CHOPIN FILM AFTERMATH by Wanda Wilk I was fortunate to be invited to the special screening of Polish director Jerzy Antczaks film, Desire for Love. The film was presented at the Directors Guild of America as the highlight of the celebration of Polands Independence Day sponsored by the Polish Consulate in Los Angeles. In last months issue of News of Polonia, Theresa M. Dudzik gave a full account of the event along with a favorable review of the film about Chopin. I, too, agree that the film was beautiful to look at and listen to. The scenery was superb, the costumes magnificent and the luxurious background of the home interiors in the Paris circles in which Chopin moved about was elegantly displayed. The selection of music done personally by Jerzy Antczak was the best, although most any Chopin music would do. However, his selection was the best of the best! He also employed some of the best talents of our time to perform this great immortal music. Among them: pianists Jerzy Olejniczak, Emanuel Ax and Yukio Yokoyama; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; violinists Vadim Brodski and Pamela Frank, with music orchestration by Wojciech Gogolewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Henryk Kuzniak. Theresa Dudzik mentioned at the end of her article that an, audience of Polish Americans were accustomed to a kind of mystique surrounding Chopin, and I can relate to this. As an American of Polish heritage I was brought up on the Hollywood version of the 1945 movie, A Song to Remember, which also dealt with the torrid, decade long affair of George Sand and Fryderyk Chopin. Merle Oberon played the part of the French novelist while Cornel Wilde portrayed Chopin. Even though I knew that Chopin had a short, sad life and that his relationship with Sand broke up before he died, I had built up a glamorous version of this great love story between the two. Only natural, when even today, a theatre review in the Patriotic Ledger of July, 2003 describes the play Romantique as one of the worlds great romances that took place in the nineteenth century between composer F. Chopin and novelist George Sand, a cross-dressing feminist born Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin. According to the Blockbuster web-site, Columbia Pictures and director Charles Vidor produced, one of the most successful filmed biographies of the 1940s, `A Song to Remember, which alleges to be the true story of Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin. Actually, it has about as much relation to the truth as a Heckle & Jeckle cartoon, but with such gorgeous creatures as Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon in the leads, who cares? Director Jerzy Antczak presented a more factual film in Desire for Love. When the film ended my reaction was how true was this film, for I didnt remember some of the details of the problems between Chopin and Sands children. I remembered that her daughter had developed a girlish infatuation for him but I didnt remember the antagonism from Sands son and also the jealousy scene from a former lover. I immediately looked into a book I had at home, Chopin in Paris by Tad Szulc. This book was based primarily on the correspondence of Chopin, his family and friends. In fact the author wrote to me in 1995 inquiring about several books that he needed for his research, but couldnt find and we had them in our Polish Music Center library. I am happy to say that Mr. Szulc acknowledges this in his book on page 426: In Los Angeles, Wanda Wilk, Founder and Honorary President of the Polish Music Reference Center at the School of Music at the University of Southern California, rendered me the vital courtesy of loaning - for much longer than she thought at first - the volumes of Chopins Polish Language correspondence and other literary materials without which my book could not have been written. My profound thanks go to Mrs. Wilk and the Center. Mr. Szulc showed his gratitude again in 1997 by donating his research material to the Polish Music Center. It consisted of 26 books on Chopin, over 20 journals and over 50 articles, mostly from Ruch Muzyczny, which helped him write the book and which he no longer needed. So, I am now reading more carefully the award-winning writers first definitive English language biography of Chopin, as it is described on the book cover. I now better understand the meaning of the title, Desire for Love. The endless search for love by the characters in the film, whether manifested in the maternal love and care that Aurore gave to Fryderyk or by the son, who yearns for and is jealous of his mothers love for Chopin, there was a great need for love on all sides. According to a press conference at the 6th Shanghai International Film Festival, the director wanted to tell the audience that human beings should understand each other and should understand that everyone needs love. This is the reality of life that Academy nominated director Jerzy Antczak was able to show in his film. He also was able to portray Chopins love and longing for his family and country. A most poignant part of the film, to me, was his reminiscence of a Christmas Eve of long ago with his family in front of a Christmas tree singing O gwiazdeczko cos blyszczala (O star, so brightly shining) with a specially effective moment when the voices trail off and only Chopins mothers voice continues. Very heart-wrenching! Chopins mother was lovingly portrayed by the directors wife, Jadwiga Baranska. I also learned from the Chinese film festival web-site that, as a Chopin fan, Antczak spent twenty years writing the screenplay with his wife, after reading many books on Chopin. Writer, director, and producer Jerzy Antczak began his career as an actor, graduating from the famous Theater Academy in Lodz in 1956. He moved to Warsaw in 1963 where he was Chief Director and later Head of the Polish TV Masterpiece Theater. He came to the U.S. and began teaching at the Film School at UCLA in 1985 as a tenured professor. He is the recipient of many awards for his many films, especially for Nights and Days, which received a nomination for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Category in 1977. This Polish film has been dubbed into Italian, French, German, Spanish and was given English subtitles. Yes, the early 1945 Hollywood film left us with a highly glamorized version of a love story between two prominent people. However, it also had several positive effects. The film gave pianist, Liberace inspiration for his candelabra sitting on the piano. Liberace also owned, among a total of 29 pianos, the Pleyel piano that was used in the 1945 film. You can see it in the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas or on the web-site. The movie was a money maker for the studio. Fifteen years later Columbia tried again with a movie about Franz Liszt, titled, A Song Without End, but the magic just wasnt there. Some tid-bits about A Song to Remember you may or may not know: Jose Iturbi was the behind-the-scenes pianist for Cornel Wilde. Iturbis recording of the Polonaise in Ab from this film sold over a million copies. A song version based on the Polonaise was written by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman and the lyrics went like this: Till the end of time, Long as stars are in the blue, Long as theres a spring, a bird to sing, Ill go on loving you. Another song used in this movie was No Other Love, which was adapted from Chopins Etude in E major by Bob Russell and Paul Weston and published by Walt Disney Music Co. The words here are No other love can warm my heart now that Ive known the comfort of your arms. No other love. Oh! the sweet contentment that I find with you evrytime, evrytime! With songs like this no wonder I always thought this was the greatest love story ever! Jerzy Antczaks film, Desire For Love has already been awarded the Platinum Award (the highest award) for Best Drama and the Gold for the Best Cinematography at the Houston Film Festival in April 2003. We are looking forward to seeing it nominated for an Academy Award next. This is a scene from Chopin: Desire for Love. Love this Polish song: O, gwiazdeczko cos blyszczaia - O star, so brightly shining.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 03:25:19 +0000
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