Customer Reviews

John Cleese - Romance With A Double Bass

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film doesn't deserve to be lost in the depths of cinematic memory. Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, the tale of a Russian musician and a beautiful princess is delightful even after repeated viewings.

While the humor isn't painted with quite so broad a brush as Monty Python or "Fawlty Towers," it certainly captures Cleese's trademark humor. "Romance With a Double Bass" is a charming film, one I recommend highly.

John Cleese is a put-upon double bass player in an orchestra which has been engaged to play at the engagement party of a Russian princess (Connie Booth). When Cleese arrives too early for the party he is turned away by a haughty footman, so he goes off to bathe in the lake. The Princess has also decided to take a dip in the lake, but while they are swimming disaster strikes and a thief steals their clothes. John Cleese is faced with the daunting task of getting himself, the princess and the double bass back to the house without anyone seeing them. How he accomplishes this is very funny, and the journey is frought with peril. This is a slight but very amusing comedy with a charming ending, based on a Chekhov short story, but it has greatly improved on the original.

When this aired many years ago I was spending an evening alone, with nothing to do, and bummed out about it. This came on, and so completely turned me around I was smiling for days. John Cleese's absurdity gets its full range here, and his wife at the time, Connie Booth, co-stars. A period piece, Cleese is a bass player, who is quite inept. His big break is to play for the princess' engagement party. Unfortunately he goes for a swim in a nearby lake, and his clothes are stolen. The same theif takes the princess' clothes. Finding each other, stark naked, they must make their way to the castle, retrieve her clothes, and still make his rehearsal for the big event. But it is the small touches, as always, that make this so memorable. It's a wonderful piece. Go for it.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the poor quality of this particular DVD. I own it and even though I got it fairly cheaply I still feel like I got ripped off. This DVD has been created from a very beat-up copy of the film, full of scratches and other signs of wear and tear. To make matters worse, some of the nudity has been chopped out. To call it "edited" would be putting it too kindly. Whoever was responsible for the cutting simply removed some of the more revealing frames of film, taking the corresponding bits of dialogue with them.

It IS a charming, funny little movie. It deserves better treatment. This DVD should be avoided in the hope that a better transfer will come along.

John Cleese and Connie Booth star in this adaption of Chekov's play. Without dialogue and often without clothing the pair make their way through a variety of social and personal situations with a care which Miss Manners would appreciate.

This is less slapstick than it is social commentary but hilarious none the less.

Quite a bit more introspective and delicate than most of Cleese's work (how often have you heard anyone describe a Flying Circus or Fawlty Towers sketch as "delicate"?), this adaptation of a Chekov short story is not likely to be exactly what the typical Python fan is expecting. But it is very successful in doing what it wants to do, and utterly hilarious if you're not locked into misguided expectations. Only at the end does the film lose its grip a bit, and I think this is simply because of the complexity of feeling that has to be communicated utterly without dialogue.

It is especially remarkable to find a film in which the male and female leads spend half the film nude and in each other's company, yet without any but the most subtle of sexual overtones. Booth and Cleese have grasped the fact that the central engine of the story is the social gap between the princess and the musician, a gap so unthinkably vast that neither character could ever contemplate a liason. (They might possibly fantasize about one, but they could never seriously contemplate one.) More impressively, they communicate that gap consistently, powerfully, and without a single explicit reference to it, even (I think) to those with no knowledge of Tsarist Russian social structures. The result is much more reminiscent of the skinny-dipping scene in A Room for a View than of the sex education scene in Meaning of Life -- laugh-out-loud funny, but titillating only for those immovably determined to be titillated.

If you like Meaning of Life for the same reason you like the Farrelly Brothers, and haven't enough range in your comedic palate to enjoy anything with less subtlety than the (admittedly hilarious) Twit of the Year sketch, then you should probably stay away from this film, or at the very least keep your expectations low. If, on the other hand, you like to take an occasional break from your Guiness in order to enjoy a nice crisp Chardonnay, then don't miss it.

That last sentence, by the way, was metaphorical, in case anyone thought I was inexplicably changing the subject. ;-)

A P.S. to parents: though the nudity is as close to asexual as full nudity very well can be, it is still full nudity, both male and female, lasting for the better part of the film.

This forty minute feature, which appears like an extended
"Python" sketch, but is based on a short story by Chekov, features John Cleese, and the lovely Connie Booth [not sure if they were married to each other at the time] but as a musician and a princess. She goes off to "skinny dip" and so does he.
A thief takes, no wait, you've got to see it. There's a bit of "naughty" bits; which were more naughty than could ever be shown on "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Ms. Booth looked stunning, and Cleese, merely tall, and nakie, but overall, it was funny, or at least mildly amusing, which may not be to everyone's taste (or lack of it). Worth a look.

This is a fun story. John Cleese and Connie Booth perform well together. A well-written story about a budding romance between a musician and a princess. There are a few parts where John Cleese throws in a Monty Pythonish type of dialog, which adds to the hilarity of the show.

This need not be watched as a comedy. Enjoy instead the simple charm. I imagine Couples would enjoy this if they have any Romance. Yes, it does have funny moments and the situation itself is amusing but it is not for laughs, just as many serious dramas may have humor. The closure is delightful or am I still holding onto memories of suprise romance, especially when the lowly musician (Cleese)has a chance with the princess.It's a fairy tale for grown ups.

This is a film that I had always heard about (I am a professional bassist). It's a cute, relaxed little film based on a Chekhov short story. I suspect it was made for British TV in the '70s. The production value isn't great, but the performances are charming and it's a perfectly pleasant way to spend 40 minutes or so. Bassists and their admirers will enjoy the references to bass stereotypes. Plus, it's fun to watch John Cleese lug around a giant wooden bass case for 30 minutes!