Fanny

Product Description:
Studio: Image EntertainmentRelease Date: 06/17/2008Run time: 134 minutes

Amazon.com essential video:
Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy was adapted into a Broadway musical in the mid-'50s; a few years later, that show's producer, Joshua Logan, turned it into a film... without the songs. Although it pales in comparison to the French trilogy, Fanny captures the original's bittersweet mix of romance and regret. Curiously, it retains the slightly stagy quality of an adapted musical. Charles Boyer and Maurice Chevalier revel in their juicy autumnal roles, and--thanks to Logan's fondness for rapturous close-ups--Leslie Caron never looked more beautiful. Harold Rome's Broadway score plays underneath many scenes (without the lyrics, that is), but what gives the movie its lilt is the color photography by the great Jack Cardiff. The Marseilles waterfront, where Boyer's café is scenically located, becomes a wonderfully bustling backdrop for the funny/sad story. Fanny was nominated for five Oscars, including best picture, but seems mostly forgotten today, and ready for rediscovery by romantics. --Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

Rating: - Mess From a Masterpiece
This is surely the worst movie ever re-made from an original masterpiece. The characters act like human embodiments of cartoon figures. Even the famous "hat scene" turned from a superb, amusing set piece into a bad clown act.The Marseilles scenery is magnificent, yet the whole is horribly stage-bound. Scores of super-close pictures of Horst Buccholz's face (in unmatching sizes) but not much of Leslie Caron's gracefulness and beauty. Maurice Chevalier is restrained and touching, but everybody else ... Read More
Rating: - Wonderful Fanny
With Leslie Caron you have a winning movie every time. Combine that with the excellent service from Amazon, and what more could one ask for? I will continue to trust Amazon (and Leslie Caron) every time I shop online. Thank you!
Rating: - A Tearjerker, but I Love It!
It appears that this is the DVD and CD set featured at[...] as the release date and list price are the same.In fact, if it is the same, the set includes BOTH the DVD of the movie, and a CD of the entire orchestral soundtrack by Harold Rome.This is not at all clear in the item details, and I have submitted this information to Amazon.

Slow and silly at times, this film just pushes and pushes and pushes.The driving "Fanny" theme is played and played in theme and variation, and ultimately ... Read More
Rating: - Long, Leisurely Soap Opera Leavened by a Superior Cast and Beautiful Camerawork
Ending a decade-long string of gamine roles that started with her propitious debut as Gene Kelly's unattainable object of desire in Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris, Leslie Caron plays the title role, a poor 18-year-old Marseilles girl who helps her fortune-hunting mother sell fish on their waterfront boat stall. Even though she was thirty in real life, Caron is genuinely affecting in conveying the character's youthful vigor and romantic yearning. Directed by Joshua Logan (Picnic) in his familiar overwrought ... Read More
Rating: - FANNY DVD
This is a lovely film from 1960.It's beautifully made and worth seeing for the performances of the entire cast.