Star! (1968)

Regisseur:

Robert Wise

Drehbuchautor:

William Fairchild (writer)

Premierendatum:

22. Oktober 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Biographie | Musical

Werbezeile:

The Love Affair of the Century - Between a Woman, and the World!

Plot:

Film based on life of actress Gertrude Lawrence, on- and offstage, takes the opportunity to feature extravagant...

Plot Keywords:

Tense | Actor's Life | Daughter | Actress | London England

Filmpreise:

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Nutzerkommentare:

elephantine

Besetzung

Julie Andrews	...	Gertrude Lawrence
Richard Crenna	...	Richard Aldrich, Producer
Michael Craig	...	Sir Anthony Spencer
Daniel Massey	...	Noel Coward
Robert Reed	...	Charles Fraser
Bruce Forsyth	...	Arthur Lawrence
Beryl Reid	...	Rose
John Collin	...	Jack Roper
Alan Oppenheimer	...	Andre Charlot, Producer
Richard Karlan	...	David Holtzmann, Gertrude's Attorney
Lynley Laurence	...	Billie Carleton
Garrett Lewis	...	Jack Buchanan
Anthony Eisley	...	Ben Mitchell
Jock Livingston	...	Alexander Woollcott
J. Pat O'Malley	...	Dan

Alternativ:

Loves of a Star! (USA) (promotional title)
Those Were the Happy Times (USA) (reissue title)
Star! (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) [de]

Länge:

176 Min | UK:218 Min | USA:120 Min (edited version)

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

2.20 : 1

Tonverfahren:

70 mm 6-Track | Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Altersfreigabe:

Argentina:Atp | Denmark:15 (DVD) | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG (video rating) (2005) | UK:U (original rating) | USA:G

Drehorte:

London, England, UK

Firma:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Dies und das:

This film grew out of a massive attempt by Twentieth Century-Fox to duplicate its earlier success with The Sound of Music (1965) by producing three expensive, large-scale musicals over a period of three years, Doctor Dolittle (1967) and Hello, Dolly! (1969) being the others. Unfortunately, tastes in popular entertainment were beginning to change and all three films' box-office performance reflected this. All were released amidst massive pre-release publicity and all lost equally massive amounts of money for the studio. The result was that several top studio executives lost their jobs, and the studio itself went into such dire financial straits that it only produced one picture for the entire calendar year of 1970. In truth, it would never recoup its losses until a highly successful theatrical reissue of "The Sound of Music" in early 1973.

Dialogzitate:

Noel Coward: Close personal relationships are bloody difficult, my darling but they do get easier with time. Loneliness gets harder.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

'N Everything

elephantine

It's de rigeur to dish this film; yes, it's interminable, and it's inevitable that Andrews outlives her welcome. (Not sure I can think of any star who WOULDN'T become somewhat wearisome in a biopic of this length). The pace is incredibly leisurely; the decision to work towards a wedding means that there is simply too much material. Unfortunately, there is no motor in the plot, no 'desire' that runs throughout, no theme; Andrews can't find a line for character development. Instead, there are endless changes of image, and endless set-piece re-creations of theatre history. Whatever else, you can't say that you're short-changed, but the experience is a little like having a whole box of chocolates force-fed to you at a sitting.

But Andrews works her tail off; she sings, she comedies, she thesps. She does her all-time best dancing. She generally outshines the frocks and the sets. It's probably deliberate that Gerty is chosen as the subject: it's an ADVANTAGE that most of the audience has never seen the real thing. Andrews is not trapped into a Streepish impersonation - she plays the script as if it's fiction.

Daniel Massey's Noel Coward is trapped by audience expectation; personally, I think it's very good, provided you accept that 'Noel Coward' is a fictional character based on a real person. He and Andrews have an excellent rapport, although I suspect the real Noel and Gertie were a bit more feral as performers. (Coward liked his godson's impersonation: but "A shade too many 'dear boys', dear boy.") In other roles, Beryl Reid and Bruce Forsyth are worth the price of admission (it's the English musical numbers that work best). The "beards" are dull: dull performers with a script that gives them absolutely nothing. (How much Sound of Music depended on the implicit threat of Christopher Plummer! )

In other news, Lennie Hayton's musical direction of this film is exemplary. The arrangements are simply splendid; this must just about be the last gasp of Hollywood's ability to pastiche all the styles of vaudeville and Broadway.

Bernie Leven's production design is so pervasive that it warrants savouring. You could argue that this is a movie that has been hi-jacked by its tradesmen: Wise hires all these great talents, and then "gives them their head".

I think "Star!" has all the joys of a triumphant folly. It's utterly predictable, but never dull (cf. Jumbo!) You have to be in the mood for it, and probably its pleasures are best savoured over several days, interspersed with Godard and Ken Loach.