Galileo

Joseph Losey's adaptation of Bertold Brecht's controversial play about the famous philosopher and scientist. The story focusses on Galileo's run in with the Catholic Church, who whilst largely accepting his scientific evidence on a number of issues, particularly that the Earth was not a stationary object at the centre of the universe, were not prepared for it to be accepted truth. They simply could not allow this scientific fact to interfere in the order of things, particularly in their view the undermining of god and the church first and foremost.

An exception cast has been pulled together to tell the story and it is an absorbing tale, essentially delivered as a play with no exterior shots to be seen. The cast are universally good, although, I was never entirely convinced by Topol in the lead.

This fine work by Berthold Brecht and directed by Joseph Losey is brought to us by about a 20 year delay period. That was because of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the blacklisting of both.

Brecht kind of, sort of made his case for HUAC as he went back to East Germany where he was acclaimed a cultural icon. Joe Losey took off for Great Britain where he worked for the most part until his death.

You can see why the mossbacks of HUAC thought Galileo by Brecht was highly subversive stuff. Question church authority and by implication the state because religion was established. No more so than in Italy and its many Catholic city/states.

Galileo Galilei scientist/engineer was a popular well respected fellow who got a hold of a spyglass invented by the Dutchman Hans Lippershey and saw the possibilities for it in astronomy. Already a believer in the theory advanced by Copernicus about the sun being a center of the universe. The telescope allowed Galileo to observe and make more findings. If the Earth is the center of things than what are those bodies orbiting Jupiter for instance?

The Roman Catholic now engaged in a counter attack against all that Protestant type heresy took a dim view of this stuff. Galileo got vigorously questioned for these theories.

Israeli actor Topol plays the bluff and hearty Galileo. He's a man used to his creature comforts and not built for martyrdom as is shown in the play.

The fine cast Losey assembles includes Clive Revill and Georgia Brown as cabaret singers, Michael Lonsdale as Pope Urban, and Edward Fox as the Cardinal Inquisitor. John Gielgud has a great cameo as a cardinal who is beside himself with indignation that anyone would question the workings of the universe, their universe.

Galileo's epitaph despite his failure to martyr himself is the best of all. No amount of proclamations from the state or the pulpit will change the way the universe works.

That IS subversive stuff.

This movie opens as a modern-day movie production filming from above the artificial stage lights. The story begins in 1609 Padua. Galileo Galilei (Topol) is a math teacher demonstrating the new Copernican System. Eventually, he comes into conflict with Cardinal Inquisitor (Edward Fox).

This is like a play or at least a staged film. There are those three singing boys introducing each section. After all, it is based on a play. The story unfolds episodically in nature. Some of this may be educational. The general story is familiar to me. This British film is filled with solid actors, but the tension isn't very high.

Bertolt Brecht is a great playwright. And Joseph Losey (during his self exile in the UK) captured the essential Brecht (originally in German) in English, complete with the choruses. The performances and the subject make you love this forgotten film that is laudable for its contribution to the world of evolved theater. It also presents Topol, Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale and Judy Parfitt in memorable roles.

The movie of Bertolt Brecht's play "Galileo" was made in 1975, starring Topol, with John Gielgud and Clive Revill among others. The goal in making this movie (and all AFT films) was to take a theatrical experience and turn it into a cinematic experience without changing the content to do so. Criticisms that this film didn't do enough to expose the excesses of the Inquisition or that Topol's depiction of Galileo was too abrasive miss the point. This play is about the role and responsibility of the scientist in society. Written during the time that atomic bombs were being created, it criticizes scientists who fail to bring the truth to the people because they fear the retaliation of the authorities.

Galileo is portrayed as an opportunistic genius who is not above stealing someone else's invention and claiming it as his own if it will profit him. He is self-indulgent and corrupt, but he is still a scientist. When his theories of the nature of the universe conflict with the Church's, he recognizes that this may upset not only the way people view the sky, but their own own position in the constellation of their society. Galileo hopes to profit from this, to become a new high priest of science. But when threatened with torture by the Inquisition, a threat the Inquisitors know they dare not carry out because of Galileo's popularity, Galileo capitulates out of the fear of physical pain. His work is confiscated by the Church to be locked away from the people, his recantation is published and the incipient revolution he inspired dies away. Galileo is granted a small pension and forbidden to do any real scientific work.

Years later, Galileo is visited by a former assistant who tells him of the chilling effect his recantation had on scientific progress everywhere in Europe, that no one dares to express any dissident viewpoints. Galileo removes a copy of his scientific treatises from a hiding place and gives it to the assistant to smuggle out of the country. Galileo tells him he has spent many years secretly reconstructing his findings, waiting for someone to give them to. The assistant's tone instantly changes and he lauds Galileo for surviving the Inquisition so his work would not be lost. But Galileo refuses to accept these congratulations and condemns his recanting of the truths he had discovered. He says he knows now that he was never truly in danger and that his personal cowardice led to the continuation of oppressions of all kinds in society as well as the corruption of scientific discovery. He wonders what he and others scientists might have accomplished for the good of all if only he had stood up for the truth when he had the chance to do so. As the assistant leaves with the treatises, Galileo cautions him not to tell anyone where he got them. Galileo still fears reprisals from the powers that be and the loss of his minimal comforts. "...Your cheering at some new achievement would be echoed by a universal howl of horror," Galileo tells his former assistant. "I have betrayed my profession. Any man who does what I have done must not be tolerated in the ranks of science." This all supports playwright Brecht's leftist views, of course, but also accurately reflects the ambivalence of many of the A-bomb scientists about their creation.

"Galileo" was made by the American Film Theatre, the brainchild of producer Ely Landau. The AFT films were shown only in selected movie theaters to audiences who paid a subscription fee for a series of 6 plays on film a year. The AFT series ran from 1973 to 1976. These films were not simply filmed stage productions, nor were they "Hollywoodized" to increase viewers. They used the text of the plays as written by their authors. However, they also used cinematic techniques (close-ups, pans, dolly shots, etc.) to focus the audience's attention on important characters' expressions, reactions and interactions with other characters.

Other plays in this series include "The Man in the Glass Booth", for which Maximilian Schell received a Best Actor Academy Award Nomination, Jean Genet's "The Maids" with Susanna York and Glenda Jackson (I think) an