Hacker Cinema
Yesterday
2019 · Film · 116 min
Directed by Danny Boyle
A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where the group was forgotten.
1 negative5 neutralfrom 6 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
6 comments on Hacker News
My favorite use of The Blue Danube is actually at the end of The Wages of Fear (1953). I've read the Dirk Gently books but it's been a long time and I don't remember that passage. I wonder if that's where the movie Yesterday got its idea from?
BTW, you've seen Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, yes? I know it's not classical obviously but as far as films set to music, it's hard to top.
The movie Yesterday has a relevant plot point. Late in the film, when Jack is putting out another album of Beatles music he really wants it to be called Abbey Road, but the modern music publishers decide that it will be titled "One Man Only". Because of this exact phenomenon!
> "...say they forked over $3.99 each to watch the Richard Curtis comedy on Amazon Prime, only to discover..."
This caught my eye. I knew the film Yesterday to be a Danny Boyle (director) film, so I initially though they must be referring to another film with the same name. But down below they later confirm it IS the same movie.
Why is this article framing the screenwriter (Richard Curtis) as the filmmaker? Is this a convention of French culture? To give the writer prime creative credit over the director? Nothing against screenwriters; they're arguably just (if not more) important to shaping the story. It just strikes me as very strange.
You know the movie "Yesterday" where everyone except a small handful of people forget The Beatles ever existed?
Well, I sometimes wonder... if everyone in the whole world forgot about artists like Picasso, could the masses still be convinced his art is good in modern times? I for one would be pretty unimpressed with most of his work ("is this some random grade schooler's work you are showing me?").
Meanwhile if the whole world forgot about Michelangelo, my mind would still be blown if I saw any number of his works for the first time. The first time I saw The David up close I was astonished at the level of detail carved into the marble. Like... you could see individual veins in the hands and forearms.
There hasn't been a Beetles movie since when?
Peter Jackson documentary last year!
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles:_Get_Back
Yesterday movie 2 years ago
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_(2019_film)
We can't get rid of them - they're so infused in the culture you haven't even noticed!
In German we distinguish between 'Interpret' (the one interpreting or performing an art) and the 'Künstler' (artist). I think this explains it very well: Most of the popular 'Interpreten' are not famous for their exquisite music, but for who they are, as a brand, and how they perform in public and on stage.
The movie Yesterday is such a farce because it suggest The Beatles songs are super successful no matter who performs them, as long as they are the first to perform them. When effectively it was a mix of having skilled musicians, produce and perform good songs on the one hand, but also who they were, the marketing and their performances on the other hand.