Movies: Tony Palmer

Shot over the course of a year, this intimate portrait of provocative composer John Adams presents scenes of the artist at work and at play against the backdrop of dramatic American landscapes that reflect the themes of his music. Though he has a num...

Tony Palmer directs this documentary exploring the life and work of the celebrated English composer, conductor and pianist. Britten is particularly well known for his operas, which include 'Peter Grimes' and 'Death in Venice'. Palmer discusses the li...

Tony Palmer directs this 1970 documentary about Scottish bass player and former Cream member Jack Bruce. The film tracks Bruce's life from his childhood in the Gorbals to the height of his fame with Cream and beyond....

A biographical look at the career of the acclaimed Margot Fonteyn. As a little girl called Peggy Hookham growing up in Shanghai, she told her mother she would one day become the greatest dancer in the world. Still performing at the age of 67 despite ...

70s Butlins documentary, part of a series of films directed by Tony Palmer, which was announced in The Stage [The Stage, 25 July 1974, p.14] "Tony Palmer is directing a new series with Harriet Crawley which will be seen in the HTV area. Tentatively t...

Documentary covering the famous Wigan Casino northern soul venue and the working class kids who spend all their money not on alcohol but on records and dancing all night....

In November 1971, Ginger Baker, the legendary drummer of Cream and Blind Faith, decided to set up a recording studio in Lagos, then the capital of Nigeria. Baker was one of the first rock musicians to realize the potential of African music. He also d...

This emotional film by the award-winning director Tony Palmer includes a performance of the “Third Symphony” by The London Sinfonietta alongside powerful footage of Górecki at Auschwitz and Birkenau....

Documentary about Butlins...

Tony Palmer's documentary about the staging of Britten's choral work....

Interviews, footage and photos profile violinist Yehudi Menuhin as prodigy, musician, husband, father and teacher....

Making of "200 Motels"....

A behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape....

Directed by renowned British film director Tony Palmer, this film captures the band at the Maidstone Fiesta during the summer of 1970 as they run through their set of the time. This included various jigs and reels, and the songs Sir Patrick Spens and...

Explores the life and career of American soprano Renée Fleming. Share an intimate visit with Renée behind the scenes, at home and on stage as she rehearses and performs in Verdi’s Otello and Requiem, and sings Strauss, Mozart, Dvorák, Korngold, Ellin...

The great composer of The Planets, Gustav Holst also taught himself Sanskrit, lived in a street of brothels in Algiers, cycled into the Sahara Desert, and allied himself during the First World War with a ‘red priest' who pinned on the door of his chu...

The life of composer, conductor, pianist and Oscar-winner Andre Previn, filmed during a year which culminated in the world premiere of his first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, in San Francisco. Wherever he went, the camera followed. To Tokyo for a ...

Tony Palmer appeared at Harrogate Film Festival on 12 March 2020 as part of a celebration of his work which included a screening of Mighty Good, his television documentary about the Beatles era. This independent documentary feature chronicles that oc...

Award-winning filmmaker Tony Palmer directs this riveting documentary on the life and times of influential English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. With archived performances by conductor Sir Adrian Boult and stirring musical passages from "The Talli...

Tony Palmer examines the life and legacy of the German composer, Carl Orff....