First Love (1970/VCI DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Film: C+

 

 

The actor Maximilian Schell tried his hand at directing several feature films and his adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s First Love (1970, issued by UMC at the time) received critical acclaim, but has not been discussed much in recent years, but here it is on VCI DVD for all to see and it is not bad, though I was not stunningly impressed with it either.  The story of a 16-year-old boy named Alexander (John Moulder-Brown) falling for a princess named Sinaida (Dominique Sanda of The Conformist) in trouble is an age-old type tale, but complications ensue and all this before major events will change everyone’s life.

 

Schell directed and co-starred in the film and handled all well, but it does not always work or exceed the conventions of such a tale.  Some things I lied about it, like its smart, quiet approach, but it also has run-on moments that hold it back.  However, I would like to see this again in a better copy before I decide what I think about the film overall.  This is because the print here is very grainy.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image was shot in 35mm film by the great Sven Nykvist (and likely framed at 1.66 X 1 according to some sources), but the print used here is grainy, has poor color (it was originally an EastmanColor release, so print fading is an issue) and despite so many fine shots, they all look poor here and the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also second-generation.  That is a shame, because Mark London supplied a good score.  An original trailer is the only extra.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo