Rock on, Shostakovich, Handel, Ravel: lives of great composers hit the screens

Tom Hulce, as Mozart, in Milos Forman’s Amadeus. The 1984 film won eight Oscars. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

After the recent success of biopics about pop and rock legends including Elvis, Freddie Mercury and Bob Marley, film-makers are now finding inspiration in the troubled and tragic lives of classical music’s greatest composers.

Almost 40 years after Miloš For­man’s Amadeus won eight Oscars, a remake of the fictionalised Mozart drama about genius and jealousy is planned as a major television series starring Paul Bettany. Meanwhile feature films are being made about Dmitri Shostakovich, George Frideric Han­del, Richard Wagner and Joseph Bologne. Boléro, a film about French composer Maurice Ravel, had its premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year.