Clara

Cecil says: Regular readers know how I love the opening scenes of a film, and this was another great scene-setter: 1850, we are told, and a wonderful opening of the coal being shovelled into the engine of a steam train.

Interesting biopic focusing on Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann, lover (muse, says the film preview) of Johannes Brahms and composer in her own right. The film follows the course of Schumann's career from Bonn to Hamburg and Dusseldorf as he gradually succombs to arthritis and (probably) a similar disease to the one that afflicted George III (if we are to believe The Madness of King George); Clara takes over as conductor of the Dusseldorf orchestra as Schumann himself becomes less and less able to work. Brahms meanwhile is the budding talent who is infatuated with Clara.

I love any story linking famous composers as it gives a great sense of context and continuity in the music world (the best choir masters we sing with are the ones who tell stories of who was doing what to who while such-and-such a work was being written). And the jealousies and rivalries between great musicians are very contemporary (Lennon/MacCartney; Oasis/Take That).

Bea and I are both intrigued by Brahms, though, more than the Schumanns. When we were trying to find an appropriate Brahms song to have sung at our wedding, we struggled to find anything uplifting and his songs give the impression of a man who was perpetually unhappy in love. The song we chose in the end is called "Your blue eye", so either this was not about Clara Schumann or the actress Martina Gedeck was badly cast as she definitely had two eyes and they appeared to be brown.

In spite of the excellent story-line, this was a difficult film to watch. In part this was because Martina Gedeck is the spitting image of Davina McCall and you kept wondering if there might suddenly be a Big Brother cameo piece about to take off; it was also annoying because, in spite of its billing as an 'original version' French-German-Hungarian film, the version we saw was dubbed into French and it reminded me just how hard it is to watch dubbed films, when the lips are out of synch with the sound.

Final observation: how primitive neuro-surgery was at the time. Cringe-worthy to watch how the Bonn-based 'surgeon' gets his drill out to get through the skull of Schumann in an effort to release whatever pressures there were building up next to his brain. Turn away at that point if you're squeamish.

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Bea says: I had some reservations about seeing this film when Cecil suggested it; not because of the subject matter which was entirely up my street, but because many years ago when I was a university student studying German I wrote an essay on Helma Sanders-Brahms' 1980s film Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter which is without doubt the most depressing film ever to have been released. I made it all the way through Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter twice in the interests of writing the essay - Cecil told me he left the cinema half way through when he saw it, as it was just too unbearable to watch.

Clara was, in comparison, much more uplifting, beautifully costumed and shot, and with a particularly fine performance turned in by the actor playing Schumann, his excellent skills all the more noticable to me as I do not speak or understand a lot of French, so I was totally reliant on facial expression and context to follow the plot, which I managed to do. The story was fascinating; despite being interested in classical music I had not known of Clara Schumann's key role in both of these composers' lives.

Highly recommended.
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