Monday, July 23, 2012

Movie review - "Song without End" (1960) **

Fairly dreadful biopic of Liszt, with its title meant to evoke memories of A Song to Remember. If you're a Liszt fan you might enjoy the piano playing, which Dirk Bogarde does very well. It's the best thing about his performance, which is poor - all flaring nostrils and haughty indignation. He was probably annoyed at the quality of the script, which requires him to gnash his teeth and agonise over fame and music and... something or other. However he plays the piano extremely convincingly.

The plot mostly concerns him touring Europe and falling in love with married Capucine, neither of which you're likely to care about, especially as it goes for over two hours. 

Capucine gets a bad wrap a lot of the time but I really like her in comedy (North to Alaska, The Pink Panther) - this is the first drama I've seen her in and she is, er, a lot less effective. Her scenes with Bogarde are pretty bad - it's like both are sending them up.

The supporting cast isn't anything to write home about - lots of European actors being undercast, plus stock types (e.g. greedy, wacky writer; jealous partner). There is lots of piano playing and music, though - if you like Liszt and/or classical music you'll at least get that.

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