A chronicle of films about conductors
OrchestrasIn the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Pablo L Rodriguez casts a sceptical eye over recent maestro films and places them in context:
We can go back as far as the silent film Hearts and Flowers (1919), or to Break of Hearts (1935) and Unfaithfully Yours (1948), where Charles Boyer and Rex Harrison respectively gave life to two leading conductors. Romantic dramas then followed, with Interlude (1957) and Once More, with Feeling! (1960), where we see, respectively, Rossano Brazzi rehearsing the First Symphony by Brahms and Yul Brynner rehearsing the symphonic poem The Preludes by Franz Liszt. And with Counterpoint (1968), the figure of the orchestral director was incorporated into the war drama, starring Charlton Heston.
Many examples followed, although few are as popular as Meeting Venus (1991), the film by Hungarian director István Szabó, in which French-Danish actor Niels Arestrup directs a Tannhäuser production, with Glenn Close as a Wagnerian diva. However, there are few biopics of real-life orchestra conductors. Perhaps the two most famous are Young Toscanini (1988) and Taking Sides (2001). In the first, Franco Zeffirelli emulates the Brazilian debut of the Italian director Arturo Toscanini, with Elizabeth Taylor as the singer (and soprano Aprile Millo as her voice). In the second, Szabó explores the denazification of hearing of famed German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, with Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård playing the part and conducting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (although you can hear Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra emulating Furtwängler’s unmistakable rhythm)…
(More here.)
Who has he forgotten? I can think of three.
A lot depends on whether the conductors are real or fictional. Does Bugs Bunny as Stokowski count? And what about those where actual conductors appear as themselves? There are certainly more than two hundred films that portray persons on the podium.
C’mon, Leonard, more titles please…
Where to start?) I have a huge list and am contemplating writing a book of reviews .
1. The Competition 1980 Sam Wanamaker is the conductor)
2. They Shall Have Music ( 1937 Walter Brennan conducts)
3. Carnegie Hall 1947 Fritz Reiner conducts and speaks!
4. A Song to Remember (1960) Morris Stoloff conducts.)
5. Deception ( 1946 Claude rains conducts.
6. 100 men and a girl (1937 Stokowski conducts and acts)
7. Music for Millions (1944 Jose Iturbi conducts and acts.)
8. Unfaithfully yours (1984 remake Dudley Moore conducts)
9. La Symphonie Fantastique (1942 Jean-Louis Barrault conducts)
10. Amadeus ( 1994 Tom Hulce conducts
11. L’Age d’Or (1930, Luis Buñuel) An orchestra at a garden party is playing the •Liebestod•; the conductor (portrayed by an actor billed as “Duchange”) suddenly grabs his head in pain and moans his way off the podium.
12. Topsy Turvy (1999, Mike Leigh) Allan Corduner, as Sir Arthur Sullivan, conducts.
13. Wonder Man (1945) Aldo Franchetti as the opera conductor being driven crazy by Danny Kaye’s unprepared-for stage debut:
https://youtu.be/4jGpjhsv9fY?feature=shared
Bernard Herrmann conducting Herrmann in “The Man Who Knew Too Much”.
(Actually, he’s conducting Arthur Benjamin’s “Storm Cloud Cantata” in the concert hall sequence; the rest of the film’s score is indeed by Herrmann himself.)
Yes, of course!! Seniors’ moment; he composed the score for the film and it was indeed Storm Cloud Cantata (which was awful, BTW).
He was actually conducting Arthur Benjamin’s Storm Clouds Cantata.
14. Delightfully Dangerous (1945) Morton Gould as himself. (1:01:02)
https://youtu.be/NSp_d_psdk0?feature=shared
15. My beloved “The Red Shoes” (1948), with Esmond Knight and Marius Goring sharing ballet conducting duties in the pit.
“Miss Page? You see this baton? FOLLOW IT”!
Yes, this film is astonishing and Goring was magnificent as the fledgling conductor; “good boy”, Knight purrs on the opening night of the ballet.
17. The Tales of Hoffmann (1951, Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger) Sir Thomas Beecham is onscreen conducting the opera’s final measures, laying down his baton, and decisively closing the score.
Ah, yes, The Competition! Thanks for the memory, Maestro! Great quotes from that film!
Diva pianist Greta Vandemann, played imperiously by Lee Remick preparing her reluctant student to compete. The famous Jordan Marsh mix-and-match line:
“Ludwig Von Beethoven taught Carl Czerny, who taught Leschetizky, who taught Schnabel, who taught Renaldi, who taught me. And now the sixth pianist in a direct line from Beethoven is standing here staring at me in her Jordan Marsh mix-and-match.”
Dear Anon,
I was a cast member in the film (I portrayed the nerdy, mostly-silent finalist who played the Liszt Concerto No. 1), and can faithfully report that it was a joy to make. Richard Dreyfuss and Sam Wanamaker were kind and delightful colleagues; I only had one day of filming with Lee Remick (the concluding party scene), and she was very gracious and sweet. The sad thing was that its writer-director, Joel Oliansky, was a real and knowledgeable music-lover who wanted to make a film that focused on the struggles of being a young musician (he showed me the first draft of the script, which bore this out), but the studio said, in effect, “the public won’t like it — take out some of the music and build up the love story.” We ended up with more of a soap opera than we’d have had otherwise. I’m still pleased to have been a participant, though (even if it netted me the scorn of Leonard Bernstein — but that’s another story…)
All best regards,
Adam
Wow! So interesting! Thanks for sharing that with us, Adam!
100 Men and a Girl shows Stoki as the most wooden actor in movie history but there is some conducting going on too. Fritz Reiner appears in “Carnegie Hall” alongside Heifetz and someone decided to give Fritz a speaking part….he both looks and sounds like Count Dracula…………..
It’s a weird film, “Carnegie Hall”.
I would venture that Bugs Bunny’s “Stokowski” is most civilians’ mental image of “conductor”.
If television films are permissible, there was an episode of “Columbo” in which John Cassavetes, that episode’s guest murderer, portrayed a conductor. (Marvelous acting, lousy conducting.)
May I infer that you are saying that acting actually plays no part in conducting?
Not in this case… I’m making a distinction between the expert way in which Cassavetes portrayed the character vs. his all-over-the-place baton-wielding.
There was a movie about Antonia Brico
title?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6932818/reviews
De dirigent (The Conductor) 2018
is a Dutch movie. I have seen it in Dutch on Dutcvh TV a few years ago but my mom told me she saw it in Italian on Italian TV. So it must have had a pretty large circulation
1974: Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman
2018: The Conductor
Foul Play. Dudley Moore revealing the true nature of the life of a Conductor!!!
…and, possibly the best actor emulating a conductor, Cary Grant in “People Will Talk” (27:57 and 1:47:40). I’ll take his clear beat over Bradley Cooper’s nothing-but-emoting any day.
https://youtu.be/KxRpAvJ1-Os?feature=shared
It’s a very interesting film, actually, and I wondered how it was received at the box office since it had a somewhat esoteric premise and the kind of byzantine plot contortions sometimes favoured by writer/director Mankiewicz.
See the “Reception” tab:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Will_Talk
Yes, but how did the general public respond? I’d be surprised if it enjoyed anywhere near the success of “All About Eve”. Same with Cukor’s “It Should Happen to You”, 1954 – a strange film about vanity and fame.
As Samuel Goldwyn once quipped about social commentary in film, “if you want to send a message use Western Union”.
Alexander Godunov played a conductor in “The Money Pit.” I remember an amusing line about how his Haydn was better than Szell’s.
At the beginning of the funny and still popular French movie “La Grande Vadrouille” (1966, Gérard Oury), the actor Louis de Funès is a conductor at the Opéra de Paris. He conducts “La Symohonie fantastique” by Berlioz during WW2 until he is rudely interrupted… 😉
Actually, the music in that scene is the Hungarian March from the Damnation of Faust (Berlioz).
No, he conducts the Hungarian March from ‘La Damnation de Faust”.
In the playing-themselves category, there’s an enjoyable melodrama from 1947 called Night Song (Dana Andrews and Merle Oberon) in which Eugene Ormandy and Arthur Rubinstein make this chatty little cameo:
https://youtu.be/MevrGIScq5Y?feature=shared
A very funny film from an unexpected source, was Lorin Maazel’s A Week in the Life of a Conductor. His estate or somebody needs to get it out there! I saw it on PBS many years ago and have it a lousy VHS tape.
https://youtu.be/bYRG6YIExGs?feature=shared
Didn’t Peter Oundjian do something like that with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra?
Anbdre Wadzje: “The Conductor”.
In Interlude Rossano Brazzi is shown conducting Schumann’s Fourth not Brahms First.
As recalled above, the absolute gem for us French is Louis de Funès in “La Grande Vadrouille”, as the musical director of Paris Opera under german occupation (he’s conducting Berlioz’ Marche Hongroise, not the Fantastique):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T1BKfNQZB0g
Pure genius…
Bernard Herrmann conducts in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Arthur Benjamin conducts his music in the 1934 version.
Oscar Levant conducting himself in American in Paris (1951)
Marius Goring air conducting to Thomas Beecham in The Red Shoes (1948)
Jim Carter in “Brassed Off”…FANTASTIC conducting in the
Royal Alb Hall…!! WOW!…..
Fellini “The Orchestra Rehearsal” (1978). At one point, the orchestra rebels and installs a giant metronome in place of the conductor 🙂
Name-dropping: In Otto Preminger’s ‘Fallen Angel’ (1945), con-man Dana Andrews invites sweet Alice Faye and her wealthy sister to hear Toscanini conduct the San Francisco Symphony. But when sister arrives to meet them, there’s no Toscanini and no concert. (It appears to be summer.)
For Band Stars and Stripes FOrever Clifton Webb doing a hack job as Sousa according to Sousa Band alumni.
If one wants a fictional conductor then try David McCallum in Mother Love, tv series also starring Diana Rigg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Love_(TV_series)
Divertimento, about the French-Algerian conductor Zahia Ziouani. A pioneer among women conductors in her country(ies) and a pupil of Celibidache.
Niels Arestrup appears as the great man.
Paul Whiteman conducts or shown to conduct parts of Gershwin’s one act opera Blue Monday and Rhapsody In Blue in the 1945 Film Rhapsody In Blue. Pops, as he was affectionately called, conducted the debut of these works. Blue Monday lasted only one night in the George White Scandals of 1922 and Rhapsody In Blue was introduced in Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924. Whiteman also conducts Rhapsody In Blue in the 1930 film King of Jazz.
Night Song has Eugene Ormandy and Arthur Rubinstein playing themselves as they introduce a new work by the composer played by actor Dana Andrews.
In the excellent Death Of Stalin (2017), Justin Edwards and Nicholas Woodeson play conductors whose unenviable task it is to please the ailing dictator.
Soon will appear The Yellow Tie, biopic on Celibidache
The actor Daniel Olbrychski (not a useable downbeat in sight) conducting an arrangement of Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ in the 1981 film ‘Les uns et les autres’.
Really? Not sure hoe interesting it will be, but the life of HvK, Abbado, or Carlos Kleiber would make excellent material. Celebedache is maybe the most controversial but other than extreme slow tempi, I dont think his story is that Interesting. How about a bio pic about Dmitri Mitropolis? Vin Deisel cab play him.
I’d opt for J. K. Simmons as Mitropoulos, FWIW.
Leopold Stokowski, with help from Mickey Mouse, conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in Fantastia, 1940, which introduced millions of children and their parents to the beauty and excitement of classical music.
Taking Sides was tough to take (groan) in that the actor playing Furtwangler had a full head of hair.
In Tous les matins du monde, Depardieu as Marin Marais “conducts” (ala Lully, with a long staff) the “Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs” by Lully.
Count Basie’s cameo in Blazing Saddles.
Count Basie is also conducting (seen from a distance) in a famous scene from the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella.
Eric DeLamarter (an actual symphony conductor) can be seen conducting in the film Humoresque.
Stokowski also appears in the Big Broadcast of 1937 film.
Wilfred Pelletier appears conducting in the Big Broadcast of 1938 film while Kirsten Flagstad sings Wagner .
There was a film in the late ’60s about a conductor and his extra-musical affairs. It was called ‘Interlude’ and starred Oscar Werner. Much use was made of the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony.
Otto Klemperer appears in a Robert Benchley comedy short: one shot, as himself but not conducting or credited.
David Gant in Oxford section on ‘The Red Violin’
1980 The Conductor directed by andrzej Wajda, the conductor was Sir John Gielgud and he was dreadful as a conductor.
much better at conducting on film was Sir John Mills in the 1956 “It’s great to be young”
Miklós Rózsa conducting excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). (Rózsa also composed the soundtrack, one of his best.)
Adam Stern gives several excellent examples in all areas. Stern knows his stuff better than anyone. He is one of the greatest and sadly, most unrecognized musicians America has produced! His grasp of music history from the sublime to the inane is unparalleled! By the way Adam, you still owe me a copy of “The Ring Resounding”. I’m still holding your copy of “History of 20th Century Music” hostage!
Dear Mr. Overstreet,
You’re far too kind and overstate my case — would that I were a great musician instead of a competent time-beater (albeit a passionate and reasonably informed one). As to a book swap — how best to arrange?
All best regards,
Adam
Don’t forget Fellinis “Prova d’orchestra“ from 1979.