A Song to Remember [VHS]

A Song to Remember [VHS]
by Charles Vidor

A Song to Remember [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Cornel Wilde, George Coulouris, Merle Oberon, Nina Foch, Paul Muni
Director: Charles Vidor
Cinematographer: Allen M. Davey
Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio
Editor: Charles Nelson
Producer: Louis F. Edelman
Producer: Sidney Buchman
Writer: Sidney Buchman
Writer: Ernst Marischka
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 113 minutes
Release Date: 1996-01-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Studio: Sony Pictures

VHS Movie Reviews of A Song to Remember [VHS]

Movie Review: A handsome Technicolor extravaganza...
Summary: 3 Stars

For students of music, 'A Song to Remember' is to criticize, since it greatly romanticizes the life of Chopin and adds many fictional tissues...

However, criticism on that level must be tempered with the understanding that in 1945 this film did a deal to interest a wide public in Chopin's music... With the music adapted by Miklos Rozsa and performed by Jos? Iturbi, there is much to enjoy and admire...

According to Sidney Buchman's screenplay, Chopin is a political idealist who devotes much of his career to adopt the cause of his native Poland in its struggle to throw off czarist oppression... As a young man Chopin (Cornel Wilde) sides with the revolutionaries, to the concern of his sagacious teacher and mentor Joseph Elsner (Paul Muni). When Chopin goes to Paris to win fame and money to support his political friends, Elsner accompanies him, to guide and protect him...

In the halls of a music publisher, Chopin makes the acquaintance of Franz Liszt (Stephen Bekassy), who is already an admirer of the young Pole's compositions... Liszt befriends him, promotes his career, and introduces him to the elegant and romantic novelist Georges Sand (Merle Oberon). The tempestuous couple fall in love and Chopin, against Elsner's advice, goes with her on a journey to Majorca, where his health is undermined...

The facts are that Chopin was never an active Polish revolutionary and pursued a career without political motivation... He went to Paris alone, and his affair with Georges Sand lasted eight years, until he left her after a quarrel...

Elsner did not accompany Chopin to Paris from Poland, nor did he ever engage in a duel of wits with George Sand for control of Chopin's life and aims...

Constantia, the character played by Nina Foch, never went to Paris to plead with Chopin to help his fellow Poles in their struggle against Czarist rule... Elsner and Sand never reflected, nor influenced Chopin's musical style to the degree implied in the film, and it would be a mistake to accept the movie impression of Sand as a nymphomaniac who betrayed Musset, destroyed Chopin, and changed her philosophy and politics to suit the views of each successive lover... When Sand thought she had found something approaching perfection in a man, she lived with him for years... She remained impervious to Musset's skeptical views and Chopin's aristocratic prejudices...

However, Charles Vidor's film is a handsome Technicolor extravaganza, directed with all the sweep and emotional vitality for which he was characterized... The film showcases a highly mannered Paul Muni; an effusive and intense Merle Oberon (a petite, exotic-looking and strikingly beautiful brunette, wearing gorgeous gowns, walking with grand ?clat) and an elegantly tormented Cornel Wilde...

Having taken due note of all this, it is only fair to state that if one is willing to surrender to the gorgeous romanticism of the doings, and if one approaches 'A Song to Remember' as a fictional tale about a 19th century composer who wrote exquisite concertos, penetrating solo pieces, who loved the eccentric George Sand, who wanted to help his fellow Poles in the effort, who proved ungrateful to his mentor, then one is faced with electrifying scenes, courtesy of Merle Oberon who was never more forceful in her tense confrontation scenes with Muni for Wilde's attention and acknowledgment... Paul Muni's performance exuded a poetic kind-heartedness with quiet realism...

When the indifferent but determined Chopin decides to embark on the concert tour that will raise money for "the cause," Oberon seems very exciting in her trenchant speech about the bitterness and sorrow of her past that had hardened her to defy the world with her individualism...

Fine characterizations are contributed by Stephen Bekassy as Franz Lisz, George Coulouris as music publisher Louis Pleyel, and George Macready as Alfred De Musset, one of the more conspicuous lovers of Sand...

If taken as an essentially fictional work, 'A Song to Remember' is hilarious classical musical biopic which was unexpectedly popular...

Movie Review: Freddie meets Sand
Summary: 5 Stars

A cameo on Frederick Chopin in his short lifespan. Wilde and Oberon give excellent performances and Paul Muni shines in this one. if you like a good story, lovely music and beautiful scenery, this is a classic well worth adding to your collection. Flicks of this quality, once made, will never be made again

Movie Review: Several Moments to remember.
Summary: 4 Stars

This is the earliest movie rendering of the Chopin/Sand affair I have seen to date. However, in this, Sand is more of an impediment to what Chopin must do--raise funds for his Polish rebel friends. This is something that has been neglected to a degree, in the other two movies I have seen on this subject (Impromptu, Desire for Love). Both acknowledge his Polish-ness and one does even show his rushed departure from his beloved homeland.

However neither really illustrate his ties with the rebels of the country in the same way this one does. This one is based on the idea that Poland was his sole reason for playing and performing that Poland was the source of his greatest triumph (The Polianse--not sure I spelled that right).

While Sand's character is clearly maligned for the sake of a more inspiring plot, she is portrayed beautifully by Merle Oberon, who looks fantastic in the very stylized outfits. (An attempt to capture Sand's cross-dressing ways) Her children, who played a huge role in the Sand/Chopin relationship have been completely eliminated. Instead she is given the odd notion of being a semi-hermit. Someone who beleives that artists should be paid tribute to and not forced to perform for the general rabble.

Cornel Wilde does an amazing job, while not looking the part of the waifish Chopin (I think Hugh Grant might be my favorite, honestly), he acts it so as to really convince me. And he didn't do it with a silly accent (unlike the French accent he sports in 'The Sword of Lancelot') He plays Chopin with a sort of sweet innocence that flames his passion for his country and allows us to forgive him for his lack of abilty to really be his own man when faced with the opposition of Sand and his Professor.

The Professor character while mostly endearing was at times very over the top--played by Paul Muni, whom I don't personally recognize from anything else. I did enjoy him as a sort of anchor for Chopin though, and he really was very endearing in the manner which he kept in contact with Chopin's family.

A reallly enjoyable movie, but certainly not a real biography. It had two scenes which I really admired, firstly the introduction of Chopin and Lizt "If you play the harmony and I play the melody then we shall each have a free hand" and Sand's little trick on the Parisians to gain acceptance for Chopin's music. The moment she walks in the the darkened room with her candelabra (in full women's dress, looking amazing) It really looked great.

Movie Review: A SONG THAT I'LL CERTAINLY ALWAYS REMEMBER
Summary: 5 Stars

A few days ago, thanks to Amazon and a kind gentleman named Ernest who had one to sell, I FINALLY became the proud owner of A Song to Remember on VHS - a little more than 56 years after I saw the actual movie. They say if something's good enough to want, it's good enough to wait for, and this is certainly true where this sublime movie and most treasured memory of my childhood is concerned. In 1946, at the age of 9, my well meaning parents (back home in Wales, U.K.) took me to see this movie, without telling me that their main reason was 'the hope that it would encourage me to put more effort in to my piano lessons'. To their dismay, they soon discovered that, in that respect, they had failed miserably because - after seeing this movie and being introduced to the life and beautiful music of Frederic Chopin, through the incredible combination of Cornel Wilde's good looks (and excellent acting) and the superb performance of the music itself by Jose Iturbi, I promptly came to the conclusion that if I couldn't play that well, then I didn't want to play at all. Not long afterwards, my long suffering piano teacher was relieved (in every sense of the word) of her duties. But from the moment I sat enraptured through that movie, I fell in love with Chopin and his music and made the vow that 'when I grow up, I'm going to go to Poland and listen to a Chopin recital in the country where it all began'. More than forty years later (and having moved to Canada in the meantime) I achieved that ambition and what a joy it was to hear this wonderful music played by a leading exponent of Chopin's music from the Warsaw Conservatory. My other ambition was to somehow 'acquire' this memorable movie for myself. But I found that to be easier said than done, as all my enquiries came up with an 'out of print' response. Then just over a week ago, I saw that Amazon did indeed have one for sale - 'used'. I knew it was a risk to fork out money for a product that I couldn't even be sure was in great condition. But I wanted this movie so much, that I 'boughtit' immediately, before anyone else could pounce on it. My movie arrived a few days later, just in time for it to be 'a special birthday gift to myself'. Today was my birthday and one of the biggest treats of my day was to curl up in comfort and watch A Song to Remember in my own home at long last. Oh what memories watching it brought back, and what joy is gave me to finally have this wonderful movie in my possession to play and watch for ever more. I am also happy to say that this 'used' tape turned out to be in superb condition, with its picture and sound as good as new. This is one happy movie owner and my thanks to Amazon and Ernest for finally making it possible for me to fulfil a lifelong dream. It means more to me than you would ever imagine! A Song to Remember made it a Birthday to Remember too!!

Movie Review: Magnificent music and drama
Summary: 5 Stars

Saw this film when I was a young gal. My friends and I gathered around the popcorn this past week and watched it-enthralled by the amazing finger placement by Cornell Wilde. So believable!
The composers during the Romantic period were God's gift to us, and their music will live on in our hearts.

If you haven't seen this one, don't miss it.

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Summary of A Song to Remember [VHS]

The short life and passionate music of romantic composer Fr?d?ric Chopin provide the foundations for this 1945 drama, which proved influential in its gaudy, undeniably watchable formula of historical exaggeration and shrewdly simplified motives for its principals. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Cornel Wilde presents the Polish native as a passionate nationalist driven by his love of his native country and his hatred of its czarist regime, a thematic focus that can be forgiven in light of the political backdrop at the time of the production. Already a prodigy in his native land, where he's mentored by a shamelessly scenery-chewing Paul Muni as Professor Elsner, Chopin flees to Paris where his flashing eyes, dark nimbus of curls, and florid technique earn him stardom, while his involvement with the writer George Sand (a beautiful Merle Oberon, even when draped in then-provocatively masculine garb) introduces a romantic crescendo. Still, the tortured pianist-composer pines for his homeland, frets about its political fate, and begins to wither under the rigors of his new career as ur-superstar; in a typically over-the-top but riveting image, we see drops of blood spatter across the keyboard as he thunders through a recital, gallantly ignoring his failing health to spread his music and, by extension, awareness of Poland's fate. Numerous subsequent musical dramas (including two more Song-titled biographies from the same studio) would ply a similar mix of grand gestures and larger-than-life emotions, yet the most interesting comparison to be made is with 1991's Impromptu, a more acerbic spin through the Sand/Chopin affair (and the Parisian demimonde including Alfred DeMusset, Franz Liszt, and Eugene Delacroix) directed by frequent Stephen Sondheim collaborator James Lapine. --Sam Sutherland

Artists & Writers Video

Genres > Drama > By Theme
Biography
Classics
Music Video & Concerts > Biography
Musicals & Performing Arts > Musicals > Drama

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