| A Little Night Music | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Harold Prince |
| Produced by | Elliott Kastner |
| Screenplay by | Hugh Wheeler |
| Story by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Based on | A Little Night Music by Hugh Wheeler |
| Starring | Elizabeth Taylor Diana Rigg Len Cariou Lesley-Anne Down |
| Music by | Stephen Sondheim |
| Cinematography | Arthur Ibbetson |
| Editing by | John Jympson |
| Studio | Sascha-Verleih S&T-Film Berlin |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 30, 1977 (United States) |
| Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United States West Germany Austria |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million |
A Little Night Music is the 1977 film adaptation of the musical A Little Night Music, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Rigg, and Lesley-Anne Down, with Len Cariou, Hermione Gingold, and Laurence Guittard reprising their Broadway roles.
The film marked legendary Broadway director Harold Prince's second time as a film director.
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Fredrik Egerman (Len Cariou) is very happy in his marriage to an 18-year-old virgin, Anne (Lesley-Anne Down). However, Anne has nervously protected her virginity for the whole eleven months of marriage, and being a bit restless, Fredrik goes to see an old flame, the famous actress, Desirée Armfeldt (Elizabeth Taylor). Desirée, who is getting tired of her life, is thinking of settling down, and sets her sights on Fredrik, despite his marriage, and her own married lover Count Carl-Magnus Mittelheim (Laurence Guittard). She gets her mother to invite the Egermans to her country estate for the weekend. But when Carl-Magnus and his wife, Charlotte (Diana Rigg), appear, too, things begin to get farcical, and the night must smile for the third time before all the lovers are united.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for the film. He wrote the lyrics for the "Night Waltz" theme ("Love Takes Time") and wrote an entirely new version of "The Glamorous Life", which has been incorporated into several subsequent productions of the stage musical.
The setting for the film was moved from Sweden to Austria, and was filmed on location.
The film received mostly negative reviews, with much being made of Taylor's wildly fluctuating weight from scene to scene. Some critics talked more positively of the film, with Variety calling it "an elegant looking, period romantic charade". The film has received critical praise for Diana Rigg's performance. The film currently holds an 11% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1]
A soundtrack was released on LP, and the film was, for a time, available on VHS and Laserdisc. A DVD release was issued in June 2007. The new version of "The Glamorous Life" has been included on the new remastered version of the Original Broadway Cast Recording.