An award winning film full of baroque splendour. The talented composer Antonio Salieri found himself in competition with Mozart, a genius, and he couldn't understand why God favored such a vulgar creature to be his instrument. Salieri turned into a hate-filled monster, whose aim in life became to ruin his colleague, but he emerges as a tragic and sympathetic character. He alone could appreciate the perfection of Mozart's music and, perhaps, he speaks up for all of us whose talents fall short of find out more...

A gilded bio of the legendary balladeer, Woody Gutherie, and his hobo existence in 1930s depression-hit America. Beautifully shot and, as you would expect, with an amazing score, Bound For Glory is a loving recreation of Gutherie as an American icon, the people's poet bringing light and hope to the down trodden masses; a gentle, elegiac film far removed from director Hal Ashby's previous work. find out more...

A fictionalized version of the last three years of Beethoven's life, beginning with the composition of the Ninth Symphony. Set in 1824 Beethoven is finishing his new symphony, but plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma he struggles to cope. A new copyist, Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) is engaged to help prepare the score for the first performance, but Beethoven's erratic behaviour proves to be more of a challenge than transcribing the score. Although, at times, dangerously close to paro find out more...

Kline and Judd combine well in this delightful homage to the life and times of Cole and Linda Porter, man and wife, composer and muse, a couple who led a life of glamour and indulged eccentricity. There's no shortage of the man's music, which is unfortunately sometimes murdered by using a series of unsuitable singers; "It's De-Lovely" by Robbie Williams, "Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)" by Alanis Morissette, "Begin The Beguine" by Sheryl Crow, "Let's Misbehave" by Elvis Costello, "Be a Clown" find out more...

Based on Eric Fenby's 1936 memoir 'Delius As I Knew Him', we follow the last five years of the composer, by now blind, paralysed, embittered and at war with the world, as Fenby helps him formulate into music the compositions he still has whirling around his mind. 'Delius - Song of Summer' is a powerful and moving story. find out more...

The BFI continues its successful strand of Archive Television releases with Ken Russell's classic documentary Elgar, which was first shown in 1962 as the 100th programme in the BBC's Monitor series. This partly dramatised account of the life of composer Sir Edward Elgar includes footage of Elgar at the Three Choirs Festival and a recording of the opening of Abbey Road Studios when 'Land Of Hope And Glory' was played. find out more...

By the time the first public performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) took place in Vienna in 1805, a privileged few had already heard the work at a private play-through at the Lobkowitz Palace. Nick Dear's award-winning period drama, starring Ian Hart as Beethoven, brings to intense life the momentous event that prompted Haydn to remark 'everything is different from today'. find out more...

The title refers to the legatee of Ludwig Van's worldly goods, and the film is a kind of musical detective story that explores the life and loves of Beethoven, who may have been the 'immortal beloved'. Exhilarating musical set-pieces from the Violin Concerto and the Eroica, amongst others, score persuasive points for classical music. find out more...

Small time gangster's moll Blondie kidnaps a big-wig local politico's junkie wife in order to secure her husband's release from the local mafiosi. Altman's homage to his hometown is a swirl of bourbon soaked atmospherics on the themes of love, crime, race and politics, grafted onto a fine jazz soundtrack. find out more...

Cornwall in 1936 is still a timeless place. Sisters, Janet and Ursula Widdington discover a castaway on the beach below their house, and with the help of the local doctor they nurse him back to health. During his convalescence the sisters discover his talent as a musician and the unsettling effect he has on them both - especially Ursula, whose life will never be the same again. Award winning actresses Dame Judi Dench and Maggie Smith star in this evocative, heart-warming story of unfulfilled dre find out more...