The "Best Bio-Pics Ever Made"
According to Richard Brody, a movie critic for the New Yorker magazine, bio-pics "present very particular artistic challenges" so he wrote an article that explores the ones that "transcend them." Those movies are listed below. Some are very well known and widely seen (three are even on IMDb's Top 250), while others are little known and a few even hard to find. Which is your favorite or which one would you most like to see?
Please feel free to discuss here.
Note: Movies are listed in chronological order, as they are in the New Yorker article, which can be read here.
Please feel free to discuss here.
Note: Movies are listed in chronological order, as they are in the New Yorker article, which can be read here.
List activity
54 views
• 2 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
34 titles
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsErrol FlynnAlexis SmithJack CarsonAs bare-knuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert, Jim Corbett, uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the top of the boxing world.
- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsJoel McCreaBetty FieldHarry CareyThe biography of Dr. W. T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia, in the form of ether, accepted by the public and the medical and dental establishment.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsNikolay CherkasovLyudmila TselikovskayaSerafima BirmanDuring the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsNikolay CherkasovSerafima BirmanPavel KadochnikovAs Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate their Tsar.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsGeorge SandersSigne HassoCarole LandisBorn in a French prison in 1775, François Eugène Vidocq becomes a professional thief and is later appointed chief of Parisian police.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMinosuke BandôKinuyo TanakaKôtarô BandôUtamaro is a great artist who lives to create portraits of beautiful women, using the brothels of Tokyo to provide his models.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsSpencer TracyJean SimmonsTeresa WrightThis is an account of the real life experience of actress/playwright Ruth Gordon.
- DirectorKinuyo TanakaStarsYumeji TsukiokaRyôji HayamaJunkichi OrimotoFumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and the development of a serious illness: a breast cancer, which leads her to lose her breasts. In the last stage of her life she meets a young journalist arrived from Tokyo, an admirer of her work, who want to write a story on her life. Both live a secret love history.
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsMartine CarolPeter UstinovAnton WalbrookWhen she is reduced to appearing in a circus, a notorious beauty thinks back on her past loves.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHenry FondaVera MilesAnthony QuayleIn 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneMaureen O'HaraDan DaileyA biography of Navy flier-turned-screenwriter Frank W. "Spig" Wead.
- DirectorYoussef ChahineStarsMagdaAhmad MazharSalah ZulfikarEgyptian historical film about one of the most important figures in the history of Algeria, Djamila Bouhired. This film is regarded as not only highlighting the story of an important female revolutionary but also showing the struggle of the Algerian people against the French occupation.
- DirectorYuliya SolntsevaStarsEvgeniy SamoylovVladimir GoncharovEvgeniy BondarenkoAn abstract depiction of the childhood of Aleksandr Dovzhenko.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsJean-Marie PatteRaymond JourdanCésar SilvagniAfter the death of Cardinal Mazarin, young king Louis XIV decides to assert his power to control the aristocracy.
- DirectorDanièle HuilletJean-Marie StraubStarsGustav LeonhardtChristiane LangPaolo CarliniThe life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach as presented by his wife, Anna.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsSofiko ChiaureliMelkon AlekyanVilen GalstyanThe life of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, from childhood to death: his spiritual journey, artistic endeavors, and inner conflicts within the cultural and historical context of Armenia. Hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
- DirectorFloyd MutruxStarsTim McIntireFran DrescherJay LenoThe story of Alan Freed, the pioneering disc jockey who was instrumental in introducing and popularizing rock 'n' roll in the 1950s.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsAnthony HopkinsJohn HurtAnne BancroftA Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroCathy MoriartyJoe PesciThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
- DirectorPaul SchraderStarsKen OgataMasayuki ShionoyaHiroshi MikamiA fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsJeff BridgesJoan AllenMartin LandauThe story of Preston Tucker, the maverick car designer and his ill-fated challenge to the auto industry with his revolutionary car concept.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsForest WhitakerDiane VenoraMichael ZelnikerThe troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsPhilippe MaronEdouard JoubeaudLaurent MonnierA boy growing up in Nantes during World War II around his father's auto shop has a love for puppet shows and cinema and develops it into his own art. Jacques Demy, the artist at the end of his life, reflects on his childhood influences.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDenzel WashingtonAngela BassettDelroy LindoBiographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
- DirectorPhilippe CollinStarsChristian RistAndré WilmsDavid WarrilowA brief, fictionalized time period in the life of Professor Kant. The story is set in Kant's hometown, Konigsberg; it chronicles his last few years prior to his death in 1804 at the age of 80.
- DirectorElisabeth SubrinStarsKim SossElisabeth SubrinA shot-by-shot reenactment of an unreleased 1967 documentary portrait of SAIC student Shulamith Firestone, who, a few years later, would become a central figure in the rise of radical feminism.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsKirsten DunstJason SchwartzmanRip TornThe retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 14 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
- DirectorKasi LemmonsStarsDon CheadleChiwetel EjioforBruce McFeeThe story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.
- DirectorAmit DuttaStarsManish SoniNitin GoelRajesh. K.A depiction of royalty in former hill state of Guler in form of paintings by a lineage of period artists. These depictions are recreated for visual understanding of the circumstances behind the paintings in the same / similar location, including ruins of former royal residences and other annexes.
- DirectorShari Springer BermanRobert PulciniStarsDiane LaneTim RobbinsJames GandolfiniA behind-the-scenes look at the making of the first American family to be the subjects of a reality TV show.
- DirectorTerence DaviesStarsEmma BellSara VertongenRose WilliamsThe story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist.
- DirectorBruno DumontStarsLise Leplat PrudhommeJeanne VoisinLucile GauthierFrance, 1425. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young Jeannette, at the still tender age of 8, looks after her sheep in the small village of Domremy. One day, she tells her friend Hauviette how she cannot bear to see the suffering caused by the English. Madame Gervaise, a nun, tries to reason with the young girl, but Jeannette is ready to take up arms for the salvation of souls and the liberation of the Kingdom of France. Carried by her faith, she will become Joan of Arc.