This vibrantly beautiful French film, about two seventeenth-century composers who played the viol (cello), toys cleverly with history in the manner of Amadeus. Gérard Depardieu stars as Marin Marais, a dissolute musician looking back on his youth. The teen Marais – the actor's son, Guillaume Depardieu, is sensational in his first screen role – studies with a stern and reclusive master, Sainte Colombe (Jean-Pierre Marielle). Seduced by the glamour of the king's court, the ambitious student ultimately rejects Sainte Colombe's discipline and his daughter (Anne Brochet). Though the film is strikingly directed by Alain Corneau, who draws superb performances, it's the music – hauntingly played by Jordi Savall – that gives wings to this rueful tale of art, love and loss.

“Satisfied”

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.