Sondheim's stage musical is a masterpiece, with a great, sophisticated story, stylish and relateable characters and wonderful songs. Send in the Clowns for me is one of the pinnacles of his career. This film musical had a fair few ingredients to be good, with the musical as good as it was, a beautiful talented actress such as Elizabeth Taylor and some of the original stars reprising their roles. But the film in many ways was incredibly disappointing. I am not someone who says that any movie that deviates from its source is an immediate disaster, I personally intensely dislike that attitude towards films and adaptations, but on its own terms, A Little Night Music is rather poor even on its own merits.
I will start off by saying that it is not a complete abomination like Mame was, as the production values from the settings, cinematography and costumes are top drawer, the songs and beautiful orchestration even with the tampering(plus some of the musical's best bits such as Lisasons and The Miller's Son are cut) are great and Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold and Laurence Guittard are wonderful, and the opening is fantastic. The best of the lot is the outstanding performance of Diana Rigg though, who has the best lines, her performance is wickedly enjoyable and her Everyday a Little Death is very touching. Converesely, there is so much that spoils it.
Much of the blame lies with Prince, whose direction is surprisingly inept and his decision to make the film darker than the stage musical was a massive no-no as it takes away from the romance and fun that made the stage musical such a joy. The story due to several deviations, for the worse I feel as they serve no purpose to the story, is sluggishly paced and in all honesty uninteresting and devoid of feeling complete with underdeveloped subplots, while the script and some of the lyrics are lacking in wryness. The pace is pedestrian, the characters I felt nothing for even Desiree, and the sound is problematic.
I was really disappointed in Taylor, I do love her so very much but she does look very fatigued and her overall performance comes across as too desperate. Plus her singing is not good at all, Send in the Clowns was disappointingly all over the place where you can clearly hear her trying to find the notes. Then we have Lesley Ann-Downe and Christopher Guard who both give dull and passionless performances. Overall, despite the odd bon-bon this film is a complete mess. 4/10 Bethany Cox
I will start off by saying that it is not a complete abomination like Mame was, as the production values from the settings, cinematography and costumes are top drawer, the songs and beautiful orchestration even with the tampering(plus some of the musical's best bits such as Lisasons and The Miller's Son are cut) are great and Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold and Laurence Guittard are wonderful, and the opening is fantastic. The best of the lot is the outstanding performance of Diana Rigg though, who has the best lines, her performance is wickedly enjoyable and her Everyday a Little Death is very touching. Converesely, there is so much that spoils it.
Much of the blame lies with Prince, whose direction is surprisingly inept and his decision to make the film darker than the stage musical was a massive no-no as it takes away from the romance and fun that made the stage musical such a joy. The story due to several deviations, for the worse I feel as they serve no purpose to the story, is sluggishly paced and in all honesty uninteresting and devoid of feeling complete with underdeveloped subplots, while the script and some of the lyrics are lacking in wryness. The pace is pedestrian, the characters I felt nothing for even Desiree, and the sound is problematic.
I was really disappointed in Taylor, I do love her so very much but she does look very fatigued and her overall performance comes across as too desperate. Plus her singing is not good at all, Send in the Clowns was disappointingly all over the place where you can clearly hear her trying to find the notes. Then we have Lesley Ann-Downe and Christopher Guard who both give dull and passionless performances. Overall, despite the odd bon-bon this film is a complete mess. 4/10 Bethany Cox