Carol Reed, an English filmmaker, made such an outstanding magnum opus that it left his other films into oblivion many of which are still hiding somewhere. The Third Man (1949) might just be the most famous film-noir ever made and the most iconic film of the Cold War. Even though his other films aren't as good, they're at least fairly interesting. Although, many of Reed's films won awards at several festivals, he never achieved the same fame he did with The Third Man. However, its success was somewhat paradoxical: because it did rise him to the world of cinematic auteurs and gave him the possibility to achieve almost anything but, on the other hand, it was such a masterpiece which was almost impossible to overcome. Therefore, his other films are quite unknown, just like Trapeze even though it won an award at the Berlin Film Festivals and has got quite a cast.
It's a story about an ambitious beauty (Gina Lollobrigida) who stirs up trouble between two male trapeze stars. One of them is a youngster (Tony Curtis) who wants to become the greatest aerialist in the world. But only one man can teach him the hardest trick; an older aerialist (Burt Lancaster) who has hurt himself in an injury and has been left alone by an old lover of his. It is a story about disintegration but it leaves on a happy note.
To put it briefly, Trapeze is a circus melodrama about a love triangle, with some homo-erotic tension between Curtis and Lancaster who starred together one year later in a crime classic Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Although, at first Trapeze feels a little too schematic and conventional, it grows out to be quite a mature interpretation of the choice made between love and art. Even if the set-up is quite juvenile and built on clichés and conventions, Trapeze is still extremely well directed and filmed -- especially the trapeze sequences with Wagner's music on the background. To my mind, it is a fascinating look at the eternal contradiction between art and entertainment.
It's a story about an ambitious beauty (Gina Lollobrigida) who stirs up trouble between two male trapeze stars. One of them is a youngster (Tony Curtis) who wants to become the greatest aerialist in the world. But only one man can teach him the hardest trick; an older aerialist (Burt Lancaster) who has hurt himself in an injury and has been left alone by an old lover of his. It is a story about disintegration but it leaves on a happy note.
To put it briefly, Trapeze is a circus melodrama about a love triangle, with some homo-erotic tension between Curtis and Lancaster who starred together one year later in a crime classic Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Although, at first Trapeze feels a little too schematic and conventional, it grows out to be quite a mature interpretation of the choice made between love and art. Even if the set-up is quite juvenile and built on clichés and conventions, Trapeze is still extremely well directed and filmed -- especially the trapeze sequences with Wagner's music on the background. To my mind, it is a fascinating look at the eternal contradiction between art and entertainment.