For students of music, 'A Song to Remember' is to criticize, since it greatly romanticizes the life of Chopin and adds many fictional tissues...
However, criticism on that level must be tempered with the understanding that in 1945 this film did a deal to interest a wide public in Chopin's music... With the music adapted by Miklos Rozsa and performed by José Iturbi, there is much to enjoy and admire...
According to Sidney Buchman's screenplay, Chopin is a political idealist who devotes much of his career to adopt the cause of his native Poland in its struggle to throw off czarist oppression... As a young man Chopin (Cornel Wilde) sides with the revolutionaries, to the concern of his sagacious teacher and mentor Joseph Elsner (Paul Muni). When Chopin goes to Paris to win fame and money to support his political friends, Elsner accompanies him, to guide and protect him...
In the halls of a music publisher, Chopin makes the acquaintance of Franz Liszt (Stephen Bekassy), who is already an admirer of the young Pole's compositions... Liszt befriends him, promotes his career, and introduces him to the elegant and romantic novelist Georges Sand (Merle Oberon). The tempestuous couple fall in love and Chopin, against Elsner's advice, goes with her on a journey to Majorca, where his health is undermined...
The facts are that Chopin was never an active Polish revolutionary and pursued a career without political motivation... He went to Paris alone, and his affair with Georges Sand lasted eight years, until he left her after a quarrel...
Elsner did not accompany Chopin to Paris from Poland, nor did he ever engage in a duel of wits with George Sand for control of Chopin's life and aims...
Constantia, the character played by Nina Foch, never went to Paris to plead with Chopin to help his fellow Poles in their struggle against Czarist rule... Elsner and Sand never reflected, nor influenced Chopin's musical style to the degree implied in the film, and it would be a mistake to accept the movie impression of Sand as a nymphomaniac who betrayed Musset, destroyed Chopin, and changed her philosophy and politics to suit the views of each successive lover... When Sand thought she had found something approaching perfection in a man, she lived with him for years... She remained impervious to Musset's skeptical views and Chopin's aristocratic prejudices...
However, Charles Vidor's film is a handsome Technicolor extravaganza, directed with all the sweep and emotional vitality for which he was characterized... The film showcases a highly mannered Paul Muni; an effusive and intense Merle Oberon (a petite, exotic-looking and strikingly beautiful brunette, wearing gorgeous gowns, walking with grand éclat) and an elegantly tormented Cornel Wilde...
Having taken due note of all this, it is only fair to state that if one is willing to surrender to the gorgeous romanticism of the doings, and if one approaches 'A Song to Remember' as a fictional tale about a 19th century composer who wrote exquisite concertos, penetrating solo pieces, who loved the eccentric George Sand, who wanted to help his fellow Poles in the effort, who proved ungrateful to his mentor, then one is faced with electrifying scenes, courtesy of Merle Oberon who was never more forceful in her tense confrontation scenes with Muni for Wilde's attention and acknowledgment... Paul Muni's performance exuded a poetic kind-heartedness with quiet realism...
When the indifferent but determined Chopin decides to embark on the concert tour that will raise money for "the cause," Oberon seems very exciting in her trenchant speech about the bitterness and sorrow of her past that had hardened her to defy the world with her individualism...
Fine characterizations are contributed by Stephen Bekassy as Franz Lisz, George Coulouris as music publisher Louis Pleyel, and George Macready as Alfred De Musset, one of the more conspicuous lovers of Sand...
If taken as an essentially fictional work, 'A Song to Remember' is hilarious classical musical biopic which was unexpectedly popular...
However, criticism on that level must be tempered with the understanding that in 1945 this film did a deal to interest a wide public in Chopin's music... With the music adapted by Miklos Rozsa and performed by José Iturbi, there is much to enjoy and admire...
According to Sidney Buchman's screenplay, Chopin is a political idealist who devotes much of his career to adopt the cause of his native Poland in its struggle to throw off czarist oppression... As a young man Chopin (Cornel Wilde) sides with the revolutionaries, to the concern of his sagacious teacher and mentor Joseph Elsner (Paul Muni). When Chopin goes to Paris to win fame and money to support his political friends, Elsner accompanies him, to guide and protect him...
In the halls of a music publisher, Chopin makes the acquaintance of Franz Liszt (Stephen Bekassy), who is already an admirer of the young Pole's compositions... Liszt befriends him, promotes his career, and introduces him to the elegant and romantic novelist Georges Sand (Merle Oberon). The tempestuous couple fall in love and Chopin, against Elsner's advice, goes with her on a journey to Majorca, where his health is undermined...
The facts are that Chopin was never an active Polish revolutionary and pursued a career without political motivation... He went to Paris alone, and his affair with Georges Sand lasted eight years, until he left her after a quarrel...
Elsner did not accompany Chopin to Paris from Poland, nor did he ever engage in a duel of wits with George Sand for control of Chopin's life and aims...
Constantia, the character played by Nina Foch, never went to Paris to plead with Chopin to help his fellow Poles in their struggle against Czarist rule... Elsner and Sand never reflected, nor influenced Chopin's musical style to the degree implied in the film, and it would be a mistake to accept the movie impression of Sand as a nymphomaniac who betrayed Musset, destroyed Chopin, and changed her philosophy and politics to suit the views of each successive lover... When Sand thought she had found something approaching perfection in a man, she lived with him for years... She remained impervious to Musset's skeptical views and Chopin's aristocratic prejudices...
However, Charles Vidor's film is a handsome Technicolor extravaganza, directed with all the sweep and emotional vitality for which he was characterized... The film showcases a highly mannered Paul Muni; an effusive and intense Merle Oberon (a petite, exotic-looking and strikingly beautiful brunette, wearing gorgeous gowns, walking with grand éclat) and an elegantly tormented Cornel Wilde...
Having taken due note of all this, it is only fair to state that if one is willing to surrender to the gorgeous romanticism of the doings, and if one approaches 'A Song to Remember' as a fictional tale about a 19th century composer who wrote exquisite concertos, penetrating solo pieces, who loved the eccentric George Sand, who wanted to help his fellow Poles in the effort, who proved ungrateful to his mentor, then one is faced with electrifying scenes, courtesy of Merle Oberon who was never more forceful in her tense confrontation scenes with Muni for Wilde's attention and acknowledgment... Paul Muni's performance exuded a poetic kind-heartedness with quiet realism...
When the indifferent but determined Chopin decides to embark on the concert tour that will raise money for "the cause," Oberon seems very exciting in her trenchant speech about the bitterness and sorrow of her past that had hardened her to defy the world with her individualism...
Fine characterizations are contributed by Stephen Bekassy as Franz Lisz, George Coulouris as music publisher Louis Pleyel, and George Macready as Alfred De Musset, one of the more conspicuous lovers of Sand...
If taken as an essentially fictional work, 'A Song to Remember' is hilarious classical musical biopic which was unexpectedly popular...