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Lives of Artists: Great Films
Frida [2003]Frida [2003]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £3.10
Beautiful film about the life of artist Frida Kahlo: her crippling accident, her marriage to artist Diego Rivera and her brave and deeply personal art.
The Hours [2003]The Hours [2003]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £4.00
Wonderful, heart-rending story of author Virginia Woolf. Spans three eras and three women's struggles with depression and life.
Carrington [1995]Carrington [1995]
Buy new: £2.98 / Used from: £3.99
Story of unfulfilled love between tomboy painter Dora Carrington and gay writer Lytton Strachey. Based around the Bloomsbury group.
Iris [2002]Iris [2002]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £4.08
Novelist Iris Murdoch as a young academic and later as she suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Based on the memoirs of her husband John Bayley. Very moving and beautiful acting from Judi Dench.
Sylvia [2004]Sylvia [2004]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £7.99
The unhappy and passionate life of poet Sylvia Plath, centred around her stormy relationship with Ted Hughes.
Wilde [1997]Wilde [1997]
Buy used from: £4.87
Oscar Wilde's life, his gay relationship with arrogant, selfish young Bosie, and his later imprisonment. Beautiful acting from Stephen Fry.
Quills [2001]Quills [2001]
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The insatiable Marquis de Sade and his erotic writing, which he refused to stop doing even when incarcerated in an asylum as a result.
Becoming Jane [2006]Becoming Jane [2006]
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £4.95
Great film about the life of Jane Austen, showing how her experiences inspired her writing.
Miss Potter [2006]Miss Potter [2006]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £3.39
Beatrix Potter's high society upbringing and her determination to publish her books in spite of her mother's disapproval. Great acting from Rene Zellweger.
Finding Neverland [2004]Finding Neverland [2004]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £1.10
Heartwarming, sad and magical story of J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan.
Girl With A Pearl Earring [2004]Girl With A Pearl Earring [2004]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £1.49
Slow paced film about Dutch artist Vermeer, who paints his maid Griet; their intimacy causes jealousy in his family. The film is focussed on Griet more than on Vermeer's art in general.
Hilary And Jackie [1998]Hilary And Jackie [1998]
Buy new: £6.97 / Used from: £13.97
Moving film about the life of cellist Jaqueline Du Pre and her sister Hilary.
The Pianist [2003]The Pianist [2003]
Buy used from: £3.95
Set during the Holocaust. Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist eludes the Nazis, but suffers the loss of family members. One of the best films I have ever seen.
Amadeus -- Director's Cut 2-Disc Special Edition [1985]Amadeus -- Director's Cut 2-Disc Special Edition [1985]
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £3.50
The life and music of child-genius Mozart.
Immortal Beloved [1995]Immortal Beloved [1995]
Beethoven the deaf composer: his beautiful music, his many passionate romances and his struggles with depression.
Surviving Picasso [1996] [1997]Surviving Picasso [1996] [1997]
Buy used from: £15.99
The life and loves of Picasso. Not available on DVD at present, only VHS.
Goya's Ghosts [2006]Goya's Ghosts [2006]
Buy new: £4.74 / Used from: £2.99
More about the Spanish Inquisition than about Goya and his art.
Klimt [2007]Klimt [2007]
Buy new: £11.98 / Used from: £10.00
Shine [1997]Shine [1997]
Buy new: £4.98
Touching story of pianist David Helfgott, who rose to fame at a young age and later suffered from schizophrenia.