Olivier Messiaen Movies

Messiaen's breathtakingly intense opera on the life of St Francis of Assisi stars Rod Gilfry as the charismatic visionary, beguiled by the glory of creation, yet fearful of both its imperfections and its transience. Pierre Audi's thoroughly engaging production for The Netherlands Opera brings out...

A window cleaner suffers from a fear of heights, until he is seduced by one of his customers.

The story of a young man who lives alone in his house, and his indifference and solitude with the world around him.

A portrait of French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992), through archival films from 1964 to 1987.

"A renowned composer and organist, Olivier Messiaen was also a great teacher. Michel Fano, who took his composition class at the Paris Conservatory, films some of the privileged moments of his teaching. This film, co-directed with Denise Tual, also shows Messiaen as a devotee, an ornithologist, and...

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO are joined by revered French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in a concert film that brings together music by Anton Bruckner and Olivier Messiaen: two composers as united in their devotion to the Catholic faith as they are divergent in their approaches to writing music.

A young girl, Benilde, so protected by her religious family that she seemingly knows nothing about procreation, insists that her mysterious pregnancy is a miracle; however, her distressed bourgeois family decides that Benilde has lost her mind.

Under the baton of charismatic Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Orchestre de Paris performs Olivier Messiaen's most famous work: The ambitious and beguiling Turangalîla-Symphonie.

Edgard Varèse died on 6 November 1965, a few days before the filming of the rehearsal of his work "Déserts" which he had to attend.

"Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum", the work by Olivier Messiaen, was a commission by the Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux and was to be performed on the 20 June 1965 at Chartres Cathedral, in the presence of President Charles de Gaulle. This documentary takes place during the...

Yvonne Loriod was not only an incredible performer of the music of her time, but also Olivier Messiaen's muse, the one in whom and for whom he found the natural and concrete extension of his art, of his inspiration. This documentary is a beautiful testament to what this great artist represented.

Observations of a space and (last) time, of a landscape and the people who inhabit it. The first chapter of the Flowers of Eringyum cycle, the film portrays the family background where the individual journey begins, the rituals of middle-class life, their representations (also in home movies), and...

A music documentary about Olivier Messiaen's transcendent masterpiece, that he composed in a World War II prison camp, and debuted there on January 15, 1941. This film was completed on the 75th Anniversary of that historic premiere, and features "The President's Own" United States Marine Band...

A workshop film made with a group of students of the Pietro Zorutti School in Palmanova, Esercizi di Cinema is an experimental adaptation of Raymond Queneau's book Exercises in Style.