplugged by the end of the film, you feel like you know the man himself. -DF
06 – The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
Music documentaries tend to focus on people who are already famous. Why spend two hours on a band you've never heard of? But Penelope Spheeris's document of the Los Angeles punk scene focuses on its subjects before they take off: at one point, Exene Cervenka, of the band X, worries about a possible backlash if they started charging $6 admission. (Black Flag's Ron Reyes proudly shows off the dorm room he pays $16 a month for: a closet in a crumbling deconsecrated church). Although the songs are literally subtitled for the less punk among us, the documentary makes few concessions for the faint of heart: the film plunges you into the pit and leaves you to fend for yourself. -ITS
05 – Amazing Grace (2018)
It took 46 years to see it, but this film chronicling Aretha Franklin's two concerts at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in 1972 (the same ones that gave us Franklin's legendary live album) was well worth the wait. Sydney Pollack's film is not so much a document of a performance as a visual extension of the ecstasy that the singer, her collaborators and the crowd felt. No matter how many times you've heard his renditions of ” Wholy Holy ” Or ” Never Grow Old »: seeing Aretha Franklin, eyes closed and head bowed, literally experiencing these pieces, is like a revelation. (Seeing the chorus stand up and cheer for Aretha during the title song is capable of bringing an entire movie theater to tears). Watch the Queen of Soul whip audiences from regular Mick Jagger devotees into a divine frenzy and you'll feel like you've seen the face of God. -DF
04 – Stop Making Sense (1984)
What was the Talking Heads' strategy for filming their euphoric 1984 concert? “ We didn't want this bullshitexplained drummer Chris Frantz to WECB. We didn't want the clichés. » Eschewing audience shots and instead focusing on evocative lighting and imaginative sets, Jonathan Demme captures the band at the peak of their creativity, spinning songs from their then-latest album, Speaking in Tongueswhile brilliantly reimagining older tracks like “ Once in a Lifetime ” and a “David Byrne alone with a drum machine” version of “ Psycho Killer “. 88 minutes of pleasure, a happy marriage between New Wave, funk and Byrne's inspired and crazy staging. -TG
03 – Gimme Shelter (1970)
What made the Rolling Stones so beautiful was their total and hedonistic embrace of the “sex and danger” ethic of rock. The horror of this documentary comes from its clear-eyed look at the band's kinetic power on stage, which could be both hypnotic and terrifying in its intensity. We especially remember Gimme Shelter for its chilling finale (the death of spectator Meredith Hunter during the Stones' free concert at Altamont in 1969) but throughout the film, directors Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin were able to give a haunting idea of the dark energy of the group, which evoked liberation and nihilism. And the final shot of Mick Jagger's reaction is haunting. -TG
02 – The Last Waltz (1978)
When The Band decided to call it quits with one final concert in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day 1976, they held not a funeral, but a wake. Directed by Martin Scorsese just before he embarked on Raging Bullthis concert film is, above all, a celebration of the American-Canadian quintet who helped bring the musical past of the United States into the present. But it's also a tribute to their inspirations and peers, with performances by Neil Young and Muddy Waters interspersed with interviews with the band members reminiscing about the things they've seen and the lessons they've learned. Of course, The Last Waltz is nostalgic, but the richness of the music and the resolutely elegiac tone give the film a timelessness that transports it. Even Neil Diamond is great. -TG
01 – Don't Look Back (1967)
Even if you've never seen Don't Look Backyou know it by heart. The song “ Subterranean Homesick Blues ” (repeated by everyone from INXS to Bob Roberts), which opens the film, is the most obvious cultural reference. But in a broader sense, this documentary about Bob Dylan's 1965 British tour is the enduring model of the public's image of mid-'60s rock & roll. The joys and sorrows of the tour, the exuberance of a new talent setting the world on fire, the journalists who don't understand anything… director DA Pennebaker's hand-held camera captured it all. In doing so, he made Dylan an icon, galvanized a generation, and helped transform a singular moment in the evolution of “youth music” into a compelling and indelible drama. -TG
