Josephine Peach

Her thinking and her life were certainly remarkable, highly intelligent and adventurous. I think she deserved a film which moved more thoughtfully rather than visually and emotionally through what must have been a far more ugly, difficult and worrying life for much of the time. It's too glossy and hides reality, but I shall certainly read more about her now, having known nothing of her before.

The well considered and very professional NYTimes review hits the nail on the head. It's a fussy, noisy and gradually an irritating film depending on speed of movement, some very artificial and mannered characters and for me, a soundtrack of rather too many decibels and worse, obeying and extending Wagner's vision of unending melody. This was excellent for his purposes in the 1860s and was frequently imitated in later film music but here it serves to distract us from the story-line (?) far too often with Danny Elfman's in many ways admirable techniques, but increasingly in his output, the belief that clever harmonic tricks and overblown orchestral effects will solve anything. There is no sophistication of any kind in this film. Its implied meaning and sense of purpose are constantly lost in a mass of colour and volume. OK, art, thought and purpose never stand still in any society but this film hits all crash barriers head on. What a shame, but my memories of the 1951 film are still fond and comfortable.