A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

As our series moves into the 1960s, we find a group that was in some ways on the forefront of defining a new genre of musical films – The Beatles!

The film chronicles 36 hours of the Beatles (played by themselves, though the group is never called that in the movie) in preparation for a fictional television performance. Screenwriter Alan Owen and director Richard Lester portray the height of Beatlemania – and the real life social change that occurred along with it. The music serves not to necessarily further a plot but instead to connect scenes together and shed light on this social phenomenon.

The use of exclusively pop music being woven through this film because hugely influential in the music video genre, and combined avant-garde surrealism with classic cinematic gags. The Beatles, being able to break from social conventions and break the “rules” helped pave the way for others to live as they wanted, and not bound by class or British traditions. The film and its music serves as a snapshot of that moment in history.