A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

A Hard Day’s Night (Dir: Richard Lester, 1964). 

Originally posted on Instagram 14/04/19:

With the distinctive opening ‘twang’ of George Harrison’s Rickenbacker guitar The Beatles hit the ground running, chased by a horde of screaming fans. The world is changed forever. This is no exaggeration. A Hard Day’s Night is undoubtedly the most influential British film of the 1960s. Possibly of all time. 

Supposedly depicting an average day in the life of the band, the plot concerns some nonsense about the shenanigans of Paul’s grandad (an excellent Wilfred Bramble) and the disappearance of Ringo before a live TV recording. But who cares about the plot? We are really here for the music and it is sublime. ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘She Love You’ and the title track all feature in this long-form prototype of the music video. 

American Richard Lester pretty much invented ‘Swinging London‘ with his cinéma vérité directorial approach. Alun Owen’s screenplay is both witty and surreal and cemented the band’s lovable cheeky chappie personas in the public consciousness. The musical movies of Elvis and Britain’s own Cliff Richard all of a sudden seemed hopelessly dated in the wake of this film which 55 years after release still feels fresh and inventive. Within a couple of years it’s influence would be strongly felt in TV’s groundbreaking The Monkees. It would also encourage Walt Disney to insert a beat-combo vulture quartet into his classic animation The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967). Gilbert Taylor’s crisp black and white photography is beautiful and John, Paul, George and Ringo, while no actors, all hold their own among the more seasoned supporting cast. 

Lester and The Beatles would reunite once again the following year for the less essential but still entertaining Help! After which the quartet would ditch movies, forgo touring and record the masterpiece Rubber Soul taking the art of the LP to higher standards than anyone before them and probably since.