Galileo (1975)

This biopic is about Galileo Galilei, the seventeenth century Italian who laid the foundations of modern science. Galileo made himself one of the world's first telescopes and discovered the... See full summary »

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Barbara Bray (adapted for the screen), Bertolt Brecht (play)

Stars:

Topol, Edward Fox, Colin Blakely

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Topol	...	Galileo Galilei
Edward Fox	...	Cardinal Inquisitor
Colin Blakely	...	Priuli
Georgia Brown	...	Ballad Singer's Wife
Clive Revill	...	Ballad Singer
Margaret Leighton	...	Elderly Court Lady
John Gielgud	...	The Old Cardinal
Michael Gough	...	Sagredo
Michael Lonsdale	...	Cardinal Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII)
Richard O'Callaghan	...	Fulganzio
Tim Woodward	...	Ludovico Marsili
Judy Parfitt	...	Angelica Sarti
John McEnery	...	Federzoni
Patrick Magee	...	Cardinal Bellarmin
Mary Larkin	...	Virginia

Storyline

This biopic is about Galileo Galilei, the seventeenth century Italian who laid the foundations of modern science. Galileo made himself one of the world's first telescopes and discovered the moons of Jupiter. He supported Copernicus' theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. This brought him in conflict with the Catholic Church. By threatening him with torture, the Church forced him to recant his views in front of a tribunal, and sentenced him to house arrest. However, Galileo's trials and theories inspired others like Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler to prove that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Some years ago, the Pope accepted that Earth does revolve around the Sun and issued a rare apology for what the Church had done to Galileo. The Catholic Church recanted.

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | galileo character | one word series title | catholic church | catholic | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 May 1976 (UK)

Also Known As:

Galileo Galilei

Filming Locations:

EMI Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinévision Ltée, The American Film Theatre, The Ely Landau Organization Inc.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Gough is nowhere to be found in the casting interviews and ideas lists of Sagredo kept by the B.F.I. Special collection.

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Quotes

Andrea Sarti: [upon Galileo's recantation] Unhappy is the land that has no heroes.
Galileo Galilei: Incorrect. Unhappy is the land that *needs* a hero.

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Connections

Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #23.1 (2010)

User Reviews

Delayed by HUAC

This fine work by Berthold Brecht and directed by Joseph Losey is brought to us by about a 20 year delay period. That was because of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the blacklisting of both.

Brecht kind of, sort of made his case for HUAC as he went back to East Germany where he was acclaimed a cultural icon. Joe Losey took off for Great Britain where he worked for the most part until his death.

You can see why the mossbacks of HUAC thought Galileo by Brecht was highly subversive stuff. Question church authority and by implication the state because religion was established. No more so than in Italy and its many Catholic city/states.

Galileo Galilei scientist/engineer was a popular well respected fellow who got a hold of a spyglass invented by the Dutchman Hans Lippershey and saw the possibilities for it in astronomy. Already a believer in the theory advanced by Copernicus about the sun being a center of the universe. The telescope allowed Galileo to observe and make more findings. If the Earth is the center of things than what are those bodies orbiting Jupiter for instance?

The Roman Catholic now engaged in a counter attack against all that Protestant type heresy took a dim view of this stuff. Galileo got vigorously questioned for these theories.

Israeli actor Topol plays the bluff and hearty Galileo. He's a man used to his creature comforts and not built for martyrdom as is shown in the play.

The fine cast Losey assembles includes Clive Revill and Georgia Brown as cabaret singers, Michael Lonsdale as Pope Urban, and Edward Fox as the Cardinal Inquisitor. John Gielgud has a great cameo as a cardinal who is beside himself with indignation that anyone would question the workings of the universe, their universe.

Galileo's epitaph despite his failure to martyr himself is the best of all. No amount of proclamations from the state or the pulpit will change the way the universe works.

That IS subversive stuff.