Courage and Social Action. Interview with Tony Palmer: «My films always reflect the world of the characters that I portray».

Abstract

Tony Palmer is one of the filmmakers who has worked most on the relationship between music and film. In his work, spanning over a hundred film and television productions, a series of features become evident, as he says in the interview. Firstly, the elimination of boundaries between classical music (highbrow) and rock music (lowbrow). His filmography includes films on the Beatles, Leonard Cohen and Frank Zappa as well as portraits of Igor Stravinsky, Maria Callas or Benjamin Britten. His films show that the division between the two types of music is generally only due to production considerations. Secondly, the artists portrayed by Palmer shared what he calls “courage”, i.e., a willingness to innovate through their music beyond the channels established by the system. And finally, he highlights the central idea that cinema and music should not only have an aesthetic function but convey ideas. Works of art tell us about the context in which they were produced and establish an on going political dialogue with the addressee who has to decode them.