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Duet for One [VHS] | ![Duet for One [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21ZCZ9W86ZL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy
Actors: Julie Andrews, Alan Bates, Max Von Sydow, Rupert Everett, Margaret Courtenay
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $7.90
You Save: $7.05 (47%)
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Rating:  15 reviews
Format: Color, Ntsc
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6301966708
UPC: 027616111739
EAN: 9786301966702
Theatrical Release Date: February 1987
Release Date: September 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Hysterical July 24, 2010
Sacredtouch
This is possibly the worst film of all time - and I was a Julie Andrews fan when I watched it. I defy anyone to watch the "careening wheelchair" scene without laughing out loud. The movie was so miserable I hoped that character would die then and there to put me out of my misery, but it didn't matter because I was laughing so hard I had to exit the theater. OMG!
 She is one of the greatest violinists in the world, and then suddenly one day her fingers feel strange and she cannot play June 24, 2010
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
At first she denies there is anything wrong with her, but eventually she must admit that she has multiple sclerosis and that although there will be good days when her talent seems to have returned, she will be able to depend on her body less and less as the days go by.
That is the starting point of "Duet for One," and we may think we can predict where the movie will go, but we will be wrong. This is not a recycled version of all those countless other disease movies in which there is either a miraculous recovery or some sort of transcendent symbolic victory over death's dominion. This is a quirky movie about a woman who is stubborn and angry and confronts the disease in her own particular way.
The character is played by Julie Andrews, who brings a certain haughty confidence to this violinist, who is good and knows it. There are a few people she has allowed to become close to her: her husband (Alan Bates), her manager (Margaret Courtenay), her old accompanist (Sigfrit Steiner), her gifted student (Rupert Everett). As her disease progresses, she will have to redefine every one of those relationships.
Her husband, weak and alcoholic, will leave her. The student will find it difficult to deal with her illness and impossible to accept the demands of his talent. The old accompanist will die and then reappear in the movie's most mystical and effective scene.
But Andrews' life is not limited to these intimates, and the most interesting relationship in the movie is one she has with a rough-hewn junk collector (Liam Neeson), whom she takes to her bed for raw, unapologetic sex - sex that she finds is an affirmation of her passion and the fact that she still lives and feels.
If "Duet for One" were wholly true to the spirit of the scenes with Neeson, it would be a great movie, touching the anger with which we all cry out against the fate of death. Those scenes are painful but very honest. They are messy, and not very nice, and not uplifting, but they reflect exactly what Dylan Thomas meant when he advised us to "rage, rage against the dying of the light." Unfortunately, some of the other material in the movie is less focused. Maybe there are too many characters. Maybe the screenplay has not been pared of everything that was not really necessary.
The most crucial weakness is in the character of the husband (Bates), a composer who feels insecure in his wife's shadow and finally incapable of coping with her illness. The character is not well-defined, and Bates, usually so confident, does not bring much definition to it. Right at the center of the movie, there the husband stands, a confusion.
What I do remember is the tenderness of the relationship between the violinist and her old accompanist, and the roughness of her need in the sex scenes, and the very last scene, in which she stands outside a house party and looks in through the windows at the people she loves and at the life she may have to leave.
"Duet for One," based on the play by Tom Kempinski, was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the Russian exile whose previous two films were "Maria's Lovers" and "Runaway Train." There is a strength and a mysticism in his work that is always compelling, even when the stories seem untidy. "Duet for One" is a flawed movie, but it has moments that really touch what it means to know that your soul still sings but your body has abandoned you.
Brilliant, Overlooked Performance by Julie Andrews December 9, 2007
Common Reader (New York City)
When will this be released on DVD! Julie Andrews, in the right director's hands, is capable of brilliance, and this film shows it. This is a raw performance by Andrews, in which she took risks she rarely took elsewhere (even in the films directed by her husband, who was perhaps not her best director). There's now a sad parallel in her character's plight and her own life (years after this movie) in that both Stephanie and Andrews each lose the talents that informed their lives and self-images: Stephanie loses her ability to play the violin (because of MS) and Andrews, about a decade after filming "Duet" lost her ability to sing. It's also sad that the industry didn't recognize Andrews' Oscar-worthy performance in DUET. If it had, or if the film had landed commercially, I suspect we would have seen Andrews in more strong, non-singing roles. But, alas, Andrews never seemed to fight public rejection (witness her leaving the movies for many years after failures in Star! and Darling Lili; Nicole Kidman (and many others) hardly pull roots after two consecutive failures). Anyway, the movie itself has flaws, but it's also brave in not giving us a typical Hollywood uplifting ending. Watch it for Julie Andrews' intelligent, gutsy performances.
 A TOUR-DE FORCE PERFORMANCE BY JULIE ANDREWS June 20, 2007
DEWEY MEE (ELLENSBURG, WA,)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Tom Kempinski's play "DUET FOR ONE" was originally a two -character drama between Stephanie, a world-famous violinist who is stricken with multiple sclerosis, and her psychiatrist. The film opens the story up considerably to include many people in Stephanie's crumbling life. Julie Andrews' performance as Stephanie is a major dramatic revelation. Max Von Sydow reprises his role from the stage version (very reduced in the film) as her psychiatrist, and Alan Bates plays her philandering musician husband. The scene between Bates and Andrews in the car after a picnic is full of dramatic fireworks and painfully sad.
The film also features early performances by Rupert Everett as Stephanie's pupil and Liam Neeson as Harry, a man Stephanie has an affair with after her marriage ends. But the film belongs to Julie Andrews, who gives a tour-de-force performance that completely shatters her "Mary Poppins"/"Sound Of Music" stereotyped image.
The film is sometimes dire and often depressing. It also pulls no punches in its brutally honest, realistic portrayal of living with a disability. When her psychiatrist mentions she has choices in life, she responds, "You're right. There's crippled, very crippled, totally crippled, and dead. I just haven't made up my mind yet." To her lover Harry she says, "You like me because I'm a cripple. Come on, admit it, it turns you on. What's your speciality; paraplegics?" Stephanie does attempt suicide in an especially harrowing scene, but, thankfully, she is saved by her loyal housekeeper.
As soul-wrenching as it all is, this overlooked drama is extremely worthwhile-- worth it for the strength of Julie Andrews' performance alone. It's a crime that Andrews did not receive the Academy Award nomination she clearly deserved for her work in this film. I found this film on Amazon Marketplace only on VHS. I hope it will someday be released on DVD.
Heartbreaking and Wonderful July 18, 2006
T. Lester (Miami, FL)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
All of the people who claim that Julie Andrews' acting abilities are limited should sit down and watch this movie (right alongside "That's Life!"). This is "mature" Julie; no longer perky, or goody-two-shoes. This is Julie portraying a woman who literally loses everything (her motor skills; devastating to a violinist, her husband, her best students and ultimately her life). Yes, the movie is a little depressing at times and I concur with some of the other reviewers that Max von Sydow's and Alan Bates' performances were basically phoned in but this movie isn't about them. It's all about Ms. Andrews, and she is magnificent. It is a real shame this movie never opened wide release in the states (I saw it at a tiny art house in Washington DC when it opened). I keep praying that will come out on DVD but I'm not holding my breath. Whatever form you get this in, you absolutely must watch it. The scene of Julie (sick) watching herself on the television (healthy) still gives me the chills. A must-see film by all accounts.
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