Une petite musique de nuit

With this much talent on the table this should have been so much better. Liz was a great star, not a singer though, just the wrong actress for the role she should never have been cast. Not only does she not seem comfortable in the role she is not looking her best. It is a shame they didn't cast Glynis Johns in the stage role she created, she would have been perfection as the flighty, melancholy aging actress and she and Hermoine Gingold make sense as mother and daughter. Hermoine and Elizabeth Taylor bear no resemblance in either feature or gesture making it even harder to get into the material. Diana Rigg, Hermoine Gingold and Len Cariou do what they can with their parts and the settings are lovely but the direction is flat, in this sort of whimsy that is deadly. It has moments of pleasure but overall a miss.

My one favorite part of this film has always been THE GLAMOROUS LIFE. If only the rest of the film had been as droll, dry, and on the mark as this segment. No one seems to have an opinion on Chloe Franks, the young actress playing Fredericka. I've always thought she was one of the best people in the film.

I really wanted to like this film - the songs are fabulous, and, together with Follies and Company, it really is one of Sondheim's best musicals. But this is a wasted opportunity. The strongest overlapping trio (Now/Soon/Later) on stage sounds terrific, here it just doesn't work. Other songs - particularly Liaisons and The Miller's Son - are missing. It looks drab and empty. But it does have its good points - Send in the Clowns is quite touching (it doesn't have to be sung - look at what Judi Dench and Elaine Stritch have done with it if you're not convinced) and Elizabeth Taylor is the perfect choice for Desiree. It Would Have Been Wonderful works well and is by far the musical high point. As some kind of record of the show, it is adequate, mildly satisfying, and passes the time. But it certainly isn't great art and fails to engage any hint of interest in the characters.

The turgid screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's 1973 masterpiece A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is probably in the top five of worst adaptations of Broadway musical to the motion picture screen. The musical, based on the Ingmar Bergman film SMILES OF SUMMER NIGHT, follows the revolving lives of three couples who clearly at the beginning are mismatched and how they end up being with their soulmates by the end of the film. Elizabeth Taylor, looking fat and tired, sleepwalks her way through the film and enough has been said about her singing so I won't even go there. Director Hal Prince did have the sense to hire Len Cariou and Laurence Guittard to repeat their stage roles Freidrich and the Count, who both think they are in love with Desiree, but even these two charismatic actors come off as stilted. Lesley Ann-Downe is a lovely woman but she just looked way too old to be playing Freidrich's young wife, Anne, who in the original script, was 18. The only completely satisfying performance in the film is by Diana Rigg as the Countess, who brings so much more to the role than the screenplay allows and also surprisingly gives the film its loveliest musical moment with her rendition of "Every Day a Little Death." Speaking of music, I found it interesting that Prince felt the need to completely overhaul one of the most beautiful musical scores ever written for the stage. Hermione Gingold's role as Desiree's mother is reduced to a glorified cameo since they chose to cut her song, "Liasons". The Count also has a gorgeous solo in the show called "In Praise of Women" which was also cut. The song "The Glamorous Life" was rethought and became a solo for Desiree's daughter, Fredrika, charmingly played by Chloe Franks. They also cut "The Miller's Son" a powerhouse of a song sung by Petra, the maid. I could go on ad nauseum about what's wrong with this movie, but that would be pointless. I just cannot fathom how Hal Prince so horrifically screwed up the screen version of a musical HE directed on Broadway. In an eggshell, the only reason to see this film is if you live for Diana Rigg.

I love this Sondheim masterpiece and having seen what Sondheim considers the finest staging ever (New York City Opera) live and on video many times over, the movie still has significant virtues. It was widely panned and dismissed as if all the film critics secretly met and took a vote to hate it together. Yes, some songs have been cut and some themes (most sadly, Mme. Armfeldt's) basically eliminated. But there are still some truly definitive performances and beautifully mounted scenes. And Elizabeth Taylor is far from terrible in her part. Unfortunately the current film on video is in terrible deterioration. This film deserves to be preserved as a rare film adaptation in Sondheim library. Remember the horrible film versions of Funny Thing Happened..., South Pacific and other great Broadway musicals that received poor screen adaptations. Taken in context of how seldom movie versions successfully transfer to the screen, A Little Night Music is not great but is certainly good, and far better than many other movie musicals that seem to be held in higher esteem than they deserve.