A Hard Day's Night (1964)
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Directed By: Richard Lester
Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Star Studio: United Artists IMDB Rating: 7 We’re opening our 2024 schedule with A Hard Day’s Night. The first film to feature The Beatles and the only one shot in Black & white, was released in August 1964 at the height of Beatlemania. It’s cinema verite style perfectly captured the spontaneity and easy-going nature of the band’s personality, creating a worldwide hit and further entrenching the Beatles as the voice of a new generation. Director Richard Lester utilized classic silent film comedy visuals and rhythmic editing to give the film the illusion of near constant motion and frivolity. Lester was chosen to direct the film because John Lennon was a big fan of Lester’s 1959 film The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film. While A Hard Day’s Night is Lester’s most famous film, the director had a long career that included Superman 2 and 3, Robin and Marion, The Three Musketeers, as well as the Beatles follow up film Help! In 1965.
A Hard Day’s Night portrays 36 frantic hours in the life of the band as they prepare for a television appearance and includes the title track, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “She Loves You”, and “I Should Have Known” among more than 13 pieces or complete songs on the soundtrack. It is credited among the 100 greatest British films ever made, influenced generations of music videos and is among the 5 best Rock n Roll movies ever produced. 
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Screenwriter Alun Owen followed the Beatles for several days to not just ingest the rhythm of their Liverpool speech and language, but also to craft their personae that included John’s wisecracking, Paul’s cuteness, George’s quiet and shyness and Ringo’s dim and sad routine. Owen received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay, but some of the British press dubbed it merely skeletal, with Owen admitting that many of the scenes were improvised or outright cribbed from prior conversations and interviews.
Ringo famously coined the phrase “A Hard Day’s Night” to describe the aftermath of a long day of work. Lennon and McCartney raced to put the phrase to music, with Lennon crafting the rough outline in a single night, after having a difficult day shooting the bathtub scene for the movie.
A Hard Day’s Night’s place in film history is secured as a document of the youth culture of the 1960’s, a reflection of The Beatles impact on that culture and the timeless nature of their appeal.
Ringo famously coined the phrase “A Hard Day’s Night” to describe the aftermath of a long day of work. Lennon and McCartney raced to put the phrase to music, with Lennon crafting the rough outline in a single night, after having a difficult day shooting the bathtub scene for the movie.
A Hard Day’s Night’s place in film history is secured as a document of the youth culture of the 1960’s, a reflection of The Beatles impact on that culture and the timeless nature of their appeal.