Une petite musique de nuit

There are several misunderstandings about this woefully mis-guided film floating around.

First, Liz Taylor cannot be blamed for the sound of her singing -She was dubbed! I've heard her actual vocals -be very, very glad that another singer was used. Only Len Cariou, Diana Rigg, and Laurence Guittard's singing voices are their own.

The decision to move the locale from Sweden to Austria had nothing to do with art and everything to do with finances. The picture was financed by an Austrian company... And woefully underfunded, which limited neophyte director Prince's re-shoot options (re the ever-expanding, ever-contracting Liz).

Prince has said he simply couldn't figure out a way to use the vocal quintet for the film, so they and their songs were cut. Sondheim wrote new lyrics for Liaisons, and the song was filmed (as was In Priase of Women) but for some reason they were cut from the final version of the film. Perhaps length. Perhaps to keep the focus on the Cariou-Taylor plot line. The new version of The Glamorous Life was extremely well-done, and shows the potential of the piece in surer, better-financed hands.

Casting the film proved extremely difficult. Liz Taylor's name value was crucial to the production. Many different leading men were considered, and in the end Cariou was only brought in at the very last minute because no one else had been signed. Ditto with Laurence Guittard. It's ironic that their performances are the best in the film.

Most of the blame for this shambles falls on Hal Prince. He allowed the movie to be far too dark and Taylor to be far too desperate and clutching. Stephen Sondheim is said to have encouraged the dark tone. Perhaps another director would have lightened things up a bit and allowed the film to be more romantic and fun.

A DVD transfer is extremely unlikely -The original negatives are all but destroyed, not having been preserved properly. Image Entertainment had the title on their release list for some time, but eventually gave up on it, saying the original elements were unusable and the title not likely to sell nearly enough copies to make a restoration worthwhile. The sound, in particular, is problematic -as it was terrible to begin with. There is a very good laserdisc release of the film, which is much clearer than the VHS version, but it's exceedingly hard to find.

So -What was good about this film? The new Glamorous Life song/sequence worked wonderfully, as did the expanded Everyday A Little Death sequence. Cariou, Guittard, and Rigg gave excellent performances. Jonathan Tunick's new orchestrations and underscoring were, as always, first-rate -particularly during Erik's attempted suicide. (Tunick has a cameo as the conductor at the film's opening.) Prince's transition from the theatre stage to "real life" was well done, and the movie has a very promising start. Fans of the original stage musical will forever be frustrated by this film version, which could have been wonderful.

UPDATE: Since I wrote this the film has been (at last!) released on DVD, and the soundtrack recording is now on CD. Several reviewers have complained of the poor quality of the DVD, but the video and audio restoration work was extremely well done. The film never looked or sounded better. According to the new liner notes for the soundtrack CD there were four additional songs from the stage score that were to be filmed, but the production ran out of money. I'm upped my original rating of the film, as each time I see it I find more to enjoy.

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 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.

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.

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.