Duet for One (1986)

Stephanie, a famous violin player married to a composer becomes ill from multiple sclerosis. Her whole life goes to pieces : her career ends abruptly and her husband betrays her with ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrey Konchalovskiy

Writers:

Tom Kempinski (play), Tom Kempinski (screenplay),

Stars:

Julie Andrews, Alan Bates, Max von Sydow

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julie Andrews	...	Stephanie Anderson
Alan Bates	...	David Cornwallis
Max von Sydow	...	Dr. Louis Feldman
Rupert Everett	...	Constantine Kassanis
Margaret Courtenay	...	Sonia Randvich
Cathryn Harrison	...	Penny Smallwood
Sigfrit Steiner	...	Leonid Lefimov
Liam Neeson	...	Totter
Macha Méril	...	Anya
Siobhan Redmond	...	Totter's wife
Janette Newling	...	Mrs. Burridge
John Delaney	...	Drunk
Kevin Ranson	...	Derek
Dorothea Phillips	...	Betty
Marcia Linden	...	Gail

Storyline

Stephanie, a famous violin player married to a composer becomes ill from multiple sclerosis. Her whole life goes to pieces : her career ends abruptly and her husband betrays her with another woman and her favourite pupil decides to leave for a tour in the USA. Stephanie tries to take her life...

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Plot Keywords:

multiple sclerosis | disability | wheelchair | independent film | based on play

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

February 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Duo pour une soliste

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golan-Globus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 1987, on the set of Barfly, Faye Dunaway told film critic Roger Ebert that she was originally cast in the role of Stephanie Anderson.

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Quotes

Stephanie Anderson: You know I have nothing but contempt for you. Sitting there year after year listening to miserable people like me tell you how the world does destroy them. Have you ever once felt anything like the pain they feel? All the despair, all the fear? You make your living from their suffering and you don't understand a shred of it. Anyone of us is more qualified to speak than you because we have been there. We're still there.

User Reviews

Self-debasement in the face of illness...

Virtuoso violinist Julie Andrews loses the flexibility of her fingers and hands due to the "creeping paralysis" of multiple sclerosis, relating the loss of making music to a loss of life; she gives away her possessions, her prospects, even her husband (to the hand of his adoring, bespectacled secretary with the great knees). It isn't enough to call "Duet For One" a lousy movie...it is a mesmerizingly wrong-headed movie, and its general stupidity appears entirely intentional. Tom Kempinski adapted his own play with help from Jeremy Lipp and the film's director, Andrei Konchalovsky, and what was an intimate exercise in melodrama has been blown-up into a solipsistic vehicle for the star-lead. Andrews goes through the expected stages of grief, lashing out in her angry-phase at anyone who pities her--but just as quickly tempering her frustration with a second layer of pity for the friend who feels her pain. She tells everyone their business, including her psychoanalyst (whom she 'teaches' in much the same way as the married stud she has picked-up from the streets). Andrews probably felt this role would enable her to give a multi-shaded portrayal of a woman at the end of her tether, yet the film is so condescending to the audience in its view of MS that we never even meet any of the protagonist's doctors; she appears to suffer in a vacuum. According to the writers, the best way to combat the disease is to play matchmaker and then make a clean exit. There is a dream sequence twenty minutes in that is an unfair trick to play on the viewer, while the supporting cast looks drained and drawn by the hard-edged sentimentality (which is relentless). The filmmakers don't appear to know anything about multiple sclerosis, the disease being used as a theme for a study in character. Since that character is viewed as having a monopoly on personal suffering, the picture quickly congeals into the worst kind of pity party--one with crocodile tears. *1/2 from ****