The story of composer Frederic Chopin and his affair with author George Sand has been seen in several films, two of them directed by Charles Vidor – specifically A Song to Remember and the couple also appears in his last film Song Without End about Franz Liszt – and likely neither of them any more historically accurate than James Lapine’s Impromptu, a heady period dramedy featuring a coterie of 19th century artistic genius types entwining their personal and professional lives for fun and profit. While the rapturous physical production and a handful of stars playing these famous people make Impromptu well worth seeing, Lapine’s first film features erratic changes in mood and tempo that keep it from the top tier of movie biographies.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Olive
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: None
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 1 Hr. 48 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
keep caseDisc Type: BD25 (single layer)
Region: All
Release Date: 10/27/2015
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 3.5/5
Bored with her current demanding lover Felicien Mallefille (Georges Corraface), author George Sand (Judy Davis) becomes enraptured when she hears the music of Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant) wafting from out a second story window. The determined authoress tries to meet the frail, sickly composer, but she can never quite make a connection until she arranges to meet him at a two-week celebration of the arts being sponsored by the Duchess D'Antan (Emma Thompson) at her country estate. There Sand is joined unexpectedly by her unwanted lover Mallefille but also by her discarded former lover Alfred De Musset (Mandy Patinkin), painter Eugene Delacroix (Ralph Brown), composer Franz Liszt (Julian Sands) and his current mistress Marie D'Agoult (Bernadette Peters), and, of course, Chopin. What Sand doesn’t know is that Marie D'Agoult has realized her own lover Liszt is tiring of her after bearing him three children and that she herself has her cap set on the talented Chopin. Working behind her friend’s back, Marie manages to alienate Chopin from having any interest in either of the two women, and the continual feuds and jealousies between the artisans cause the Duchess to evict them driving them back to Paris where Sand must start over in her quest to win the elusive musician.
With a screenplay by playwright Sarah Kernochan (who also happens to be the wife of the film’s director James Lapine), the film’s first two-thirds amounts to a modern variation on Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night with duplicitous men and women romping in the countryside, changing sex partners like play clothes, and engaging in picnics and pistol duels and, in the ugly sequence that brings this section of the movie to a screeching halt, an impromptu play offering a sour satirical swipe at the aristocracy whom the artists depend on for their very livelihoods. Once the country fortnight sequence ends, the film turns into a rather standard and less interesting biography of the four primary players in the drama: Chopin, Liszt, Sand, and D'Agoult as they work their way through their rather conventional ending and beginning of their various relationships. The script doesn’t probe very deeply into the psyches of most of the principals, especially Chopin who remains a wan, elusive cipher throughout and something of a mystery why these women are all throwing themselves at him (perhaps because he doesn’t show the slightest interest in any of them), but James Lapine’s smooth direction makes the film so visually arresting capturing all of the sylvan splendor of the French locations (even if that means occasional annoying interludes with the offspring of the various adults who are doing their own mischief while the adults play their sex games).
Judy Davis gets top billing and is the primary focus of the film as George Sand, assertively parading around in men’s clothes and smoking cigars (though she goes fairly soft and feminine late in the film to appeal to Chopin’s delicate sense of propriety) and offering the film’s most interesting performance. She’s almost matched by Julian Sands’ Franz Liszt who doesn’t get quite enough screen time to fully develop his ambitious character slightly in awe of Chopin’s talent and wishing he were less tied down to be able to explore more of his own genius. Bernadette Peters doesn’t seem very European in manners, speech, or looks in comparison to her co-stars, but she’s unquestionably the film’s antagonist and works well in that perimeter. Mandy Patinkin rather comes and goes abruptly during the course of the film as one of Sand’s discarded lovers, but he steals all of his scenes when he’s on screen (a marvelous sequence where he drunkenly tries to mount a horse is among the most memorable moments in the film). Since Peters and Patinkin worked so well under Lapine’s direction on stage in Sunday in the Park with George, it isn’t surprising they flower under his direction here either even if Peters is a trifle miscast. Emma Thompson and Anton Rodgers as the Duke and Duchess who sponsor the house party go rather overboard throughout their scenes, but they’re so entertaining that it hardly matters. Georges Corraface is great fun as the hyper-jealous Felicien Mallefille who can think of no way of keeping suitors away from Sand except through dueling. With all of these extroverts surrounding him, Hugh Grant’s sickly Chopin doesn’t register very strongly, a core character who seems rather inert in the center of the movie. Anna Massey offers a lovely performance as Sands' mother who has grown to accept her daughter's eccentricities and offers her a ready ear.
Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA
The film’s theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. For the most part, it’s a glorious transfer with outstanding sharpness with much fine detail and beautifully appealing color that’s never oversaturated and features accurate skin tones (for most of these artists, that means pale skin tones). Varying light levels may alter color values occasionally, but that's no fault of the transfer. Contrast has been expertly maintained, and black levels are rich and true. Only the infrequent speck of dust or debris mars an otherwise impeccable transfer. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio Rating: 4.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound mix offers a rich, rewarding aural experience for the listener. Dialogue has been expertly recorded and mostly resides in the center channel with an occasional bit of directionality to give it some variety. The beautiful recordings of piano works by Chopin, Liszt, and Beethoven (arranged by John Strauss) get superb play in the available channels, and occasional atmospheric effects likewise wind up in appropriate channels other than the center. No age-related problems with hiss or crackle are present.
Special Features Rating: 0/5
There are no bonus features of any kind on the Blu-ray disc.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Probably not any more reliable as a film biography of these great writers and composers than previous films about them, Impromptu nevertheless offers a fetching, entertaining look at the personal and professional dalliances of some of the 19th century’s most famous artists. The Blu-ray release while lacking in bonus material offers a beautiful audio and video package that fans of the movie will be sure to relish.
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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