Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A Rahne I wish I could find this on DVD, I saw it in 1995 when it was shown on public T.V. and was blown away. The choice of musicians for the individual songs is masterful. Nick Cave gives a deliciously creepy take on Mac The Knife, Elvis Costello breathes a wavering pathos into Lost in the Stars, and Charlie Haydon's Speak Low is one of the few instrumental pieces that can bring me to tears. The CD is available on Amazon.com and I highly recommend it. I would comment on the ignorance of the user who complained about this being about "some German guy" but its obvious that person was far out of his depth musically and culturally.

afc-ajax This is what modern documentary filmmaking is meant to be. Neither relying on talking-head interviews nor re-enactment, "September Songs" attempts to convey the great talent, contribution, and indeed the trials of Kurt Weil's journey from pre-WWII Germany to his eminent destination, the U.S.The performances by Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, and PJ Harvey are wonderful and inflect a properly dark, dramatic tone which parallels the hard and often persecuted life of the composer.Buy the soundtrack - see the film.

whiteheaddr I was lucky enough to see 59 out of 89 minutes of this tv film and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the culture of Avant Garde Germany in the 1920's, the link between Weill and the American musicals genre, opera, the relationship between Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Lotte Lenya. It is a film that explores Weill's movement from Germany to America and extracts of the music he wrote in both countries from the 20's to 1950. The film shows an eclectic cast interpreting his music and in the process revealing the atmosphere of his work and allowing the viewer to discover the relationship between the cabaret scene of Berlin in the 20's and 30's and the birth of the American musical and a connection to modern opera. Nick Cave sings his most famous song written for the "Threepenny Opera", Mack the Knife(a favourite of Frank Sinatra and many others). Lou Reed does one number,Teresa Stratas sings Youkali and another number beautifully, Elvis Costello sings "Lost in the Stars" and William S. Burroughs gives a spoken/sung rendition of "What Keeps Mankind Alive" which is pretty amazing in itself. The songs in this programme created an atmosphere that was unmistakable and I found the treatment totally sympathetic to Weill and his music. There are a number of voice overs of Lotte Lenya(Weill's wife)singing well known songs from his back catalogue and even Bertolt Brecht singing a number. It is intercut with industrial and military images from Hitler's Germany and goes on to show early footage of America. I thought the film lovingly produced and enjoyed every second of it, my only disappointment being that I did not manage to catch the whole film. The music is as compelling as you would imagine from a man was considered the equal of and collaborated with Langston Hughes, Moss Hart, Maxwell Anderson, Ira Gershwin, Bertolt Brecht and made a reputation blending classical opera, folk music and dissonant jazz. Despite the previous reviewers lack of familiarity with Weill his work has attracted interpretation by well known artists of the past and continues to do so e.g. Rise Stevens, Beatrice Arthur, Adolph Green, Gertrude Lawrence, Danny Kaye, Chita Rivera, Ann Miller, Sting, Tom Waits, Marianne Faithful, Marc Almond, The Doors, Dagmar Krause, David Bowie, Ute Lemper and so on.This is a film that uses a montage of images, voice overs, songs and music to create an understanding, it isn't a linear narrative throughout although it does explore his life in a linear representation of his movements and works. It is fascinating and poignant and is not just a film, it transcends the category and at points becomes art. The presentation on tv was accompanied by subtitles for the occasional number sung in German. The decision to do this gives the viewer the advantage of listening to the expressive qualities of the words and music with a translation to aid understanding. I cannot recommend this film highly enough.

Serva I'm happy to see that not many people have seen this... this... thing. At the same time it's strange that so many have voted it a 10. Then again if you enjoy watching badly conceived shows of old music, that you won't understand for the most part because of the foreign language, for one and a half hours then I guess this is paradise.Personally I think the movie is utterly pretentious and extremely amateurishly done nonsense. Several people walked out of the theater when I saw this movie. I really tried, I really did but I couldn't stand it either. This is a movie about some german music person that I had never heard of before. The special effects are worse than bad (take a look at the "flames" in the beginning). The female singer who looks like a guy, they film her hairy armpit in the middle of the screen for minutes. I mean come on people we are doing a movie here. There is a reason you have a make-up department. One of the dancers in a scene is rather bulky. I have nothing against people with "big-bones", but again we are producing a film. All these stupid things just turn the movie into a parody of itself. Avoid at all costs.