Country: USA
Year: 1954
Duration: 110'
From their first encounter in Marseilles in 1794 until his exile on the island of Saint Helena, the intense and impossible love story between Désirée Clary (Jean Simmons) and Napoleon Bonaparte (Brando). Buthe youthful bonds don’t survive the ambition of Napoleon, who has a marriage of convenience with the rich Joséphine de Beauharnais, while Désirée ends up in the arms of General Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who truly loves her. After he is named the heir of Charles XIII of Sweden, she becomes the queen of that northern European country. The thread that ties Désirée to Napoleon doesn’t break and, in fact, the woman convinces the defeated emperor to accept the wishes of France and leave his country forever.
Biography
film director
Henry Koster
(Berlin, 1905 – Camarillo, USA, 1988), a German director and screenwriter who became a naturalized American citizen, debuted as a director in Germany in 1932 and moved to Hollywood in 1936 thanks to a contract with Universal Pictures. He discovered the comic duo Abbott and Costello and directed them in several movies, before becoming one of Hollywood’s most dependable directors, in particular after the war, making big historical dramas (Désirée, 1954), blockbusters (The Robe, 1953), musicals (Flower Drum Song, 1962) and comedies (Harvey, 1950).
FILMOGRAFIA
Das Abenteuer der Thea Roland (Avventura di una bella donna, 1932), Das häßliche Mädchen (1933), Peter (1934), Kleine Mutti (1935), De kribbebijter (coregia Ernst Winar (1935), A csúnya lány (coregia Béla Gaál, 1935), Tagebuch der Geliebten (1935), Maria Baschkirtseff (Il diario di una donna amata,1936), Katharina, die Letzte (1936), Three Smart Girls (Tre ragazze in gamba, 1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (Cento uomini e una ragazza, 1937), The Rage of Paris (Allora la sposo io, 1938), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Le tre ragazze in gamba crescono, 1939), First Love (Il primo bacio, 1939), Spring Parade (Parata di primavera, 1940), It Started with Eve (La prima è stata Eva, 1941), Between Us Girls (Frutto acerbo, 1942), Music for Millions (Marisa, 1944), Two Sisters from Boston (Due sorelle di Boston, 1946), The Unfinished Dance (La danza incompiuta, 1947), The Bishop’s Wife (La moglie del vescovo, 1947), The Luck of the Irish (L’isola del desiderio, 1948), Come to the Stable (Le due suore, 1949), The Inspector General (L’ispettore generale, 1949), Wabash Avenue (La venere di Chicago, 1950), My Blue Heaven (Per noi due il Paradiso, 1950), Harvey (id., 1950), No Highway (Il viaggio indimenticabile, 1951), Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (Mister Belvedere suona la campana, 1951), Elopement (Fuga d’amore, 1951), Full House (La giostra umana, 1952), Stars and Stripes Forever (Squilli di primavera, 1952), My Cousin Rachel (Mia cugina Rachele, 1952), The Robe (La tunica, 1953), Désirée (id., 1954), A Man Called Peter (1955), The Virgin Queen (Il favorito della grande regina, 1956), Good Morning, Miss Dove (Buongiorno Miss Dove, 1955), D-Day the Sixth of June (Operazione Normandia, 1956), The Power and the Prize (I filibustieri della finanza, 1957), My Man Godfrey (L’impareggiabile Godfrey, 1957), Fräulein (1958), The Naked Maja (La maja desnuda, 1959), The Story of Ruth (La storia di Ruth, 1960), Flower Drum Song (Fior di loto, 1962), Hobbs Takes a Vacation (Mister Hobbs va in vacanza, 1962), Take Her, She’s Mine (Prendila è mia, 1963), Dear Brigitte (Erasmo il lentigginoso, 1965), The Singing Nun (Dominique, 1966).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Henry Koster. STORY: from the novel by Annemarie Selinko. SCREENPLAY: Daniel Taradash. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Milton R. Krasner. EDITING: William Reynolds. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Lyle Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Walter M. Scott. COSTUMES: René Hubert, Charles Le Maire. MUSIC: Alex North. CAST: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Merle Oberon, Michael Rennie, Cameron Mitchell, Elizabeth Sellars, Charlotte Austin, Cathleen Nesbitt, Evelyn Varden, Isobel Elsom, John Hoyt, Alan Napier. PRODUCTION: Julian Blaustein per 20th Century Fox.
CONTACT: Park Circus www.parkcircus.com
