FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Lollivan
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Roy Hart
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Keeley Coleman
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
JohnHowardReid
In the latter half of 1953, director Charles Vidor signed a one-picture-a-year deal with M-G-M. The films he directed under this arrangement were Rhapsody (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and The Swan (1956).Incredibly based on the novel, "Maurice Guest", by Henry Handel Richardson, Rhapsody is a confused melange of hokum and sentiment. In his first Hollywood movie, Italy's Vittorio Gassman is even more boorish than usual in his account of the student-turned-violinist, but the film is saved by the radiant charm with which Elizabeth Taylor imbues her role as the wealthy ingénue. Beautifully photographed by Robert Planck against attractive settings in Zurich and the Engadine, Miss Taylor is expertly guided through the twists of a corny plot that has John Ericson and Louis Calhern interspersed with a few snippets of Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff, all of which are indifferently played by Michael Rabin and Claudio Arrau.
jjnxn-1
As far as the script for this ode to classical music goes it includes absolutely nothing you haven't seen before but it's presented with that inimitable MGM sheen. Made during that period when Elizabeth Taylor was at the very apex of her beauty she captivates as she drips in jewels and beautiful gowns in dazzling Technicolor. She's hard to pull your eyes from but she is teamed with two men, Vittorio Gassman and John Ericson, who are almost as beautiful as she. Excepting Louis Calhern who is just right as Liz's bon vivant father, the supporting cast blends into the woodwork.It's the music that matters and makes this picture however. Some of it is absurdly staged, i.e. the spontaneous performance of an entire violin symphony in a small restaurant, but what can you expect from a romantic drama in the 50's. Mostly though the music is played full out in the proper settings and is glorious and well worth muddling through the somewhat turgid proceedings that surround it.
soccermanz
This film should be compulsory viewing for all of those of either sex who want to be taken seriously by a talented artist whether a musician, stage, film or television actor, professional sports player and so on. Elizabeth Taylor is quite excellent as the rich, indulged young lady who still thinks that she can be the focal point of her chosen man's world in this case a self obsessed violinist who was still infinitely preferable to so many of her other male co-stars. And his fingering and bowing was quite superb - I only wish that I could have heard the sounds that he actually made and who actually made the beautiful music that forms the solid foundation of what was a thoroughly enjoyable film ? I agree that Louis Calhern as her father was superb - it is a pity that she listened to so little of what he said and in her case beauty was not even skin deep.
dancopp
Yes, Rapshody is somewhat tedious and quite melodramatic, but let me mention the positive offsets: 1. The dazzlingly beautiful, voluptuous Elizabeth Taylor.2. Adult themes, and must have been considered quite risqué at the time.3. Emotionally charged classical music.4. Generally quite well acted.5. Good direction, cinematography, settings, and costumes.Whether or not the positive offsets overcome the somewhat tedious, melodramatic plot depends on one's tolerance for melodrama and how strongly one values the various offsets.
