A Hard Day's Night

The Beatles play fictionalised versions of themselves. The film follows two days of rush: catching a train, hiding in a hotel, making the rehearsal and not losing Paul's difficult grandfather. Richard Lester directed. The budget was 189,000 pounds, roughly 3.5 million in today's money. It was shot in black and white in a manner borrowed from the French New Wave and British kitchen sink realism. Filming took just under seven weeks. Alun Owen wrote the screenplay. He spent time with the band listening to how they spoke and carried the Liverpool dialect straight into the text; McCartney later said Owen did a very good script. Wilfrid Brambell plays Paul's grandfather and Norman Rossington their manager. It beat every expectation. The opening week at the London Pavilion took around 20,000 dollars and the run reached 14 million. It was nominated for Oscars in Best Original Screenplay and Best Score and won neither. Its influence outgrew the film. Roger Ebert wrote that Lester built a new grammar: quick cutting, hand-held cameras and music under documentary action. The Can't Buy Me Love sequence established the visual language of the music video, which is why Lester is often called the father of MTV. Who it is for: people who listen to the Beatles and anyone who wants to see the energy of the sixties. Who it is not for: anyone looking for plot. There is no story here, only escape, songs and jokes.