A Song To Remember' DVD, Paul Muni (1945), New & Sealed


Cornel Wilde looks nothing like Frederick Chopin. Chopin was not as tall, much thinner, had a hooked nose and redish hair and hazel eyes. That does not matter. Cornel Wilde was Hungarian,6'1' with curly jet black hair and jet black eyes. Chopin Polish/French. That does not matter. Paul Muni overacts. That does not matter. The order in which the music was composed is incorrect. Not even THAT is too terrible. What matters is that the film works in giving the audience a moving portrait of an artist who never in his life made an important decision for himself, until he decided to do a concert series to raise funds for Polish Relief.

Chopin only lived to be 39 and in that time he wrote music for the piano that changed forever the way the piano was played-especially the fingering and pedaling.

Wilde does a remarkable job of conveying a young man who, at first is shy and embarrased by his extravert teacher. There is a nice development into a wasted, hermetically sealed artist controlled by a domineering mother/lover figure, George Sand aka: Amandine Aurore Lucie nee Dupin; Baronne Dudevant. As Sand, Merele Oberon is splendid.

The final 17 min. of this film are brilliant in the way Chopin's famous Grand Tour is presented. No dialogue. A different piano for each city-Paris,Berlin, Vienna, Budepest, Rome, Stockholm, London, Paris. During this 17 min., Wilde grows more and more ill and more and more dedicated to finish the tour that is literally killing him.

For its time, A Song to Remember has an opulent production. The film won for Wilde a much deserved Academy Award nomination.

I recommend this lovely 1945 film for all who love old movies, handsome men, beautiful women, stories they can cry over and great music.



Production Note:

Director: Charles Vidor

Starring:

Paul Muni .... Prof. Joseph Elsner
Merle Oberon .... George Sand
Cornel Wilde .... Frederic Chopin
Stephen Bekassy .... Franz Liszt
Nina Foch .... Constantia
George Coulouris .... Louis Pleyel
Howard Freeman .... Kalkbrenner



Coding: All Region Code / NTSC format

Video: 4:3 Fullscreen

Audio: Dolby Digital / AC-3 / 5.1 Surround Sound

Languages: English

Subtitles: Simplify Chinese / Traditional chinese / None (Removable)

Runtime: 112mins.

Colour: Colour