Lawson
A biopic about Johannes Brahms and two other musical people - Robert and Clara Wieck Schumann - whom I've never heard of. The beginning of the movie gives the disclaimer that it's based on their true stories, and a quick glance at Wiki shows that the main plot points are there, i.e. how Clara Wieck sacrificed a huge career as a gifted pianist to help her husband's lesser composing one, and how Brahms and Wieck shared an unconsummated love because of her devotion to her husband.I have to admit that I'm naturally biased here because it's Katharine Hepburn who plays Clara Wieck and of course my opinion is that she's great. I mean, how suitable for the role of a artiste is she, with her classic Greek goddess looks. And it really does look like she did all the piano-playing herself and it was amazing how her fingers flew. Just watching her play the piano makes the movie. But this is Kate, and even when she's not the pianist but a harried mother of eight, she's still radiant. As for the rest of the movie, it's fairly rote, unfortunately. The big historical names don't matter so much if you're not a classical music fan, and I'm not, so the songs (of love!) didn't leave an impression on me, which means the movie comes across as a standard devoted-wife- sacrifices-all-for-her-husband movie.
princesshm27
This is a brilliant movie for someone with taste in Real Music. The direction is awesome. The sets are great. Its based on a true story bout a composer who struggles all his life to get some achievement with his compositions & finds that in his loving wife who is a popular artist. The music played through the scenes are awesome esp those played by the STUDENT of the great composer himself who finds his way into the home & hearts of the Schumann's Family. A remarkable story about a woman & a man,a woman with many admirers, an artist & a composer, family issues, moralities & career struggles from the Stage to the kitchen! Great performance by all the great actors.
v_hawkins2003
I have not seen this movie since the 60's. It is never shown at Hepburn retrospectives and I suspect that is because Clara Schumann--a married woman with a lot of children--is deemed some sort of affront to the Hepburn image or feminism or both.Their social circumstances may have been very different but the Clara Schumann I have read about shared many of Kate's qualities--energy, ambition,frankness and a frantic devotion to the seriously troubled man she chose to share her life with.People who deride the film usually never saw it. Or maybe they do not like classical music but want to hide their feelings behind claims of historical inaccuracies I would like to know more about the director Clarence Brown
kinolieber
And Johannes Brahms. The music performances are completely devoid of the usual dumbing-down that was par for Hollywood in this era. Artur Rubinstein provides exquisite versions of the piano pieces, and the orchestral performances are authentic and done beautifully. The story is a sensitive abridgement/invention of the biographies of these three musical greats. The actors are uniformly superb with Henreid and Walker at the top of their game and Hepburn perfectly cast and giving it all she's got. I expected cornball trash. Instead this is one of the best music bios Hollywood ever produced. Clearly the producer/director Clarence Brown appreciated this music and brought together artists who could do it justice. Bravo!
AD
