Customer Reviews

A Little Night Music

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This DVD is a major disappointment. Like so many other Sondheim fans, I'd been looking forward to this release because the 1978 film is--for better or worse--a rare record of one of my favorite Broadway shows. But, the film itself aside, this DVD is a problem. It is not professionally done. It's supposed to be a new, widescreen print in Dolby stereo, but it isn't. It's a terrible, scratchy old print, and the "widescreen" is apparently stretched out from a fullscreen TV print. The framing is so bad that the opening titles are all cut off, like on an old TV print. And the soundtrack is mono--not even very clear mono. There are more glitches and scratches and sudden jumps (indicating reel changes on old movie theater equipment) than you can count.

I swear, this looks and sounds like it was taken from a TV broadcast with second-rate equipment. Try pausing the picture, and you'll see the horizontal lines that indicate a broadcast on an obsolete TV. And there's a vertical slash down the entire center of the picture for much of the running time, projector damage from long ago. They didn't use the laser disc or VHF recordings, both of which are in much better shape, to make this DVD. Is this legal? Who is "Hen's Tooth Video," anyway?

I don't know what we can do about this, but you really want to think twice before ordering this title. I'm furious, and you will be, too. What a rip-off!

Having seen the stage play several times I can appreciate the movie for what it is.The movie is much slower and less funny than the stage play, yet the movie has some much more tender moments and dramatic flair.I love being able to see the held close ups of Taylor and Cariou and the chemistry these two have.The movie fills in parts that cannot be done on stage.Yes,songs are cut from the stage version, but new lyrics for WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY ,GLAMOUROUS LIFE and EVERY DAY A LITTLE DEATH make this interesting for Prince-Sondheim fans.It definitely is different than the original show, but I love it and watch it often.I always laugh when Cariou and Taylor are chortling about "her Dragooooooon!"

Actually I want to have a dvd edition of the musical play that was broadcast (too long to video tape,) a few years ago on PBS! The movie was fine, but art lovers everywhere want the real thing! I think mankind deserves real broadway masterpieces shown as they exist on the stage!

There is a lot that can be said is wrong with this film: it's too stagey, the video print that I have is fuzzy, Elizabeth Taylor isn't known as a great singer BUT this is the only visual recording of this Broadway musical comedy written by America's greatest Broadway composer.

What can be said other than that it should be in the collection of any serious student of American musical art? It should certainly be in the collection of any fan of Stephen Sondheim's work. The music and the lyrics are beyond compare. The presentation may not be the best but, for the moment, there is no other visual presentation.

More of Mr. Sondheim's work should be made available on video & DVD!

I am reviewing this on the basis of having seen the film in the theater and I now own the laser version. Someone like Ingmar Bergman would have made it more cinematic but it is worth having because of Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Rigg. I think Elizabeth is a perfect Desiree and Rigg is ideal. Had the film been a commercial success she might have received an Oscar nomination. Several songs are cut including the chorus' comments throughout but I still find it fun."A Weekend in the Country" is perfectly done and one wishes Hal Prince had directed the whole movie that well. And to date it is the only Sondheim show to be filmed. I hope it comes back on DVD with scenes that were left out.. There is a still of Diana Rigg smoking a cigar that did not make it in the movie.

No Sondheim fan should be without this video. I know the arrows have been sent Elizabeth Taylor's way for this performance (And Singing!) but she's good in this role. Her singing voice is not supposed to be great as the role was written for Glynis Johns [Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins] Maybe a little unbelievable but certainly not bad. All of the acting appears a little more "stagey" than most movies should be but you're seeing a lot of legendary performances. Diana Rigg is excellent as is Lesley-Anne Down [both at the top of the beauty curve in this film]... and to miss the greats like Hermione Gingold and several others from the original Broadway cast (including the original Sweeney Todd, Len Cariou) would be a sin! All of the music is written in variations of 3/4 time so if you love a waltz, you'll love this movie.
P.S. If the PBS version is ever released, get that too. It is the closest thing to the Broadway version so you can get an idea of what it's supposed to look like on stage. That particular version is a little heavier on singing ability than acting ability

I saw this filmed version of Sondheim's "Little Night Music" back in the 70's and I was enchanted! I haven't seen a staged version, but, as a Stephen Sondheim fan, I didn't feel cheated by the film. Elizabeth Taylor is just fine and she is more than ably supported by an extraordinarily appealing cast. So I anxiously await the DVD release; any copy of it will be superior to the look of the VHS version; and it's a great musical that deserves to be seen by a larger audience.

This DVD is not good, not that the quality of the original film was all that good, either. Yes, the film has mono sound- it always did. Yes, the picture quality is not good- it never was. This DVD looks like it was put together from a best-available positive print. Both the DVD and the packaging look like fairly well done home-grown bootleg product. Don't ANY original negatives still exist? The worst part of the DVD is that, unlike the VHS, it has been remastered at a slightly accelerated speed, resulting in ALL the music coming out a half tone higher in pitch- MOST disconcerting.

Well, there isn't a lot to say about this film that isn't covered elsewhere. So I'll ask if someone will issue instead the PBS film of the City Opera production with Sally Ann Howes, which is superior even if it's a taped stage production (the production values and talent were high). George Lee Andrews (who understudied Cariou and did the national tour) had grown old enough and into the part by then and Howes was very good. Too bad there isn't film of the best Desirees from many productions, Sian Phillips, Judi Dench and Glynis Johns (who someone mistook Howes for in another review). There is a clip of Johns and Cariou doing a scene for a Broadway benefit on an issued video and it's stunning. Taylor isn't all bad but Rigg would have been better in the lead, she's somewhat wasted. Taylor looks bored in some sections and over-directed in others.

Prince's other film, the unissued on DVD "Something for Everyone", is in a similar state or worse apparently, but within the vessel are a great comic performance by Angela Lansbury, supported by Michael York and a wonderful cast and a very dark comic story, as if Charles Addams and Brecht collaborated on an operetta and cut the music. If Hen's Tooth is the only label that will put that out as well, so be it.

You want Sondheim on film? Get "The Last of Sheila".

Flipping through channels, I came upon the PBS production with Glynnis Johns just as "A Weekend in the Country" was starting. Needless to say I stopped flipping and was entranced for the rest of the play. I didn't even pull out the tv guide to learn the title until it was over. I went in search of the soundtrack the next day and discovered the music was every bit as good when listened to with headphones but I am none the less a visual person. Searching for it on dvd when several other Sondheim musicals were released, I learned about the Elizabeth Taylor movie. I rented the vhs from the video store and enjoyed it even though her performance didn't have the same feel as Ms Johns did. Now while I wait for the day the PBS version is released, I will enjoy watching the movie because it's better than nothing when I want more than just the music.