Impromptu

Plot synopsis:
Since getting divorced, Baroness Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, previously Baroness Dudevant, the successful and notorious writer of sensational romance novels now living under the pseudonym George Sand, in Paris, has been in the habit of dressing like a man. In her romantic pursuit of the sensitive Chopin, whose music she fell in love with before seeing him in person, George/Aurora is advised that she must act like a man pursuing a woman, though she is also advised to avoid damaging his health by not pursuing him at all. With this advice Sand is deterred by a fellow countrywoman who pretends to be smitten with Chopin, the mistress of Franz Liszt, the Countess Marie d'Agoult. Whether the Countess is really in love with Chopin is unlikely; she seeks only to prevent a relationship between Chopin and Sand.
Sand meets Chopin in the French countryside at the house of the Duchess d'Antan, a foolish aspiring socialite who invites artists from Paris to her salon in order to feel cosmopolitan. Sand invites herself, not knowing that several of her former lovers are also in attendance. A small play is written by Alfred de Musset satirizing the aristocracy, Chopin protests at his lack of manners, de Musset bellows and a fireplace explosion ensues.
Chopin is briefly swayed by a beautifully written love letter ostensibly from d'Agoult, a letter actually written by, and stolen from, Sand. Eventually Sand wins over Chopin when she proves that she wrote the letter, reciting its words to him passionately, and after buying a copy of her memoir he finds the text of the letter in the book.
Chopin is then challenged to a duel by one of Sand's ex-lovers. He faints during the face-off. Sand finishes the duel for him and nurses him back to health in the countryside, solidifying their relationship.
Near the end of the movie, Sand and Chopin dedicate a volume of music to the countess, although this only suggests that she has had an affair with Chopin, causing a falling-out with her lover Liszt. Sand and Chopin depart for Majorca, relieved to escape the competitive nature of artistic alliances and jealousies in Paris.

Tags: violence

Review:
But the core of "Impromptu" explores love, jealousy, and the process of artistic creation in ways that keep the film captivating for the most jaded modern viewer.Judy Davis capably assumes the mantle of convention-bucking authoress George Sand, providing a fiery counterpart to Hugh Grant's self-deprecating (and effective) Chopin.
Emma Thompson's hilarious cameo  as a dense provincial duchess itself provides almost enough reason to watch the film."Impromptu" boasts a great ensemble cast, witty dialogue, balanced humor and pathos, luscious period costumes and scenery, and the music of Chopin playing all the while -- what more could one want?
I just loved the story and the acting-I thought Judy Davis and Hugh Grant were fantastic.
Any film that puts Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin together is a winner in my book (those of us who are theatre junkies are aware of their previous marvellous collaborations), but this film manages to include Emma Thompson, Judy Davis, Julian Sands, and Hugh Grant.
The film is a comedy solidly anchored in historical and biographical data and impregnated with a deep love for Chopin's music as well as an understanding of the complex relationship between him and Sand.
Witty, almost farcical comedy alternates with most delicate, expressive, sober dialogue - witness Judy Davis' face when Sand tells Chopin what the reality behind her free love propaganda is.
The story was well written and the acting was outstanding.George Sand (Judy Davis) a very independent character falls for  Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant) a sensitive basket case who is a genius when it comes to the piano.
Instead it looks like they achieved exactly what they intended, enabled by a gifted cast (especially the marvelous Judy Davis), a witty script and quite adequate (though not luxurious) production values.
A wonderful comedy romance with an outstanding performance by Judy Davis as George Sands.It is also interesting to note how closely the plot of this movie resembles that of Renoir's classic "Rules of the Game": 1) group of romantically and socially inbred cityfolk go to the country, 2) romantic and social inbreeding continue in the country, 3) people slipping from room to room, 4) mistaken identity, 5) hunting in the woods, 6) big hunting scene, 7) gender-bending, 8) poking fun at the upper classes, and 9) climactic theater performance chock full of satire and causing some conflict.
If you like any of the following, you will like this movie:  Chopin music, comedies, Judy Davis, romance, cross-dressing, Hugh Grant, period films.
It really is a delightful piece to watch, inspired by the long romance between authoress, George Sand (Judy Davis), and composer, Chopin.
Judy Davis' role as George Sand is strong, and she delivers her character with the perfect amount of gusto.
These great actors really come close of BEING the Sand, Liszt, d'Agoult & Chopin you think you know after reading and listening as much as possible about them.It's a costume drama which is nicely tuned down, no need for grand sets when the principal & supporting cast is so flamboyant and magnificent.Of course, the music for the soundtrack is a pure delight too.
Thank you Judy Davis, Bernadette Peters, Julian Sands, Hugh Grant, Randy Patinkin; and of course Sand, Liszt, d'Agoult, Chopin, Delacroix....
The whole script is like one of the wonderful, rich piano pieces by Chopin or Liszt -- loaded with details that the actors and director have exploited to the full.
As someone who has never been especially fond of classical music or French literature (bite me, Proust), I wasn't exactly drooling when my roommate cajoled me into watching an art film about the romance between Frederic Chopin and George Sand.
First off, ignore the Parisian drag, this is a British sex farce -- witness the cast (Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Judy Davis) and the screwball plot (an aggressive woman who enjoys wearing men's clothes tries to win the heart of a shy, mild-mannered man).
One forgets that Hugh Grant was actually a good actor before he started playing Hugh Grant in all his movies, and he makes Chopin an utterly charming wimp.
The dialogue is superb in this, the character of George Sand (portrayed by an amazing Judy Davis) is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of watching.
he has a bit of an accent which i'm not sure is realistic but sounds okay to me.julian sand and bernadette peters make good foils for grant and davis.
julian sand's liszt is a man in love with his music and his mistress.bernadette peters is very good as an abrupt, jealous sometimes-friend of davis character.emma thompson was hilarious as a bubble-headed aristocrat.
I think this is definitely his best performance; this is the only Hugh Grant's movie I've liked so far.
Impromptu (1991),a very enjoyable period romance/biotic/dramedy based on the real events, portrays truly famous and even legendary figures of 19th Century culture such as George Sand, nee Aurora Dupin, Frederick Chopin, Franz Listz, Eugene Delacroix, and Alfred De Musset.
The main heroine (or the hero) of the film is George Sand, who is equally known for her Romantic novels and her quite scandalous at the time way of life.
Her contemporary, the Russian ex-patriot, famous novelist Ivan Turgenev said about her "What a brave man she was, and what a good woman." That's exactly who Judy Davis is playing in the little known but witty, intelligent, charmingly silly and believe it or not historically accurate movie called "Impromptu".
It tells the story of the romance between strong and full of life George Sand and very talented romantic composer, Frederic Chopin whose music made her fall in love with him even before they met in person.
It is difficult to imagine together two people more different than a delicate fragile Chopin who died young at the age of 39 from the lung illness and fiercely independent, notorious and unorthodox George/Aurora but their romance which was the union of two lovers, close friends, and eventually more like mother - son relationship is the historical fact.
Actually all cast of the movie is delightful, Mandy Patinkin (Alfred de Musset), Jules Sands (Franz Listz), Bernadette Peters (Countess D'Agout, Listz lover, muse, and mother of his children who believed she could be even better muse for Chopin), and fabulous Emma Thompson who brought much appreciated comedy as Duchess D'Antan, rich aristocrat who sees herself as a patron of Art and the friend of the Artists.
What the artists think of her is the different story.Needless to say that the film is filled with the captivating music, charming costumes, and gorgeous locations.
Thank George Sand, I think.The one really dire problem is that they used his piano music without regard to whether it would have been then written.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching..
Judy Davis, sexy,strong and dynamic as Sand, Hugh Grant very low key and real as Chopin, JUlian Sands, arrogant and proud as Franz Lizt, the always wonderful Bernadette Peters, charming and duplicitous as his mistress.special mention must be made to Mandy Patinkin's scene stealing role of Alfred DeMussett.
No matter she plowed ahead, despite the interference of her best friend (Bernadette Peters)and ...well, I won't tell you if she succeeded as that would spoil it wouldn't it.With Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin and Emma Thompson helping Peters support Davis, this film had all one could wish for.
I enjoyed it more than she did, I think, but my enjoyment was tempered.First, I don't know much about the personal history of Sand or Chopin, so the story was unknown to me, and I didn't watch the movie to learn about them.
Except for the romance between Chopin and Sand the events in the film are mostly fictional the real story of Chopin is much more interesting having said that I have to say the usual depressing enervating dark and austere retelling of this story is totally flipped here, it is energetic bright and even humorous and the pulsating music pulls the viewer into the photogenic haunting French country side perfectly, there are great performances, some bad dialogue aside, but as a whole this is enjoyable and well worth watching it's a bit of fine fluff and there's nothing wrong with that especially if it creates an interest in the actual persons depicted here, even the
actual story of George Sands Children and their relationship with Chopin that is almost non existent in the film is very interesting and extremely influential to Chopin in later life...
Judy Davis is perfect as George Sand and couldn't be better, so you wonder if she really could have been that good in reality - her reputation and reports tell a slightly less flattering story.
It's a wonderful play all through, and the most astonishing bit is perhaps how good Hugh Grant is as Chopin - you never expected such a character out of him, but he even makes it convincing.
The plot revolves around acerbic author George Sands (Judy Davis) and her relationships with fellow artists Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Alfred DeMusset.
Even Bernadette Peters, a quite decent actress, can't do much as Judy Davis' rival for Chopin's affection in a terribly written part that wants to be Glenn Close in "Dangerous Liaisons", but only achieves one of the bad-guy cheerleaders in "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion".Cohesiveness is another problem, as the film jumps around too much and never either explains itself or goes anywhere.
It can be a disconcerting experience watching determined feminist George Sand pursuing such an insecure object of desire after the freethinking French author goes weak in the knees for the heavenly music of young Frederick Chopin.
Judy Davis gets plenty of mileage out of Sand's confident iconoclasm (ignoring the low moment when she tries to win the composer's attention by exchanging her trademark trousers for a lacy dress patterned after the Polish flag), and her lively performance goes a long way toward overcoming the inadequacies of a script that is less witty than it would have us believe.
This movie is about a George Sand, a woman with enough testosterone for two men, trying to seduce Chopin, a gay man with tuberculosis.
Which are nice but dang there are a lot of those, I wish for every single super hero movie that made bullocks of money we would get 10 intimate lil' indies!But anyway, this is definitely worth it if not just for the contrast , the stark contrast betwixt Chopin and Sands , very very interesting and gratifying film..
The story of Madame George Sand, the writer, and her meeting of the music instructor and composer Chopin.With a supporting cast that is as amazing as can be imagined, this story explains the life and times of the various artists and musicians of the day.
You will learn what life was like for them and the women and men who loved them, and the nobles who supported them.It is also one of the funniest movies you'll ever see!I saw this in the theater before I knew who Hugh Grant was.
I already loved the wonderful Judy Davis and the handsome Julian Sands.
I saw this movie IMPROMPTUIt was based on George Sand (Judy Davis) - a pseudo name of a novelist woman named Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin who did everything to seek LOVE of a French pianist and composer Frederic Chopin (Hugh Grant).More importantly than the movie the understanding and portrayal of the character of George Sand was intriguing to say the least.She was a tom-boy.
Among all men - her affair and liaison with Frederic was most passionate and that is why much has been written about it and even songs, lyrics, poems, plays and movies made on them.Frederic Chopin was a shy, timid, feminine person, and his first meeting with George Sand was not at all cordial.
It's pleasing to reflect that Chopin and Liszt - the two greatest pianist-composers of all time - were actually good friends rather than petulant enemies as might be expected, and any film about either of them has a bit of a warm glow from that.
"Chopin is not a man, but a woman" Sand's friend the Duchess (Bernadette Peters) tells her, "He has to be wooed".
Even the performances that don't really work fail in a good-natured way: Hugh Grant as the sickly Chopin does diffidence better than he does intensity, and Julian Sands looks the part of Liszt far better than he speaks it.There's lashings of ironic humour on the absurdity of high art being subservient to base emotion, and the idea that genius has a foot in two worlds, one of them less noble, was well worth playing around with..
With Hugh Grant playing Frédéric Chopin, Impromptu seems an unlikely film to be, as some critics have called it, the best film ever made based on the notorious writer George Sand and her pursuit of the Polish-French composer whose attitude toward amour frustrated the daylights out of her.
Grant plays Chopin as a handsome but delicate soul, and Judy Davis turns in another magnificent performance as the hyper-aggressive Sand.
If you are looking for a definitive biographical film of Frederic Chopin's life, Impromptu is not it.
The actor who played Liszt (Julian Sands, "A Room With A View") resembled the real Chopin much more than Hugh Grant did.That said, the film was passable as modern entertainment and might just inspire people who view it to learn more about Chopin's gorgeous music (not highlighted here as well as it could have been), or more about the love relationship between Chopin and Sand, which surely in real life was mostly platonic and artistic, even when they briefly lived / traveled together.The script could have been better too; I'm sorry, but I don't find much humor in watching a horse enter a parlor and defecate on a table.
If I said that our highly regarded (at least by some people I know)and under talented leading man spends the entire movie looking like a terrified rabbit caught in the headlights of a speeding juggernaut, cowering with fear every time someone speaks to him and almost expiring with blind panic whenever George Sand is in the same room, my integrity and reputation as an honest man would be beyond doubt.I don't know who Hugh Grant based his performance on, or if he even took the trouble to research his character, but what he ends up showing us is a kind of consumptive, cowering, idiot who could no more compose, or indeed play, some of the most exquisitely ethereal and beautiful music known to man than I could eat the Eiffel Tower.
I doubt whether this preposterous character could play a triangle without quivering in fear, let alone a piano.But never mind.The movie is actually an entertaining take on the famous love story, presented by a who's who of (mostly) British actors in a beautifully designed and photographed period piece to a soundtrack of heavenly music.
And an unintentionally laughable piano player.Anyway, it's nice to see Hugh Grant in yet another comedy role.Any other actor would have portrayed Chopin as a sensitive, soulful and talented composer..
Impromptu could have been better, the ending was abrupt, the transition from Chopin's avoiding of Sand to loving her was rather rushed and underplayed and Lapine's direction was a mix of over-eager and stodgy at times, not always knowing what to do with the story.
You won't be disappointed by the music either, Chopin wrote some of the most beautiful and soul-searching of any composer and it is placed and played in Impromptu in a way that those involved know that.
The story is witty and charming on the most part and the characters are engaging and not too distorted in personality(though admittedly Chopin and Liszt are not quite as complex as they actually were), Georges Sand's character is the most interesting and Mandy Patinkin's character was so much fun that you wish there was more of him.
Hugh Grant gives a nuanced performance as Chopin(if at times too healthy), while Emma Thompson is alluring and hilarious and Bernadette Peters gleefully portrays a character that is very easy to hate.
Director James Lapine has amazingly gathered a very talented cast of actors/actresses like Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin, and Emma Thompson, to carry his film, but what shames me to say is that it does not create cinematic perfection.
Either way, even with the greatest players having fun with their roles, Impromptu slowly flushes itself down the period-piece toilet because it focuses itself to greatly on the actors while sinking the rest of the story.To begin, as I mentioned before, the greatness of the actors giving nearly 100% to their characters is a charm that is missed in so many other period piece films.
Music Brought Them Together: George Sand And Chopin.
Impromptu (1991) Starring Judi Davis, Hugh Grant, Bernadette Peters, Ralph Brown, Julian Sands, Mandi Patinkin..Directed By James Lapine Judi Davis is doing what I feel is an Oscar winning performance as French feminist radical cross-dressing author George Sand, who is ultimately a woman who belongs to no one and who lives life to the fullest.
It's a romantic comedy, it's a historical piece and a colorful introduction to the music of Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt and the life and writings of Madame George Sand Aurore Dudevant.
She had many lovers, including Alfred De Musset (who is played in this film by Mandy Patinkin)and her most famous lover, Frederic Chopin.
Stars Judi Davis as George Sand, Hugh Grant as Chopin and Bernadette Peters as the Countess Marie D'Agoult.
Great scenes: Judi Davis must woo Hugh Grant as a man wins a woman (gender role switch because Chopin was very frail and feminine) and Sand was more aggressive.
Judy Davis, as Georges Sand, is wonderful, a real powerhouse.
Hugh Grant, is surprisingly very good as Chopin, the brilliant pianist who is taught by Sand how to live.Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, and Julian Sand are all quite good as well.