A MATTER OF TIME

US/Italy, 1976, 98 minutes, Colour.
Ingrid Bergman, Liza Minnelli, Charles Boyer, Isabella Rossellini, Tina Aumont, Fernando Rey, Gabriele Ferzetti, Amadeo Nazzari, Edmund Purdom.
Directed by Vincente Minnelli.

A Matter of Time was Vincente Minnelli’s last film. Directing since the 1940s with some of MGM’s best musicals including Meet Me In St Louis, Minnelli had a strong career, also with a number of dramas like The Bad and the Beautiful and historical films like Lust for Life. He won the Oscar for best director for Gigi in 1958.

The film is a star vehicle for his daughter Liza Minnelli who has the opportunity to sing some songs in this film. Ingrid Bergman portrays an ageing countess and is paired with Charles Boyer with whom she acted in Gaslight and Arch of Triumph. Her daughter, Isabella Rossellini, made her debut in this film as a nun. A number of Italian star actors have supporting roles.

The film is elegant, romantic – but is not the film that Minnelli made. The company, American International, was noted for its small-budget road films – and they considered that he had gone over budget and so interfered with the editing of the film. However, it is interesting to see as his last work.

1. The main appeal of this film? The Minnellis at work? Ingrid Bergman? European settings? An entertainment film? The critics were very severe in their judgment. Why?

2. The initial title was ‘Nina’. The focus on Nina as content and theme? The significance of A Matter of Time? Liza Minnelli’s singing of the theme song? Its lyrics, application to the film and its treatment? Mood?

3. The prologue about fairy tales and their coming true? How appropriate for this film? The basic fairy tale ingredients? the heroine? The transformation? The happy ending? A twentieth century style fairy tale? The importance of the European setting?

4. The visuals of Europe, the Morals and atmosphere of Europe? Italy, Rome and its atmosphere? How authentic were the sets, locations, atmosphere? The portrait of Italians? Italy seen through American eyes? The old world and the New? The old world seen by the new? The importance of the credits sequence, the scenes, buildings, colour?

5. The importance of a film about filming? A new world in an old world? The reality and artificiality of the film world? A world for fairy tales to come true? From obscurity to fame? How credible was this? The importance of the background of film scripting and the young man in the apartments, the auditioning of stars, the work of producers, screen tests, publicity and premieres? The film's favourable attitude towards filming, parody and critique?

6. The importance of Liza Minnelli’s presence in the film? Her verve, vitality, acting, singing, presence? Her songs throughout the film? Her appearance, background in the story? A heroine and a Cinderella? (And directed by her father?)

7. The opening and the presentation of Nina’s success? Its artificiality, the movie world, the collage of poses, the cliches of film, the posters of glamour? The audience and their attitudes, the press, expectations? The background of the real Nina? Inserted in this atmosphere and story?

8. Did the story of Nina and the story of the Contessa explain why Nina said ‘yes’ to such a change and to her career? What seemed incredible at the beginning, did it become explicable by the story of the Contessa, the friendship between Nina and the Contessa, the mutual identification?

9. The atmosphere of Nina’s leaving home, the Italian overtones of family, her father? Her open-eyed wonder at Rome and the lavish sights and tourism for the audience? The importance of her cousin and her personality, working at the pensione? Its drabness, the room, uniforms, the work to be done, the various people? Nina's skill and her awkwardness? The comparison with the cousin? The cousin's escaping? Nine and her devotion and hopes?

10. How was her character revealed as she arrived in Rome, had her day off, for example the things that she looked at, the people instead of the sights?

11. The experience with the writer - his melodramatic approach, his acting out his sequences and the ironic humour of the attempted rape? His introducing her to the producer (and the irony of the producer claiming her as his own?) The bond with the writer and the later sequences? The film's ironic humour about screenwriters?

12. The producer and his entourage in the café, the world of the wealthy and of big business and Nina walking past to get the meals for the people in the pensione? The discussions, interviews? The build-up to the tent and Nina’s nervousness, the producer and his guiding her? her not being able to speak, the importance of her talk about the Contessa during the screen test and the signal for her success?

13. The contrast with Ingrid Bergman, the Contessa? Her personality, her appearance and her age, the make-up, her impact as a person on Nina? How was this illustrated in Nina’s searching her room? Her clothes? Nina spying? The importance of the Contessa’s memories, her wealth in the past, her pawning her possessions to pay the bills and her haughty attitude? The encounter with Nina and the bond between the two?

14. Understanding the character of the Contessa through the visit of her husband? His personality, his leaving her, his shock at finding her as she was, the bonds between the two, her living in the past, her lover? His leaving and not wanting to know her? His absence from her memories?

15. The growing interest in Nina and the reason for this? Nina as an ordinary maid, the Contessa and her chatter? The importance of the sari as a gift, Nina’s trying it on and being transformed? The Contessa and the love for her daughter, possessing and moulding? The make-up, the gift?

16. How well did the film develop the interchange between Nina and the Contessa? The interchange of dreams and fantasies? The interchange of actresses in the living out of these memories? For example, the Casino sequence with its wealth, style, manners and jewellery? The scene with the lover and Nina being the lover of the celebrated geniuses at that the Contessa idolised? The effect of the interchange on the Contessa and her reliving her past in Nina? The effect on Nina and her being transformed from the country girl and maid into the Contessa with her vision of life?

17. The themes of being great, genius, intense living? The Contessa, and her memories, her passion for genius, her worldliness? Nina being imbued with this?

18. The continued persecution of the Contessa and her growing old and her mind being affected? Her suddenness in leaving the hotel, her searching out the past and the hotel that we no longer there? Her shock and flurry at the accident? The transition to the hospital and her death? Stripped of everything, of clothes and possessions, the woman lying alone facing death? (The nuns and their help, having her clothes for charity at the end?) Nina and the screen test interplayed and edited with the Contessa’s dying?

19. Nina and her presence at the Contessa’s death? The passing of the Contessa and her living again in Nina and her achievement? Was the Contessa’s life an inspiration sufficient explanation of what happened to Nina? Her explanation to the escort in the car?

20. The final achievement and Nina as a celebrated artist?

21. The intentions of the film to show a modern fairy tale, to show the interchange of personalities, worldliness and success? The execution of the film matching the intentions? Style, worldliness - yet the irony of the Contessa’s death? Would Nina live her life and yet die alone like the Contessa and her life be just ‘a matter of time’?