Accordo finale

Truth be told: it's not a Douglas Sirk's unsuspected gem ;not credited in the cast and credits ,he "supervised " the work .You are not going to find Sirk's touch here ,let alone Max Ophuls'' one; it is pleasant harmless story , with a nice use of the Lake Geneva and lots of French actors of the golden age: Jacques Baumer as the adamant ruthless music professor;Georges Rigaud ,the young romantic male lead as the violin virtuoso who passes himself off as a student to win one of the girls' love ,after a rather silly wager ;Alerme as his manager;Josette Day,the future star of "beauty and the beast " (1945) as the victim of the demanding professor's girlfriend;and last but not least ,Jules Berry as a baron fond of Stradivarius and other costly instruments.

The screenplay is mundane ; one can hear beautiful music all along the movie (notably Beethoven' s 9th symphony),but it does not make the movie memorable for all that ;it's a far cry from Detlef Sierck's melodramas of the thirties with Zarah Leander and from the same then called Douglas Sirk's masterpieces of the fifties culminating with "a time to love and a time to die" and "imitation of life" .The connection with "there's always tomorrow" escapes me,I Fear.

this is supposed to be a Douglas Sirk film (he directed under pseudo name), and the dialogue was done by wonderful Jacques Natansen who wrote scripts for Ophuls's La Rondo and Le Plaisir (adaptation/dialogue), and Lola Montes (dialogue). It's a rare gem that Dirk meets Ophuls (the two directors relationship I always found curious, though totally different, another interesting comparison is Reckless Moment and There's Always Tomorrow) in a most unexpected way. I would really, really want to see it again (I saw it in Tokyo last year when it was shown as part of FILMEX festival). Please release this wonderful film on DVD!