Who would you rather hear sing Etta James’ signature tunes, the real deal or Beyonce Knowles? If you prefer the latter, then you’ll want to see Cadillac Records and even buy the film’s soundtrack, both of which feature Beyonce performing a few of James’ songs, including a nearly spot-on copy of “At Last” (listen to it here). Other actors in the film (and on the soundtrack) who do their own singing while portraying legendary music artists include Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters), Mos Def (Chuck Berry) and Columbus Short (Little Walter).

It’s a strange idea to pay tribute to a singer with a biopic or ensemble music historical and then replace that singer’s voice with another, more amateur vocalist. Yet Hollywood does it all the time and, surprisingly, the new performances usually turn out pretty good. Just listen to the following nine actors and actresses who managed to do justice to the artist they were portraying.
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It hasn’t been terribly uncommon since the late ’60s for musicians to get behind the camera, whether for a straight concert film, a tour documentary or some kind of silly narrative focused on themselves and their bands. Jerry Garcia co-directed The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa co-directed 200 Motels, The Beatles collectively co-directed The Magical Mystery Tour and separately John, Paul and Ringo has each taken the helm on a film project, some more artsy (John and Yoko’s cinematic collaborations, like Up Your Legs Forever) or less self-focused (Ringo’s Marc Bolan doc, Born to Boogie) than others.

Now it’s a little more common for musicians to become directors of fictional films that aren’t so reflexive. Many don’t even have anything to do with music at all. And many are so awful that it’s safe to say the filmmaker should stick to music making. This week, IFC releases the directorial debut of Madonna (Filth and Wisdom), and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has a new basketball documentary (Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot) hitting stores, so we’d like to celebrate by looking at some other musicians who turned filmmaker, for better or worse.

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Happy autumn! Today marked the fall equinox for the Northern hemisphere, and while the season can be a depressing one for mainstream moviegoers (at least until Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday blockbusters and Oscar-bait releases), it is otherwise a wonderful time of the year. Having grown up in New England, I’ve always had a great appreciation for the changing leaves, the brisk weather, the pumpkin and apple picking and the foodie holidays (as a rather chunky kid, I really only liked Halloween for the candy and Thanksgiving for the stuffing of my face). I even looked forward to going back to school every September.

But autumn can be a great season for cinephiles, too, despite the significant lack of worthwhile theatrical releases. For one thing, the colder weather, particularly the colder nights, keeps us indoors more often for DVD watching. For another thing, the season has lent itself nominally and spirtually to some great films by the likes of Ozu, Bergman and Rohmer, among others. Personally, I think movies set in the fall tend to look the most beautiful, although I recognize that part of my aesthetic appreciation comes with my general love for autumnal landscapes and activities.

To get myself in the mood, and share the spirit with fellow fans of the fall, I’ve found ten scenes that will help us to welcome the season:

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Ten years ago, I attended a book signing for Ray Manzarek’s memoir, Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors, and I asked the author/keyboardist why he doesn’t just make another movie about The Doors. Manzarek had spent most of the event complaining about Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, and he did graduate from film school, so I figured he’d at least thought about the idea. But he responded by saying he had other films he wanted to make, from original scripts he’d written.

I’m pretty sure one of the scripts he mentioned then became his 2000 film Love Her Madly, which has a nice exploitive title. And now according to Billboard, he’s got four more scripts, including one based on either the song or album L.A. Woman (the best driving album of all time, IMHO) and another that sounds suspiciously like the scene from Stone’s film in which the band and friends do drugs in the desert. But apparently he’s still not up to the challenge of writing something that will go against Stone and Randall Jahnson’s script for The Doors.

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