| re: Night Music | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 12:46 am EDT 06/20/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Night Music - singleticket 08:25 pm EDT 06/19/20 | |
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| Ah, but the film ends with the brilliantly written and conceived Frid agreeing to marry Petra, and with these lines (from the published screenplay, which differs slightly in some places from the subtitles): Frid: There isn't a better life than this. Petra: And then the summer night smiled for the third time. Frid: For the sad, the depressed, the sleepless, the confused, the frightened, the lonely. Petra: But the clowns will have a cup of coffee in the kitchen. I really miss the film's Frid, and the three smiles as he describes them in the film. And, of course, Sondheim got his clowns idea from the movie, which is rarely discussed. (I almost said never instead of rarely, but perhaps it's been discussed somewhere I haven't read.) I do also like Madame Armfeldt telling Fredrika about the smiles, but the descriptions in the film are so much richer and more poetic, not to mention the change from "the sad, the depressed, the sleepless, the confused, the frightened, the lonely" to "the old, who know too much, like me," and the change from "the young" to "young lovers." Petra is young but as she herself says in the film, she has never been and never will be a "young lover" as described by Frid. She is a clown. On the other hand, I like that in the musical, the third smile is for Madame Armfeldt, and that death is the smile for her. Which brings up lots of other stuff that I've discussed here a bunch of times in the past (but years ago at this point). I actually don't remember the line you quote from the film, which I don't have handy to watch right at the moment. The published screenplay does have Desirée smoking the cigar near the end (an image I certainly remember), while Fredrik sleeps. Malla comes in. Malla: Good morning, Desirée. Desirée: Good morning, Malla Malla: Are you studying your new role? Desirée: Yes, you might say that. Malla: I'm going to pick strawberries. But Fredrik doesn't want to go along. (Meaning Desirée's son, Fredrik.) Desirée: Let him stay here. I'll look after him. Malla: There's nowhere you can sleep as well as in the country. Where Desirée (at least in the published screenplay and my memory) says why she named her son Fredrik (because Fredrik the elder has just found out that she has a son named Fredrik, whose age and name would suggest that the child is Fredrik's son, and he is asking), she says that he was named for Fredrik the Great. This is when Fredrik the elder is visiting her after seeing her (briefly) onstage. Fredrik: Answer my question. Desirée: The child is mine and mine alone. Fredrik: But his name is Fredrik. Desirée: Names after Fredrik the Great of Prussia. In the discussions in this thread, I haven't discussed what I don’t like about the change from three-year-old Fredrik to thirteen-year-old Fredrika, but I did discuss those things years ago on this board. |
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