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It was the 10th of April in 1970, when Paul McCartney stated that he is quitting The Beatles. The rumors were there, the tension between the members of the group was obvious but everyone hoped for the band to stay together.

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After the release of "Let it Be" there were major major disagreements over financial management. Of course, some had already blamed Yoko Ono, John Lennon's new partner, to whom the singer seemed to be fully committed.

McCartney's statement drew the first shovel at the Beatles's grave. The tombstone would fall exactly one year later, with the court decision for the final dissolution of the band.

The Beatles during all these years of his career managed to create a legend -Beatlemania- that still influences the music scene even today. And this legend was captured many times on film and television camera. I don't believe that there was any band in the 1960 and 1970s that were filmed more than the Beatles and still is an inspiration for many more directors.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Beatles

*through a selection of films and documentaries.

From the early years (1956) of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, along with then-band members and good friend of Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best as their drummer, were quite successful in the Hamburg clubs. Their sound at that time was mainly covers of rock and roll, Chuck Berry and others.They had a wild, more rockish style then, with leather jackets and pants, looked like the bad boys that no father would permit his daughter to go out with. And the legend says that they were pretty crazy years those in Hamburg, true to the Rock and roll spirit. But still Beatles hadn't released any song of their own.

Backbeat (1994)

narrates these first years of Hamburg residency, dealing mostly with the friendship of Lennon and Sutcliffe. The latter left the band to stay in Hamburg with his German fiance, the one who took the first semi-professional pictures of Beatles.

Upon the return to England and Brian Epstein taking over the management of the band, gradually "The Beatles" phenomenon started to rise. He changed their composition, their image and worked very hard to make them famous. Epstein's contribution to the Beatles was a catalyst. He was the one who brought Ringo Starr to the band and the one who persuaded the record company EMI and the producer George Martin to release their first album. He was the one that persuaded them to leave the "bad boy" image behind and search for a more "clean cut" look, the boys that any father would let their daughters to go out with. And under his advice, Beatles signed a contract for releasing films based on their songs and the band: "A Hard Day's Night", "Help!". It was a pioneer move because it brought the Beatles' image to everyone through the screen.

A hard day's night (1964)

The story of the film was nothing special. It exploits the Beatlemania that had emerged from the popularity of the group' songs and basically aims to present Beatles as the "good old boys" that want to play music but in a comic way. So the plot involves Paul's michievious grandfather who happens to get involved in a lot of trouble, hordes of (female mostly) fans running after the Beatles, chasing them, the band members playing theirselves, comic incidents, misunderestanding and a true comic side of Ringo Starr,who -in a way- was the star of this film.

Oh, there is a lot of chasing in the film.These boys could prepare themselves for the marathon, for sure.

Help! (1965)

The popularity of the previous film brought another one, with a more twisted plot this time and Ringo, who was now known as the funny Beatle, the star of it. A cult is chasing Ringo this time because of a sacred ring, gift from a female fan) which he cannot get it out of his finger, making him the next victim to be sacrificed. After a crazy chase all over London, Ringo with the rest of the band are travelling around the world, trying to save Ringo from the cult. And all these of course with lots and lots of music.

(Pss! Don't worry. Ringo get saved in the end)

These films brought even more poularity to the group and therefore to experiment themselves. Afterall, it was the mid sixties and the memebers of the band already had begun to incorporate various instruments such as sitar into their music, to try drugs - as the gossipers say - and to change their worldview and image to a more philosophical style. Their music and lyrics lalso changed to a more refined style. Rubber soul, Revolver, -their masterpiece- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Road were the records that changed the music forever.
But here we are talking about films

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After Help! Beatles filmed another film to promote the "Magical Mystery Tour", but it was considered by many to be a catastrophic failure. They tried to incorporate elements of the LSD era that prevailed in America with their British nature, but the result was disappointing.

Yellow Submarine (1968)

But what was quite interesting as an experiment, although the Beatles themselves did not involve much in this project, except with their music, was the animated "Yellow Submarine". The animation designers unfolded with their sketches and colors the psychedelia of the time along with Beatles' songs and invited us to live in their Yellow Submarine. Truly, a film that proved the pioneering look of the band once again

But what goes up, always go down, too!

But that's a story to narrate in another post. Part 2 is coming on the way.

Thank you for reading!