Poor Frederic Chopin. The composer suffered the indignity of a tepid biography from Hollywood, A Song to Remember (1945), and is now the subject of a worse effort from his native Poland. Chopin: Desire for Love is a florid, melodramatic offering that concentrates on the composer's complicated romantic entanglement with novelist George Sand, the hostility it engendered in her son, and Chopin's later involvement with her daughter. Everything feels rushed (yet you wouldn't want it to be longer), and the cast members emote strenuously but are still overshadowed by the costumes, locations, and plush interiors. The only things, in fact, that make the film remotely palatable are the attractive visuals; the music score, featuring many of the master's best-known pieces; and the occasional howler, as when someone remarks of Chopin at a soiree, “He proposed last year in Marienbad.” (One wishes the anachronistic allusion to Resnais' oddball arthouse classic were intentional, but that seems unlikely.) The Chopin-Sand affair is a lot more fun in James Lapine's 1991 Impromptu, with Hugh Grant and Judy Davis as the lovers, and while that film is hardly solid history, it's far more enjoyable than this absurdly serious combination of museum piece and soap opera. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)
Chopin: Desire for Love
MTI, 134 min, in Polish w/English subtitles, R, VHS: $49.95, DVD: $24.95, Nov. 23 Volume 19, Issue 6
Chopin: Desire for Love
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