The Paris Waltz | |
---|---|
Directed by | Marcel Achard |
Written by | Marcel Achard |
Produced by | Pierre Gurgo-Salice |
Starring | Yvonne Printemps Pierre Fresnay Jacques Charon |
Cinematography | Christian Matras |
Edited by | Yvonne Martin |
Music by | Jacques Offenbach, arranged and directed by Louis Beydts |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Lux Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes |
Countries | France Italy |
Language | French |
The Paris Waltz (French: La Valse de Paris) is a 1950 French-Italian historical musical film directed by Marcel Achard and starring Yvonne Printemps, Pierre Fresnay and Jacques Charon. [1] It portrays the life of the nineteenth century composer Jacques Offenbach.
In Paris during the Second Empire, the composer Jacques Offenbach discovers an unknown singer, the soprano Hortense Schneider. He writes lead roles for her in his stage works which make her famous in France and beyond. When he consoles Schneider at the end of her various love affairs their relationship develops and Offenbach falls in love with her. While she is unfaithful to him, he continues to write more operettas featuring her, including several of his most famous works.
Filming took place at Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) and at the Studios de Boulogne. [2] Printemps's costumes were by Christian Dior. [2] Fresnay and Printemps had been partners in private life since 1932 when her marriage to Sacha Guitry broke up, [3] and they had worked together since Coward's Conversation Piece in April 1934 where he won excellent reviews, and their stage partnership was greatly admired. [4] In the same year Printemps and Fresnay had a screen hit in Abel Gance's La dame aux camélias, and between then and 1951 they appeared together in eight films. [5] Raymonde Allain had already played the Empress Eugénie in the 1937 film Les Perles de la couronne .
The music was by Offenbach, arranged by Louis Beydts. [2] The film credits end by a dialogue between the screenwriter and Offenbach in shadow show:
The music uses songs from Offenbach's stage works La Chanson de Fortunio , La Vie parisienne , La Périchole , Madame Favart , La Belle Hélène , La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and Belle Lurette , (Schneider created the title roles in La Périchole, La Belle Hélène and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein).
The reviewer in Sight and Sound described La Valse de Paris as "a stylised musical" and praised Fresnay's "delightful, lightly caricatured portrayal of Offenbach, and noted Printemps's "grace and waywardness and allure". [6] Although the first screen work with the composer as principal character, Offenbach scholar Jean-Claude Yon considers the film's direction as "casual", with Achard resorting to clichés; he also finds Printemps unconvincing as Schneider, spoiling the subtilty of Fresnay personation. From a marxist approach of Siegfried Kracauer (a major German biographer of 1938) and the Offenbach in Montmartre of Manuel Rosenthal (referring to the ballet Gaîté Parisienne , the same year) Achard's 1950s Offenbach is "precious" with little to do with the real person. [7]
Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss II and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory.
Yvonne Printemps was a French singer and actress who achieved stardom on stage and screen in France and internationally.
Henri Meilhac was a French dramatist and opera librettist, best known for his collaborations with Ludovic Halévy on Georges Bizet's Carmen and on the works of Jacques Offenbach, as well as Jules Massenet's Manon.
Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright, best known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on Georges Bizet's Carmen and on the works of Jacques Offenbach.
Pierre Fresnay was a French stage and film actor.
Opéra bouffe is a genre of mid- to late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, inspiring the genre's name.
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The opera depicts the mutual love of two impoverished Peruvian street singers – too poor to afford a marriage licence – and a lecherous viceroy, Don Andrès de Ribeira, who wishes to make La Périchole his mistress. Love eventually triumphs. The story is based loosely on the play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée (1828), and the title character is based on the Peruvian entertainer Micaela Villegas.
Hortense Catherine Schneider, La Snédèr, was a French soprano, one of the greatest operetta stars of the 19th century, particularly associated with the works of composer Jacques Offenbach.
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe, in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The story is a satirical critique of unthinking militarism and concerns a spoiled and tyrannical young Grand Duchess who learns that she cannot always get her way.
The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7–8, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1974.
Anne Marie-Louise Damiens, stage name Anna Judic was a French comic actress.
Maria Murano, the stage name of Suzanne Chauvelot was a French lyric mezzo-soprano. She was most active postwar in the years between 1950 and 1970.
Joseph-Lambert Dupuis was a Belgian singer and actor. He was principally active in opéra-bouffe in Paris, in particular at the Théâtre des Variétés.
Pierre-Eugène Grenier was a French actor-singer.
Christian Perrin, known by his stage-name Christian, was a French actor and singer in operetta, born in Paris, 1 January 1821, and died there in December 1889. He had a long and successful career in Paris from the 1850s up to his death.
Jean-Christophe Keck is a French musicologist and conductor, born in Briançon, in 1964. He is particularly noted as a specialist in the works of Jacques Offenbach, and is the director of the complete critical edition in progress, named after both, Offenbach Edition Keck (OEK).
The Théâtre de la Michodière is a theatre building and performing arts venue, located at 4 bis, rue de La Michodière in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. Built by Auguste Bluysen in 1925 in Art Deco style, it has a tradition of showing boulevard theatre.
Marcel Auguste Antoine Cariven, was a French conductor, particularly associated with light music and with operetta.
I Am with You is a 1943 French musical comedy film directed by Henri Decoin and starring Yvonne Printemps, Pierre Fresnay and Jacques Louvigny. It was shot at the Joinville Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Lucien Aguettand.
Offenbach Arias and Overtures is a 65-minute studio album of excerpts from operettas by Jacques Offenbach performed by the American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Antonio de Almeida. It was released in 1995.