Testimony - The Story Of Shostakovich (1988)

[Gordon]

Released in January by a new company called Digital Classics, in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen. Is this the first video release of this film?

Epic Shostakovich biopic, shot in monochrome Panavision, with Ben Kingsley as the great composer. Tony Palmer (Frank Zappa's, 200 Motels; Wagner mini series) is credited as director, production designer and editor. It strikes me as a bold choice to shoot such a film in black and white in 1988. From what I have read, it is stunningly lit by Nicholas Knowland (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle) throughout.

So, has anyone seen this film?

Available HERE. I'm unsure of blind-buying, so I'll try and rent it soon.

[jorencain]

Wow, I've never heard of this film. I would be VERY interested to know if it's any good or not. Shostakovich is one of my favorite composers, and his autobiography (also entitled "Testimony") is very engaging and interesting. Please keep us informed once you check it out.

[Gordon]

I am sorry to report that the transfer is AWFUL. It looks like an analogue source, with the worst chroma nosie I have ever seen on a legit DVD, extreme softness and cropped from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1 anamorphic. I had a real hard time watching the film, primarily due to the transfer, but also due to the pace and I didn't make it all the way through the 150 minutes. The film is very stylized, baroque, almost Wellesian with a fascinating performance by Kingsley. But it was a struggle. Biopics of composers are a tricky species, anyhow. I saw that Beethoven yarn, Immortal Beloved, starring Gary Oldman, a few months ago and it was fairly enjoyable, though I had to suspend my knowledge of the Dyonisian Genius throughout, but it's pretty good.

The best composer biopics, I feel are Ken Russell's films from the 60s: Bartok; The Debussy Film; Delius: Song of Summer and Elgar - the latter two are both on DVD from the BFI, but I'd love to see the others again, especially, Bartok, which is equally magnificent; insects, Blue Beard and, of course, the his extraordinary music all are all fused together brilliantly by Ken, as always. It was a BBC production, but it's hard to see how and when they'd release it on DVD. Maybe it will show up on BBC 4 at some point.

[tavernier]

Kultur International Films is releasing Testimony on July 25 in R1.

[marty]

I remember seeing TESTIMONY in cinemas in 1989 in Melbourne at the old Capitol Theatre. The film was quite good and Ben Kingsley does his usual best and it is well-shot in stark B&W.

[Gropius]

On a related note, has anyone seen the 1986 Russian 'Shostakovich: Sonata for Viola', a biopic co-directed by Alexander Sokurov? It's out on DVD, but is it any good?

[Ives]

Saw this last night. Crappy transfer - annoying pink/blue/green bleeding through what should have been pristine B & W in most places. But a fascinating film. I've loved Shostakovich's symphonies especially for many years, and Palmer stitches them together beautifully to mirror the passage of time in the film. I've always heard his symphonies as a sort of autobiography of his life (Mahler's symphonies do the same thing) and the film does this quite well. Scenes such as the public denunciation of Shostakovich's 9th symphony and his subsequent apology are extremely well done.

What comes through for me is the conflict of a composer producing music under nearly impossible conditions, where everything he writes is subjected to either the criticism of comrade citizens who know nothing about modern music, or the whims of an unpredictable nutjob (Stalin). The film reminds one that art can and does often flourish in the worst of times. Whatever Shostakovich said publicly to save his ass from assassination, it is his music that stands as a testament against one of the most oppressive regimes in history.

[MichaelB]

The best composer biopics, I feel are Ken Russell's films from the 60s: Bartok; The Debussy Film; Delius: Song of Summer and Elgar - the latter two are both on DVD from the BFI, but I'd love to see the others again, especially, Bartok, which is equally magnificent; insects, Blue Beard and, of course, the his extraordinary music all are all fused together brilliantly by Ken, as always. It was a BBC production, but it's hard to see how and when they'd release it on DVD. Maybe it will show up on BBC 4 at some point.

I suspect there are some quite complicated underlying rights issues with the Bartok film - there's a huge amount of third-party footage, much of it sourced from Contemporary Films' catalogue (George Hoellering's 'Hortobagy' in particular), which would only originally have been cleared for one-off broadcast.

Mind you, it's easier to release than Dance of the Seven Veils, which is effectively banned until 2019 thanks to the Richard Strauss estate adamantly refusing to licence a note of his music to Russell after its first and only broadcast (this is also why Salome's Last Dance doesn't feature any Strauss, despite the obvious connection: Strauss's family hadn't forgotten or forgiven).

Which raises all sorts of questions about how much more difficult it is to do a critical (in the overwhelmingly negative sense) portrait of an artist if you're working in a medium that's reliant on the co-operation of the copyright holders...