Starring Cornel Wilde, Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, and Nina Foch
Directed by Charles Vidor
Music by Frederic Chopin
This week, we're elevating our cultural status with a dive into biographies of classical musicians and opera stars. Polish composer Chopin remains one of the most beloved in classical circles. Many of his piano pieces continue to be played in concert halls and on classical music collections and radio stations to this day, and he remains one of the best-known musicians of his period. Does this movie do his short but dramatic life justice, or should it be sent back to Warsaw? Let's begin in Poland, with the music teacher Josef Elsner (Muni) as he discovers the young piano protege Frederic Chopin, and find out...
The Story: Elsner receives an invitation from music publisher Louis Playel (George Coulouris) for Chopin to play for him in Paris. Unfortunately, Chopin's family can't afford the trip. Chopin (Wilde) remains in Warsaw, where he sees his own people taken prisoner by Russian police. He and Elsner become Polish freedom fighters, even as Elsner continues to fight to take Chopin and his music to Paris. He's to play for a count's fancy banquet, but refuses when he hears that the Russian head of Poland is one of the guests.
He and Elsner finally flee to Paris. Playel won't hear Chopin's music now that he's no longer a child protege...until Chopin plays his "Polonaise" for him. He introduces the young man to fellow composer Franz List (Stephen Bekassy). It's List who arranges for him to meet writer and critic George Sand (Merle Oberon), who greatly admires his music. Chopin his heartbroken when he loses his friends in the Polish secret society and walks out of a concert, but a great review from Sand gives him heart. They end up falling hard for each other, even as Elsner finally gets Playel to publish Chopin's work.
He and Sand spend the next few years in Majorica, an island near Spain. Elsner can't get him to do concerts or send more music to publish and ends up teaching back in Warsaw. Things aren't so great in Poland, though. Chopin ends his relationship with Sand when he hears news of friends who were imprisoned during the 1830 November Uprising and she wants him to stay with her. He returns to Elsner and embarks on a series of concert tours across Europe to earn money for the Polish people...but it ends up being too much for his already weakened health...
The Song and Dance: Muni and a gorgeous production anchor this romantic melodrama. Muni takes top honors as the kindly teacher who never stops believing in his student, even when his student abandons him. Oberon is also excellent as strong-willed, demanding Sand, whose desire for love far outweighs her interest in patriotism. The sets and costumes are stunning for normally low-budget Columbia; the cinematography was Oscar-nominated. It looks every bit 1830 Poland and France, from the charming peasant costumes on Chopin's parents in the beginning to the lavish velvets, brocades, and braiding worn by the members of the French court to George Sand's austere dark masculine suits.
Favorite Number: Pianist Jose Iturbi played all of the numbers we hear in the film, starting with the number young Chopin plays as Elsner arrives at his home. Playel may not be impressed by Chopin's "Polonaise in E Flat," but the audience certainly was. Iturbi's full recording of this number went on to be a best-seller. The "Heroic Polonaise" at Chopin's debut is every bit as stunning as Sand says in her review later, with Iturbi and Wilde throwing themselves passionately into it. Likewise, the number he plays at the reception hosted by the Duchess of Orleans is intense enough to understand why Playel wanted to publish it. The concert tour medley starts out passionate and gets increasingly weary as Chopin grows more and more ill.
Trivia: The scene where Sand brings a candelabra to Chopin's piano inspired a young Liberace to have one in his piano act.
What I Don't Like: This melodrama with music is a load of piffle that has very little to do with history. Chopin and Sand did have a passionate relationship, but she was just as big on Polish patriotism as he was. They did part ways, but for other reasons besides their politics, and she absolutely would not have forced him to choose between her and his country. Elsner was fictional, a representative of his many teachers over the years. While he didn't get to Paris until he was older, he did play outside of Poland as a child protege, including in Russia.
Wilde was nominated for an Oscar as Chopin, but outside of his attempts to follow along with Iturbi's piano playing, he's dull as dishwater. Honestly, Oberon's Sand is vastly more interesting than this superficial pretty boy. He looks more like a vampire from an adaptation of an Ann Rice novel towards the end than a dying man.
The Big Finale: Mainly for big fans of classical or romantic-era music or major fans of Muni, Wilde, or Oberon.
Home Media: The solo DVD is part of Columbia's Screen Classics By Request DVD-R line and is expensive at this writing. You're better off streaming this one - it's currently free at Tubi with commercials.
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