Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Impromptu (1989)

Director: James Lapine

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Directed by Sondheim collaborator Lapine, this tells the romantic story of Bohemian cross-dressing novelist George Sand's protracted pursuit of Chopin through salon and château, variously foiled and abetted by Liszt (Sands) and mistress (Peters), Alfred de Musset (Patinkin) and Delacroix (Brown). Driven by a quest for perfect love, Sand (Davis), though knee-deep in an operetta of rejected lovers, hears Chopin pelting at the piano through a door and is a goner. Given that the sick stick of a Pole is played by Hugh Grant, her passion seems inexplicable, and the only scene that convinces has the novellist lying aswoon under the piano as the soundtrack pours it on. The acting comes in different sizes: in contrast to the naturalism of Davis - heiress to the Jeanne Moreau Estate - stands the high camp of Emma Thompson as the Art-struck Duchess, and the swashbuckling of Patinkin. A longish haul.

Author: BC 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: James Lapine

Producer: Stuart Oken, Daniel A Sherkow

Cast: Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Julian Sands, Ralph Brown, Anton Rodgers, Emma Thompson, Anna Massey, George Corraface full cast

Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers

Duration: 107 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.