La leggenda di Liliom

Billy Wilder, Kurt Weill & Fritz Lang, three Berliners fleeing the Nazis, all sojourned in Paris before coming to the USA. Wilder's Parisian work was negligible, but the more established Weill & Lang each produced a masterpiece. While Weill's 7 DEADLY SINS is one of his best known classical works, Lang's adaptation of Molnar's great play is almost unknown. CAROUSEL, Rogers & Hammerstein musicalization of LILIOM, which all but buried the original, has now brought it back. (It shows up as a welcome 'extra' on the latest 2-DVD edition of CAROUSEL.) The musical stays remarkably close to LILIOM's plot, structure & characterizations, but Molnar is both rawer & more fanciful. The mix fits Lang like a monocle. As Liliom, the carousel barker (Billy Bigelow in the musical), Charles Boyer is just about perfect, bluntly cruel & irresistible, not only a precursor to the Stanley Kowalskis of the world, but like Brando with the sensual features of a Caravaggio. The rest of the cast is just as fine, but the film's success comes largely from Lang's handling of the difficult material. Rudolphe Mate's lensing looks stunning in this well preserved copy (far superior to the KINO DVD release) and the few scenes that suffer from flat poverty row French studio conditions are easily ignored. A near great film.

Having tried and failed to sit through Carousel (a lumbering musical remake of the same story) I was wholly unprepared for the delight that is Liliom. A fantasy love story set half on Earth, half in Heaven, it's not at all the type of film you expect from Fritz Lang. It's closer in tone to Michael Powell or Jean Cocteau - and may be a 'hidden influence' on both A Matter of Life and Death and Orphee.

Not least among his achievements...Lang pulls off the well-nigh impossible feat of making Charles Boyer interesting! Sorry, but I'd always found this actor deeply resistible. A suburban housewife's stereotype of a suave Continental lover. But in this movie, Boyer plays a role that (even five years later) would have been reserved exclusively for Jean Gabin. A tough carnival barker and petty crook. A sexy 'bad boy' in a striped, clinging T-shirt and skin-tight jeans.

Boyer as Liliom is a Gallic cousin of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. I could well understand why Julie (Madeleine Ozeray) fell head over heels for him, because I did too. He treats her appallingly, of course. Boozing, whoring, gambling...even a (very non-PC) touch of wife-beating. For all its fantasy elements, this love story is as warped and sadomasochistic as any in later Lang movies, like Secret Beyond the Door or The Big Heat. (Hot coffee, anyone?)

Eventually, two angels show up and haul Boyer off to the hereafter - where he must atone for his sins! The term 'angels' is one I use loosely. Dark-suited, pale-skinned and shaven-headed, these two guys look like denizens of an X-rated Berlin nightclub. Kinkier still is Boyer's personal 'spirit guide' - a mad-eyed knife-grinder played by Antonin Artaud, the twisted genius who invented the Theatre of Cruelty.

Liliom is a rare treat for old-movie buffs. Lyrical and fantastic, yes. Soppy and sentimental, never. It stands comparison with Lang's best work from Berlin or Hollywood. I can only regret he did not spend more time in France.

Saw this picture was playing at the Film Forum so I said, what the heck, why not? At least I can compare it to "Carousel". And so, I was not prepared for it and was pleasantly surprised. It is a minimalist (to use current artsy language) version with spare sets and shot entirely on a sound stage, and featuring Charles Boyer as Liliom as I had never seen him before. It was a great performance from Boyer, almost unrecognizable from the oily gigolo types he played in Hollywood. Boisterous and exuberant, he brings his character to life, and now I can't imagine anyone else playing this role.

Apart from no musical score, this picture differs from "Carousel" as Liliom enters his afterlife. In "Carousel", the sequence in heaven was almost an afterthought, but here Lang infuses it with some touches that are both surreal and extremely imaginative, and without the benefit of digital enhancement. No special effects here. I didn't care for Madeleine Ozeray's interpretation of the Julie character, which came off as naive and withdrawn, almost a form of neurosis. But she, like the rest of the cast, stayed out of Boyer's way. Recommended - see it if you are a fan of actors and acting.

Liliom Zadowski (Charles Boyer) is a charismatic ne'er-do-well working as a carousel barker at a small carnival when he seduces naïve young Julie (Madeleine Ozeray). Fired by his jealous boss (Florelle), he ends up loafing around the house and hanging out with his disreputable friends while Julie works. The seemingly one-sided relationship suffers until Julie (with great delicacy) tells him that she's pregnant. Excited by the prospect of fatherhood but desperate for money, Liliom partners with his scurrilous buddy Alfred (Pierre Alcover) to steal a payroll. The heist goes bad and Liliom ends up in heaven, where he is forced to face the truth about his behaviour towards Julie but is then given one day back on Earth to make amends. The film is a bit stagey (not surprising considering its source, a play by Ferenc Molnár) and leisurely paced (especially the first half), but the imaginative and surreal scenes in heaven are worth the wait. Apparently church dignitaries were not too pleased with the whimsical portrayal of God's dominion (complete with inept celestial bureaucrats sporting tiny wings and a big door leading to flaming purgatory). Boyer is excellent in the role (although his character is not very likable, especially by modern standards), which is good because he is the center of most scenes. Although not a success for director Fritz Lang, Liliom is an entertaining (albeit a bit talky and dated) early entry in the 'back from heaven' genre that is quite 'European' and more 'adult' than would have been allowed in post-Code Hollywood. In addition to this and other film versions, the Molnár's play is the basis of the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Carousel".

Ferenc Molnar according to David Ewen's book on Richard Rodgers turned down Giacomo Puccini to do an opera on Liliom. He said that he would rather Liliom be remembered as a Molnar play than a Puccini opera. Sad to say that if remembered it's remembered as the source of the Rodgers&Hammerstein musical Carousel. Watching Liliom now is like watching George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, you just drop in the songs where they go. A bit more difficult for Liliom as the locale was changed to coastal Maine from Budapest. Still it can be done.

Charles Boyer, soon to take up permanent residence in Hollywood and Madeline Ozeray are perfectly cast Liliom and Julie. The character of Liliom seems perfect for Fritz Lang's dismal view of the world. Liliom would like to do better for himself, but he seems condemned to barking for a carousel ride and providing the female owner a lift now and then. Seeing Julie who is not quite as innocent as she is in Carousel is him reaching for a last chance at happiness.

One hopes there is a heaven where one might get a chance to do something that might merit decent digs there. I did like the surreal black and white images of traveling to and arriving in heaven that Lang employed.

Joseph Schildkraut did an acclaimed Liliom on Broadway and there is an earlier American talkie version of Liliom starring Charles Farrell. Drop songs in if you must, but this Liliom is a classic unto itself.