Rating: 
Summary: PBS please
Review: Actually I want to have a dvd edition of the musical play that was broadcast (too long to video tape,) a few years ago on PBS! The movie was fine, but art lovers everywhere want the real thing! I think mankind deserves real broadway masterpieces shown as they exist on the stage!
Rating: 
Summary: "CLOWNPLAY"
Review: BASED on Ingmar Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night" [according to rumor Sondheim wanted 'Ring Round the Moon' couldn't get permission] - this is the merry mix-up [the musical is lighter than the original movie] of a mis-matched May/December marriage, a semi-suicidal son, a best friend's 'duel-obsessive' husband, a beautiful actress, a young love child .... and an elderly Grand dame who seems to know all!!! ADD a 'week-end' in the Country - and you're there.It's a well-spirited movie, but doesn't quite leave it's mark except for Dame Diana Rigg ["Every Day A Little Death"] as Miss Taylor's Best Friend! Stellar performance. The rest plods.
Excellent Art direction and costumes though.
Rating: 
Summary: ONE OF THE WORST MOVIE MUSICALS EVER MADE!
Review: Based on Ingmar Bergman's great sex comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night, the stage version of A Little Night Music remains one of the greatest musicals ever written by the genius Stephen Sondheim. The production broadcast live from Lincoln Center in the 80s starring Sally Ann Howes was lovely, if somewhat overwrought. What everyone seems to forget about this, due largely to its beautifully lilting operetta score, is that the story is really about sex under the birch trees. On film, the story is a complete disaster. To begin with, the setting has been moved from Sweden, the land of the Midnight Sun, to Vienna to coincide with its operetta styling.
The whole theme, similar to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, is negated. The screenplay further cuts the role of the Grandmother, an aged coutesan wise in the ways of love, played so deliciously by Hermoine Gingold, to almost nothing, and takes away the card game which sets up so much of the background material. A lot of talent is wasted in this film, and as lovely as Elizabeth Taylor is as Desiree Armfeldt, she should have been dubbed, because she positively ruins "Send in the Clowns." (Listen to Barbara Cook sing it on her Carnegie Hall album). Because Harold Prince is so dreadful a filmmaker (in spite of his theatre and opera success) he destroys the final scene, in which the summer night smiles three times, the third time on Gingold as the old who knows too much. A long shot takes away the visual sequence in which we learn that she's died. What a pity that such a beautiful show should make so dreadful a movie musical. Do yourself a favor: get the delightful Ingmar Bergman comedy instead!
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE WORST MOVIE MUSICALS EVER MADE!
Review: Based on Ingmar Bergman's great sex comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night, the stage version of A Little Night Music remains one of the greatest musicals ever written by the genius Stephen Sondheim. The production broadcast live from Lincoln Center in the 80s starring Sally Ann Howes was lovely, if somewhat overwrought. What everyone seems to forget about this, due largely to its beautifully lilting operetta score, is that the story is really about sex under the birch trees. On film, the story is a complete disaster. To begin with, the setting has been moved from Sweden, the land of the Midnight Sun, to Vienna to coincide with its operetta styling.
The whole theme, similar to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, is negated. The screenplay further cuts the role of the Grandmother, an aged coutesan wise in the ways of love, played so deliciously by Hermoine Gingold, to almost nothing, and takes away the card game which sets up so much of the background material. A lot of talent is wasted in this film, and as lovely as Elizabeth Taylor is as Desiree Armfeldt, she should have been dubbed, because she positively ruins "Send in the Clowns." (Listen to Barbara Cook sing it on her Carnegie Hall album). Because Harold Prince is so dreadful a filmmaker (in spite of his theatre and opera success) he destroys the final scene, in which the summer night smiles three times, the third time on Gingold as the old who knows too much. A long shot takes away the visual sequence in which we learn that she's died. What a pity that such a beautiful show should make so dreadful a movie musical. Do yourself a favor: get the delightful Ingmar Bergman comedy instead!
Rating: 
Summary: To watch it more helps you to appreciate it more
Review: Having seen the stage play several times I can appreciate the movie for what it is.The movie is much slower and less funny than the stage play, yet the movie has some much more tender moments and dramatic flair.I love being able to see the held close ups of Taylor and Cariou.I love the chemistry of these two.Also, the movie fills in parts that cannot be done on stage.Yes,songs are cut from the stage version, but new lyrics for WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY ,GLAMOUROUS LIFE and EVERY DAY A LITTLE DEATH make this interesting for a Prince-Sondheim fan.It definately is different than the original show, but I love it and watch it often.I always laugh when Cariou and Taylor are chortling about "her Dragooooooon!"
Rating:
Summary: Amusing story with great music.
Review: I am reviewing this on the basis of having seen the film in the theater and I now own the laser version. Someone like Ingmar Bergman would have made it more cinematic but it is worth having because of Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Rigg. I think Elizabeth is a perfect Desiree and Rigg is ideal. Had the film been a commercial success she might have received an Oscar nomination. Several songs are cut including the chorus' comments throughout but I still find it fun."A Weekend in the Country" is perfectly done and one wishes Hal Prince had directed the whole movie that well. And to date it is the only Sondheim show to be filmed. I hope it comes back on DVD with scenes that were left out.. There is a still of Diana Rigg smoking a cigar that did not make it in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Liz and Diana superb in a not-so-cinematic film version
Review: I am reviewing this on the basis of having seen the film in the theater and I now own the laser version. Someone like Ingmar Bergman would have made it more cinematic but it is worth having because of Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Rigg. I think Elizabeth is a perfect Desiree and Rigg is ideal. Had the film been a commercial success she might have received an Oscar nomination. Several songs are cut including the chorus' comments throughout but I still find it fun."A Weekend in the Country" is perfectly done and one wishes Hal Prince had directed the whole movie that well. And to date it is the only Sondheim show to be filmed. I hope it comes back on DVD with scenes that were left out.. There is a still of Diana Rigg smoking a cigar that did not make it in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing story with great music.
Review: I have the video and would love for it to be released on DVD. It's mildly entertaining with some great musical features. Lesley-Anne Down is very good as the virginal wife of an older man. The interwoven relationships of the characters presents an amusing (if somewhat disturbing) situation when mismatched lovers find themselves vacationing together in the country. Even if the story doesn't keep you interested, the musical score should.
Rating:
Summary: such a disappointment
Review: I knew the score, but had never seen A Little Night Music, when I discovered this video at my library. I was so disappointed with the majority of the film. There is somewhere a filmed stage version of a New York City Opera production that is much much MUCH better. I was bored with the movie, and sometimes I wondered why I was even bothering to watch it. It is terrible.
Rating: 
Summary: Could Have Been Worse But I Don't Know How
Review: I saw this in the theater in 1978 after having seen it on stage in its national tour. What a disappointment! When the line "If she'd only been fat" was sung, the audience laughed. Liz was pretty plump, and she couldn't sing. She slaughtered "Send In the Clowns". Hal Prince elmininated the quintet and all of their wonderful songs. What was he thinking? I did enjoy the rewrite of "The Glamourous Life" and some new lyrics for "Weekend In the Country". All in all, though, the best part of the evening was when it ended.
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