Customer Reviews

Sweet November

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How wonderful there are reviews by customers who so much like this movie. who have also longed to see it again and who have waited for it to be available. I too love it, have remembered it vividly ever since it was first released, and think it a great thing to have it finally here.

Anthony Newley and Sandy Dennis worked beautifully together. Theodore Bikel is so comforting, strong and protective. It is a tender, sad and beguiling story by Herman Raucher, every bit the equal of his "Summer of '42" and that is complimenting it indeed. A rare and heady blend of deepest emotion, of what love can do to persons, and what the terrible thrusting of the end of the world causes--the bittersweet romance, the gone away, but not in the heart ever leaving, the one special romance that aches the soul is always the finest, the most cherished.

Unabashedly bigger than life, very much an old fashioned "romantic film," filled with happiness and passion, and captivating. I've loved Anthony Newley for most of my life. Sandy Dennis is one of my favorite actresses. It needed no remake. Keneau Reeves in the Newley role? Oh, please, no. There is just this one and only classic November. It is impossible not to weep when Charlie so desperately wants Sweet November to stay, to capture the fleeting time, and to make a calander with only that month forever on it, caught in amber.

Which is what this film has done. How can anyone not fall in love with a story in which Charlie names the sweater Sarah makes for him, because he loves it, "Rex"? New York has never been more captivating. Michel LeGrand's music is sublime. Fall and Thanksgiving and Sarah and Charlie and a most creatively sided box, and snow falling on the skylight. What more could a person wish for? The final magnificent song by Newley and Leslie Bricusse, sung in that electrifying Newley voice that will never be equaled, as the snow comes falling down around him on a park bench, his final goodbye, encompassing all the knowledge Sarah has given to him, for all hellos are goodbyes in disguise, breaks my heart every time I hear it. There can be no better, wiser "sentimental education."

Even if Sandy Dennis did not look like my first love, I would have liked her immensely--tender, sad and trembly always it seemed, a delicate rose at the beginning of Fall, all the more lyrical for that. But November can't stay; it's why autumn is so magical. Now that both actors are so sadly gone, we have this gift of love and innocence to remember them by; a study of the kind of affection that counts, that gets into the bones, and joyous memories edged with the patina of sadness. New York in autumn has always seemed the best place in the world to me. This film has proven me right.

Forever bless Anthony Newley, a giant of the musical stage, a sad sweet wise clown whose heart always seemed to be breaking; nevermore so than here. And Sandy Dennis, "mostly woman, mostly child."

The heart remembers, for that way, November is never "wintry and gray". Thanks to grand films like this, we see firmly, just why.

Sweet November. A pure love story. You are in for a treat. Don't let anyone tell you about the plot before you see it. No special effects. I don't think there has been a film with the chemistry that Newley and Dennis have. I wouldn't change a scene or a word. And, as in "The Apartment," Sarah's apartment is almost the main character. And Newley and Dennis just plain become Charlie and Sarah-from the first minute. The screenplay is perfection. It achieves the ultimate goal: you care about the characters. It is as though you already know them, as though they were your college buddies for four years. At the risk of sounding like a lib, you are feeling everything they do every minute of the story, even as it is happening. You know what they are going to do and feel the next minute, and the next. You have an insistant inkling of what's going to happen; and like a dream while you are dreaming it, you are unable to stop it, to change it, to make it end the way you want it to end. If you are a guy, you are Charlie; and if you are a girl, you are Sarah. It is nothing short of a gift that this film has survived. And the final scene in the apartment. November is over. Those twelve chimes striking midnight. If you've never been in love, now you have. And if you have been...

My college sweetheart, with whom I have reunited after 35 years, and I saw this unforgetable movie as a Sneak Preview in 1968. It was the most beautiful, but heart-wrenching movie I ever saw. The two of us remember crying in the car for a couple of hours after leaving the theatre. This movie shows true love never to be forgotten, with an ending that we shall remember for a lifetime.

I have been waiting to buy this video for years! First saw this movie in Viet Nam...and fell in love with the charming character played by Sandy Dennis. I was hoping for a release on VHS of the old movie...it has so much more than the modern release...much more plot development.....and the greenwich village apartment with a skylight had far more possibilities than a small LA apartment. Maybe i am an aging sentimentalist........but i prefer the original.

I was so excited to see the original film available to buy. I have looked everywhere. I saw this movie on television when I was just a kid and the story line and acting impacted me so much that it was one of the few movies I actually remembered, other than poplular classics, all of my life. When I saw the commercial for the new movie I told everyone that it was a remake because I remembered the original movie and it's incredible impact it had on my life. Even the original movie made me think of how valueable life is and how important it is to savour every moment. The acting from both actors in the original movie was superior and believable. The newer movie had excellent acting as well but the original movie was unmatchable.

Anthony Newley is Charlie Blake, a British businessman that is described by Sara Deever as "hurry, hurry, ding, ding"--a man moving so fast she can't see him. Sandy Dennis is Sara, a young Brooklynite that moves Charlie to trade in his blank verse for "mostly calm, mostly wild, mostly woman, no...mostly child".

The two meet under odd circumstances that threaten to label their relationship strained at best. But, Sara sees a project in Charlie--and he's not her first. Sara has--for reasons to be determined much later--been taking on romanctic partners on a one-month-only basis. Men she thinks she can help with one shortcoming or another. After a brief get-to-know-you, she invites Charlie to be her November. No one could have predicted what November would bring--not Sara, not Charlie. The story is propelled by the comings and goings of the men from months past and those to come as Sara doles out her own brand of therapy.

Anthony Newley has some great little comedic gems. Sandy Dennis is so youthful and sweet in her delivery, you believe in what Sara is doing. The last fifteen minutes of the movie pack a sentimental whollop.

I'll never think of November the same way.

I loved the Sandy Dennis, Anthony Newley original, from the first time I saw it on the big screen in the 60's. It has a unique feel and Sandy Dennis lives in the coolest, most unbelievable Brooklyn Heights apartment/loft, back before spaces like this were "in." She has to be seen to be believed, in a role unlike ANY of her others...I was entranced from the moment she appeared onscreen in her white go-go type boots and the oversized hat she was wearing. On her it works, which is probably why she was able to pull off the eccentric character of Sarah, the perfect foil for the rather uptight Charlie played by Anthony Newley. See this movie! Now for my 2nd reason for posting this review. I'd like to know how the soon-to-be released remake compares, to be starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron. Please email me if you see it. Can't believe it has a snowball's chance of being any good but maybe....I'm not spending my money on any tickets till I hear from someone, though.

The first time I saw this movie I was visiting mybrother-in-law and walked in half way through, only to find five machobiker type guys trying not to be seen crying. Over the years I've beenlucky enough to see this four times although the last time, which Itaped, many of the best parts were cut out which all but ruined thisadmitedly dated movie... It is much better than "Love Story"and Guys will like it too.

I first saw "Sweet November" as a Junior in high school in 1968. I was 17 and my two girlfriends were 16 and we absolutely loved this movie and cried all of the way from the theatre to our homes and even more when Sandy Dennis (Sara Deaver) lets Anthony Newly (Charlie Blake) leave and her next human salvage project, Mr. December (Gordon) arrives. Charlie and Sara are in LOVE, and even though Charlie knows of Sara's secret and reason for her "man of the month crusade", he leaves and she lets him leave. This was probably our very first movie where they didn't live "happily ever after" but as we were young and naive, we were so upset that she allowed him to leave. The three of us have remained friends and never until just recently when the movie was remade with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron have any of us seen the movie as it was not released in video until this new remake film. It has never (as far as we have seen in over 30 years) been on television , even as a late night movie. Recently upon just briefly surfing amazon.com< i found it, ordered it, received it and watched it. While I did not cry as hard as I did in 1968, some tears were shed. I have experienced much pain in love and have found that life is not always "happily ever after" as too many films portray. I look forward to seeing the new one and will maybe purchase that also. But for anyone who wants a sappy, totally 60's - 70's revival, this is the video for you. Even my staunch, never cry a tear 16 year old commented "it was pretty good" and shed a tear or two. After this of course came "Love Story", "Ghost", "Sommersby", and many other films without a "happily ever after" ending. I am very happy that I had a chance to purchase it. With Amazon.com I ordered it on Sunday p.m. and it arrived 5 days later and was a joy to watch and pass on to my friends.

MY FAVORITE LOVE STORY OF ALL TIMES.
WHEN I FIRST SAW THIS MOVIE, I WAS BARELY SEVENTEEN. THAT SURPRISINGLY AGREEABLE LOVE STORY INSPIRED ME IN SO MANY LEVELS, AND EVEN NOWADAYS HAVE AN EFFECT ON MY LOVING LIFE, AS FOR ALL THE ROMANTICISM SARA DEEVER ( SANDY DENNIS ) CALLS FORTH AND MAKE CHARLIE BLAKE ( ANTHONY NEWLEY ), AN ENGLISH DEAD FISH - COMPLETELY WRAPPED UP IN HIS BUSINESS LIFE, FIND OUT ABOUT ALL THE JOY OF UNWINDING A LITTLE, AS FOR THE TERM IT LASTS, NEVER LONGER THAN A MONTH ( JUST KIDDIN' HERE FOLKS ). MY BEST WISHES FOR YOU ALL. FRANCISCO ( BRAZIL )