Am I the only one here?
Am I the only one here who did not like this film? I feel like I always have to start a negative post here this way, by apologizing for insulting anyone's favorite movie or upsetting anyone for any reason. People always seem to take it personally when you don't like a movie they loved. I'd like to start a discussion with this one. Am I missing something with this film? Did I take it too seriously? Please hear me out.
I have been a lover of all things 19th Century France since I was about 16 years old. It must have been the most exciting, beautiful, fantastic time to live; and George Sand, Frederic Chopin, and their circle of friends were THE exciting, beautiful people of the time. If I had a time machine, I'd be there with them right now. I have read all the Sand, Chopin, and Liszt biographies I've been able to find, and that's why this movie was so dull and disappointing to me. Somehow this movie managed to make them some of the most uninteresting characters I've ever watched on screen. It turned their lives into a circus-like joke, but it wasn't even funny, at least not to me.
The story of Sand and Chopin's love is a complicated one; and I don't really know why this film took two hours to get to an interesting starting point of their long affair, and then stop. I was looking forward to a film about their relationship and the maternal love she had for him that ended up swallowing up their romance very quickly. I wanted to see a better portrayal of the VERY complex Chopin, one of the most amazing composers and personalities in history. None of this was touched on in the film. Instead we got two of hours of giggling and Marie D'Agoult playing footsie with Chopin. When did this ever happen? Yes, I know that she was jealous of Chopin and Sand's relationship and that's what this was supposed to portray, but...when did 3/4 of this movie ever happen? The majority of it was fabricated to show the carefree, uppity, artsy, stormy existence many of them had, but it wasn't all shallowness in reality. George Sand was far more than just a cross-dressing love-a-holic, for instance. She did much for women and social issues of her time. On a more superficial subject, I have to wonder why anyone thought Judy Davis was a good choice to play Sand. They could have at least tried to make her resemble the very dark-haired, dark-eyed Sand, but even with that, I don't think she could have made a good Sand replica. From what I have read about her, she was not the drama queen shown in this film, but a fairly low-key personality, despite her rebellious dress and writings.
And what about Liszt? He was hardly even in the movie; and when he was, he seemed bordering on "special" or just spacey, when in fact he was a fiery, intense man with incredible talents. They could have explained why it was that Marie was so jealous and paranoid. Liszt wasn't just anybody. He was the equivalent of Elvis in his time. Women were throwing themselves on him constantly. The movie barely touched on this, and it was hard to imagine anyone throwing themselves on the bump on a log we saw here. Chopin, too, could have had any woman he wanted. There were reasons why he chose Sand and not the dozens of other ladies and princesses who worshipped him.
I don't want to keep ranting, but I just wish there were a better movie about these people and this period in history. I've rented CHOPIN: DESIRE FOR LOVE and am waiting for it to arrive, though I hear it isn't very good either. IMPROMPTU wasn't terrible, but it wasn't true to the people who inspired it. It was kind of an insult to them. These people weren't a bunch of soap opera clowns. They changed the world with their innovative art and ideas. I want to see a movie about that.