Tony Palmer Movies

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 son of a Welsh miner, Richard Burton became a Hollywood star and is considered one of the greatest British actors ever. He lived a big life in a...

In underworld terms, Chas Devlin is a 'performer,' a gangster with a talent for violence and intimidation. Turner is a reclusive rock superstar. When...

The story of the last years of Handel.

Explores the life and career of American soprano Renée Fleming. Share an intimate visit with Renée behind the scenes, at home and on...

Tony Palmer tells the life story of Sergei Rachmaninoff through the use of home movies, concert footage, and interviews. John Gielgud reads from...

Tony Palmer directs this 1970 documentary about Scottish bass player and former Cream member Jack Bruce. The film tracks Bruce's life from his...

"Four Ways to Say Farewell" is a personal introduction to Mahler and his Ninth Symphony, during which Leonard Bernstein is seen and heard rehearsing...

Director Tony Palmer exposes the harsh underbelly of the famed Miss World beauty contest, going beneath the glamour to reveal a hotbed of bullying,...

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...

In 1945, the new Polish government asked for the heart of Chopin previously buried in Paris. A woman called Paulina Czernika approached the...

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...

Tony Palmer's award-winning feature-length documentary profile of Richard Burton.

Yet more archive film has been found from the famous 1972 tour, which formed the basis of the best-selling 2010 DVD Bird on a Wire. Concert material...

In 1976 the pianist, entertainer and one of the biggest stars of the day, published a coffee table book about his collection of homes, jewellery and...

Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller,...

Banned by the BBC in 1971, director Tony Palmer's profile of the late Peter Sellers was, in the words of the film's subject himself, "the only...

The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.

After years working in Brazil, middle-aged engineer Martin Boyner returns to Switzerland to marry his longtime friend, the recently widowed Rose...

"Touring makes you crazy," Frank Zappa says, explaining that the idea for this film came to him while the Mothers of Invention were touring. The...