Impromptu
by James Lapine
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Product details
Actor: Bernadette Peters, Hugh Grant, Judy Davis, Julian Sands, Mandy PatinkinDirector: James Lapine
Cinematographer: Bruno de Keyzer
Editor: Michael Ellis
Producer: Daniel A. Sherkow
Producer: Jean Nachbaur
Producer: Stuart Oken
Writer: Sarah Kernochan
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 107 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-29
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Polygram Video
Studio: Polygram Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Impromptu
Movie Review: A gem of an indie
Summary: 4 Stars
This gem of an indie has been one of my favorites since its original release, and I was pleased to recently pick up a DVD after all these years. A very young Hugh Grant plays an effete and diffident Frederic Chopin, pursued with devouring aggressiveness by the author George Sand (Judy Davis, in a marvelous comic performance). The movie teems with great actors filling out the supporting roles (Emma Thompson, Julian Sands, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin) and moves along at a jaunty clip, following the lives of a raucous 19th century group of artists, composers and writers. Works as a date movie, but it's really just a good movie in general.Movie Review: Delightful
Summary: 5 Stars
I somehow missed this one until now. What a gem! With such great acting, outrageously funny plot and exquisite music, no matter that it's only remotely historical. And with all its silliness, it also has some interesting character revelations. I've been collecting movies about classical composers, and this is now one of my favorites.Movie Review: !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I never knew so much about Chopin's life before watching this movie, even though he is one of my favorite composers. I bought this movie to see Hugh Grant as Chopin and was surprised with it. Brilliant! It's a pity that so few people know about this movie with such a wonderful bouquet of famous actors.Movie Review: Impromptu
Summary: 5 Stars
Impromptu is a very funny movie with a phenomenal cast. Judy Davis and
Hugh Grant are the leads, but it also stars Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette
Peters, and Emma Thompson among others. Loosely based on the real-life
romance between the writer George Sand, played by Judy Davis in mostly men's clothing,and Chopin, the composer. It is period-piece farce at its
best about the private machinations behind the public lives of artists
in times past. I loved Judy Davis and Hugh Grant in this movie. A joy
to watch.
Movie Review: Getting Chopin
Summary: 2 Stars
The whole movie concerns George Sand trying to get close to and possibly gain the affections of Chopin, who she doesn't even know. The mistress of Franz Liszt gets into the act, presumably because she believes that Chopin is more talented than her present amour, and she would make a better muse for him than Sand.
This film does not go into the backgrounds of either Chopin or Sand, which would have been interesting. I came away with no new information. Not something that I would ever watch again.
Summary of Impromptu
Still more Victorian country-house shenanigans: novelist George Sand (Judy Davis, affected but pretty darn charming) has eyes for Franz Liszt's young prot?g? Chopin (Hugh Grant, solid as always, but burdened by a silly Polish accent and a script that never lets him stretch out), but various lovers, jealous rivals, and Chopin's own overdeveloped sense of propriety conspire to confound her. Impromptu is witty but overlong--probably 20 minutes of hijinks and repartee, not to mention several completely gratuitous and redundant characters, could have been sliced from the film. Davis plays Sand as an impetuous, overgrown tomboy, outraging her genteel hosts by wearing pants, chomping cigars, and falling off horses; her coterie of artist-friends assure us, in a series of naked plot devices, that she nonetheless has a heart of gold. It's all good silly fun, and about as feminist as your average Def Leppard video--the other two developed female characters are ugly stereotypes: a featherbrained, feckless social climber (Emma Thompson, who once again proves she's up for anything) and a spiteful, back-stabbing shrew (the ever-capable Bernadette Peters). Director James Lapine clearly belongs to the Dr. Quinn school of historical accuracy, so don't expect to learn anything about the period or the artists themselves. Impromptu is far more Melrose Place than Mrs. Dalloway, or perhaps best described as an episode of Entertainment Tonight set in the 19th century. --Miles BethanyComedy Video
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