Chopin. Pragnienie milosci

I am a self-professed Chopin junkie since age 10. As one who has read many biographies of Chopin and seen the 3 movies about his life: A Song to Remember, Impromptu and Desire for Love (Pragnienie milosci), there is only one scene in all of them that made me sit up and say, "Yessssss!" This is where Chopin's valet, Jan Matuszewski, is playing an oberek on the violin and Chopin asks him to repeat it. It turns into his D major Mazurka from Op. 33. Other than that scene, the movie is pretty schlocky. I do love that one scene, though!

The info provided by IMDb and the review of the other person is confusing. I've watched this movie and it is not in Polish. It's in English, and it isn't dubbed. Yes, it is the same movie. The title is the same, the casts are the same, the plot is the same.

This is the second movie I've watched this year about a Polish Pianist. The first one was Roman Polanski's The Pianist (stars Adrien Brody).

The world-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianists Emanuel Ax, Yokio Yokoyama, and Janusz Olejniczak, and violinists Pamela Frank and Vadim Brodsky use their talents brilliantly to bring Chopin's music to life.

I guess I do enjoy this type of movies. Most would find watching these type of movies boring but I tend to enjoy them. :)

I don't understand a word of Polish, and there are no subtitles present, but I have had many wonderful times watching the DVD. (I own a multi-system DVD player.) The Polish countryside scenes are beautiful, and the actor who played Chopin certainly knew how to play the piano! There are a lot of fights in this movie, usually between Chopin and George Sand, or else George Sand and her husband, or George Sand and her son, or Chopin and George Sand's son (Maurice, her son, HATED Chopin.) George Sand was a French lady writer really named Aurore Dudevant. She wore trousers (practically unheard of for a lady in her day), smoked, and climbed mountains. George Sand was married to another fellow while she was having a lengthy affair with Chopin. There are also a lot of parties in this movie. At one of the parties, George Sand makes a long speech. Also, somebody always seems to be riding a carriage somewhere. In the beginning of the film, there are a lot of soldiers running around.

All in all, it's a great picture and a must see for any Chopin fans. Chopin: Pragnienie Milosci is a famous movie in Poland and from what I understand, it was a very big deal when it came out. In English, the title means: Chopin, Desire for Love.

A few films have been made about Chopin, they are all excellent, since the subject demands serious honesty; but they are all American or English. This is entirely Polish, there are only Polish names in the cast, and the crew also seems to be entirely Polish, and it is all filmed on location. As a Polish film about their greatest son it is naturally of great interest, and it is a pleasure to observe that all the actors live up to the challenge: Piotr Adamczyk and Danuta Stenka are quite convincing as Chopin and George Sand, and for once here is a film that includes her children, especially Adam Woronowicz makes a great performance as her son Maurice but also Bozena Stachura as her daughter Solange manages well. You could object to all the sleazy details about their private lives, there might be some exaggerations here, although the film shows a great ambition to stick as closely as possible to the truth. Only Michal Konarski as Franz Liszt is not convincing but is made something of a caricature of, while several important parts are missing, most of all Chopin's teacher (made so prominent by Paul Muni in the 1945 film) and Alfred de Musset (made so real by Andy Patinkin in the 1991 film), and you might object against the lack of coherence in the film, which is rather like a collage of impressions, but the flashbacks are wonderful, and the music, which is all Chopin's, saves the film.

I have been a lover of Chopin, the man and his music, for years and years, and have always been fascinated by George Sand. I rented this film on DVD (with English dubbing) and watched it last night with great expectations. I recently purchased IMPROMPTU, the other Chopin/Sand biopic, and found it wandered quite far from the actual events of their lives. So, I was disappointed with that one, and was hoping CHOPIN: DESIRE FOR LOVE would be just what I wanted from a Chopin biography. It was not.

What would be so hard about making a film based entirely, or at least mostly, on true events? Why do film-makers seem determined to turn the lives of these historic geniuses into soap opera frivolity? If you have ever read a biography on Chopin, or even just listened to his music, then you know what a highly intelligent, sensitive, perfectionist, almost otherworldly man he was. I want a movie about Chopin with an actor and a script that are as sensitive and detailed as he was. This film seemed like a cheap, made-for-TV movie with overacting, cheesy drama, and unnecessary sexual situations. I'm mainly referring to the scene of Solange frolicking nearly naked in the river in front of Chopin. There is no documented proof that there was ever anything beyond mild flirtation between Solange and Chopin, if there was even that. He was older, frail, and sickly, and she was young, sexy, and looking for money. She used him for sympathy, and he did have it for her. Oh, and the scene with the maid and Chopin! Completely made up for sex appeal! What were they thinking? Perhaps they just wanted to show that Chopin was starved for sex while living with Sand, but there were other ways to show that. Chopin would be sick over this one, and George Sand would never have stood for that under her own roof.

Chopin struggled with depression and sickness, and even had a few hallucinations from time to time. His own genius mind drove him mad with striving for perfection in music, dress, and appearance. Neither movie I have seen has touched on this aspect of his life very well, if at all. They have portrayed him as a whining snob and not much else. There was far more to him. In my opinion, he was very misunderstood. This is just something else I would love to see played out on screen.

On a positive note, there were a few little details in this movie that lovers of Chopin might really appreciate. For instance, in most scenes, the actor playing Chopin wears gray pants. This was Chopin's favorite color for his suits. There were also scenes of Chopin in a room with gray and green walls, which were the true colors of the wallpaper he chose for his apartment in Paris. I also liked the fact that the actress playing Sand in this film actually resembled the real woman, whereas in IMPROMPTU, Judy Davis looked nothing like her. They didn't even try with Davis, except to put her in a man's clothing. In the first party scene of this film, the actress is dressed and has her hair done exactly like Sand in a well known painting. I loved the way she looked here.

All in all, I would have to say that for Chopin and Sand fans, this movie is severely lacking in historical truth and nuance. At the same time, for those who have no knowledge of Chopin's life, it must be very confusing, tedious, and hardly entertaining. I hope one day that a good, detailed biographical film will be made for Chopin. Perhaps lack of interest from the public is why we've had two duds about him. However, I think if a well made film were to be done, many people who never knew about Chopin would find themselves fascinated and wanting to know more about this amazing composer's sad and hauntingly beautiful life story.