darbski
**SPOILERS** Yeah, "Trapeze" is gonna be playing on Turner Movie Classics this afternoon, and I'm gonna watch it again. Wowee, gee, whiz.. Burt who? Tony what? Circus? The movie IS Gina Lolobrigida. When it played on our local station's broadcast of whatever national corporation's directors told them to, I, and my cohorts sat as close to the set as possible for one reason. NOT Tony Curtis. NOT Burt Lancanster, just Gina. Everything else in the movie fades to obscurity next to her.I worked for a small circus for a short time, and from what I could tell, Flying (Trap work) is about timing, precision, and strength. None of the Flyers I briefly knew were anything like Gina. Then again, none of them ever kept me awake at night, either.
capone666
TrapezeThe best thing about being a trapeze artist is you're safe when the circus elephants stampede below.But, as this drama demonstrates, there are plenty more dangers under the big top.Aspirant high wire aerialist Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis) heads off in search of an injured trapeze legend Mike Ribble (Burt Lancaster) so that Mike can teach him the deadly triple-somersault routine that nearly ruined him.But Tino is not the only performer interested in Mike's attention as an attractive tumbler (Gina Lollobrigida) joins the ranks and drives a jealous wedge between Tino and his mentor.Needles to say, this love triangle begins to affect their precarious performance.Despite its capable male leads, exciting backdrop and array of aerial feats, this sluggish melodrama never gets off the ground thanks to its lacklustre script and amoral leading lady.Furthermore, I always thought injured circus performers were fed to the clowns.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca
Ilpo Hirvonen
Carol Reed, an English filmmaker, made such an outstanding magnum opus that it left his other films into oblivion many of which are still hiding somewhere. The Third Man (1949) might just be the most famous film-noir ever made and the most iconic film of the Cold War. Even though his other films aren't as good, they're at least fairly interesting. Although, many of Reed's films won awards at several festivals, he never achieved the same fame he did with The Third Man. However, its success was somewhat paradoxical: because it did rise him to the world of cinematic auteurs and gave him the possibility to achieve almost anything but, on the other hand, it was such a masterpiece which was almost impossible to overcome. Therefore, his other films are quite unknown, just like Trapeze even though it won an award at the Berlin Film Festivals and has got quite a cast.It's a story about an ambitious beauty (Gina Lollobrigida) who stirs up trouble between two male trapeze stars. One of them is a youngster (Tony Curtis) who wants to become the greatest aerialist in the world. But only one man can teach him the hardest trick; an older aerialist (Burt Lancaster) who has hurt himself in an injury and has been left alone by an old lover of his. It is a story about disintegration but it leaves on a happy note.To put it briefly, Trapeze is a circus melodrama about a love triangle, with some homo-erotic tension between Curtis and Lancaster who starred together one year later in a crime classic Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Although, at first Trapeze feels a little too schematic and conventional, it grows out to be quite a mature interpretation of the choice made between love and art. Even if the set-up is quite juvenile and built on clichés and conventions, Trapeze is still extremely well directed and filmed -- especially the trapeze sequences with Wagner's music on the background. To my mind, it is a fascinating look at the eternal contradiction between art and entertainment.
Gloede_The_Saint
From the notorious "Third Man" director Carol Reed comes a noirish circus film set in the heights. A beautifully composed movie about ambitions, deceit, cruelty, love and perfection is what's brought to us here.Burt Lancaster plays Mike Ribble, once the greatest Trapeze artist in the world is now a circus rigger after a accident that destroyed his leg, but now hope is brought to him. Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis) comes to him to learn the now vanished triple somersault. Mike soon understands that Tino is the only one who can bring this back to the world and they form an act together. Obviously it can't end there. The overly ambitious Lola (Gina Lollobrigida) sets out to make it big trying everything she can to get in their acts and when she makes it her ambitions only grows.With unusual angles, rough style and a rather fresh story Reed creates gold her. The film brings along a lot of the noirish feel though it can't be put it that genre. The film is cold and warm altogether something which at least I always appreciates.The plot turns are great and the characters aren't exactly your average blowup dolls. Great performances all around. And I must applaud for Lancasters understated yet incredibly moving performance. A fabulous film without a single dull moment! My rating is 10/10, it will get on my top 250 and it's the best film I have seen from 1956 this far (though Death is the Garden is very close)
AD
