This 300-minute miniseries, presented on Showtime in five parts, October 27 - November 26, 1985, is the definitive film version of this Fitzgerald work. This miniseries was never repeated on Showtime, and most people don't even know of its existence.
What's good about it? The casting. Peter Strauss as Dick Diver and Mary Steenburgen as Nicole Warren inhabit their roles completely. They are so good that I cannot imagine any other actors in these parts. This is Mary Steenburgen's best performance on film, yet it lies buried here. She conveys well Nicole's vulnerability and psychological fragility at the film's start as well as her growing strength and health by the film's conclusion.
Because of Peter Strauss's good looks and winning performance, it's easy to understand why women were attracted to Dick Diver and fell in love with him so easily. Scott and Zelda themselves couldn't have made a better couple than Strauss and Steenburgen do here.
Part 1 is a delectable romantic film in its own right. There's an excellent scene in a barn where Dick and Nicole are dancing--just a rather simple dance--to some records that are playing on her portable phonograph. It's a magical movie moment that makes their love clear and supports Dick's desire to marry Nicole, despite the warning of his colleagues.
Once married, Nicole and Dick are off to life at Villa Diana on the French Riviera, 1925, among the rich. Nicole's family is very wealthy, and her money supports the fine lifestyle that she and Dick enjoy here.
These scenes on The Riviera capture perfectly what life must have been like for Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald when they were there with Sara and Gerald Murphy and others of the international set of the times. The Divers are a charismatic couple; everyone wants to be their friend. But the film is not about that glittering life, which is just the background for the doomed romance.
The plot shows us that Diver, a psychologist, is going to make Nicole well. A victim of incest, Nicole is subject to breakdowns and has been diagnosed as manic-depressive. As she gets better with Dick's help, he goes the opposite way: from the strong, romantic psychologist who is Nicole's life-support system to a man who has lost all confidence in himself, who's become alcoholic, who longs for the past, who sees his love lost--whose world just disappears. Strauss brings this off very well, especially in Part 3 of the series, which is excellent at showing Dick's decline, his sourness, and his self-loathing, intertwined with his desire for the past he remembers favorably. Dick is revealed as a both a martyr (for love) and a hero too. He remains a very sympathetic character to the end, and that's difficult to pull off after Dick becomes a drunk. But we see a man who gave all he had to give--himself--to cure a woman he loved. My God, what love story could ask for more than that?
Some viewers may say the film is too long. But this length is necessary to show characters built unhurriedly, complexly, and well and to show the changes in both Nicole and Dick. It can't be done faster, or these changes wouldn't be plausible. (Which explains why no two-hour film version of this novel will ever be successful.) However, this length is inevitably going to slow the film's pace, and anyone interested in strong narrative thrust will be disappointed by this miniseries.
The film succeeds in large part because it has a decent script by Dennis Potter, best known for "Pennies from Heaven" (1978), and for the "Singing Detective" series (1986), which infuses many scenes in the film with Fitzgerald's romantic, nostalgic tone. But one must remember that there are faults in the novel's structure which even Potter couldn't overcome.
The strength of the film is in its casting (both major and minor roles) and the performances of Strauss and Steenburgen, the fine production values, fine period costumes and detail, all of which reflect the film's $7 million budget. There is good use of songs from the period but that is not overdone, and there's a good musical score for the film itself, which, likewise is not overdone, even though there is a romantic theme here that could have been a hit but didn't gain popularity because it's not overused in the film.
Though the film doesn't have strong narrative thrust, it has the density, the complexity, of a long novel where one gets to know fully the characters, becomes totally involved with them, and hates to say goodbye to them. I can't say that about many films.
Read David O. Selznick's memos about "Tender is the Night" in "Memo from David O. Selznick," and you'll understand that this is the production Selznick hoped to make. It's filmed on location and detailed enough to suit him, unlike the 1962 version with Jennifer Jones, which was poor throughout.
A recent NY Times article said that Jesse Wigutow is adapting "Tender is the Night" for yet another screen version. He has introduced Ernest Hemingway and Dorothy Parker into the story. Need one know more to realize the disaster this remake will be? The Showtime miniseries should be issued on DVD together with a documentary, "The Making of 'Tender is the Night,'" which was made for publicity purposes in connection with this miniseries.
What's good about it? The casting. Peter Strauss as Dick Diver and Mary Steenburgen as Nicole Warren inhabit their roles completely. They are so good that I cannot imagine any other actors in these parts. This is Mary Steenburgen's best performance on film, yet it lies buried here. She conveys well Nicole's vulnerability and psychological fragility at the film's start as well as her growing strength and health by the film's conclusion.
Because of Peter Strauss's good looks and winning performance, it's easy to understand why women were attracted to Dick Diver and fell in love with him so easily. Scott and Zelda themselves couldn't have made a better couple than Strauss and Steenburgen do here.
Part 1 is a delectable romantic film in its own right. There's an excellent scene in a barn where Dick and Nicole are dancing--just a rather simple dance--to some records that are playing on her portable phonograph. It's a magical movie moment that makes their love clear and supports Dick's desire to marry Nicole, despite the warning of his colleagues.
Once married, Nicole and Dick are off to life at Villa Diana on the French Riviera, 1925, among the rich. Nicole's family is very wealthy, and her money supports the fine lifestyle that she and Dick enjoy here.
These scenes on The Riviera capture perfectly what life must have been like for Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald when they were there with Sara and Gerald Murphy and others of the international set of the times. The Divers are a charismatic couple; everyone wants to be their friend. But the film is not about that glittering life, which is just the background for the doomed romance.
The plot shows us that Diver, a psychologist, is going to make Nicole well. A victim of incest, Nicole is subject to breakdowns and has been diagnosed as manic-depressive. As she gets better with Dick's help, he goes the opposite way: from the strong, romantic psychologist who is Nicole's life-support system to a man who has lost all confidence in himself, who's become alcoholic, who longs for the past, who sees his love lost--whose world just disappears. Strauss brings this off very well, especially in Part 3 of the series, which is excellent at showing Dick's decline, his sourness, and his self-loathing, intertwined with his desire for the past he remembers favorably. Dick is revealed as a both a martyr (for love) and a hero too. He remains a very sympathetic character to the end, and that's difficult to pull off after Dick becomes a drunk. But we see a man who gave all he had to give--himself--to cure a woman he loved. My God, what love story could ask for more than that?
Some viewers may say the film is too long. But this length is necessary to show characters built unhurriedly, complexly, and well and to show the changes in both Nicole and Dick. It can't be done faster, or these changes wouldn't be plausible. (Which explains why no two-hour film version of this novel will ever be successful.) However, this length is inevitably going to slow the film's pace, and anyone interested in strong narrative thrust will be disappointed by this miniseries.
The film succeeds in large part because it has a decent script by Dennis Potter, best known for "Pennies from Heaven" (1978), and for the "Singing Detective" series (1986), which infuses many scenes in the film with Fitzgerald's romantic, nostalgic tone. But one must remember that there are faults in the novel's structure which even Potter couldn't overcome.
The strength of the film is in its casting (both major and minor roles) and the performances of Strauss and Steenburgen, the fine production values, fine period costumes and detail, all of which reflect the film's $7 million budget. There is good use of songs from the period but that is not overdone, and there's a good musical score for the film itself, which, likewise is not overdone, even though there is a romantic theme here that could have been a hit but didn't gain popularity because it's not overused in the film.
Though the film doesn't have strong narrative thrust, it has the density, the complexity, of a long novel where one gets to know fully the characters, becomes totally involved with them, and hates to say goodbye to them. I can't say that about many films.
Read David O. Selznick's memos about "Tender is the Night" in "Memo from David O. Selznick," and you'll understand that this is the production Selznick hoped to make. It's filmed on location and detailed enough to suit him, unlike the 1962 version with Jennifer Jones, which was poor throughout.
A recent NY Times article said that Jesse Wigutow is adapting "Tender is the Night" for yet another screen version. He has introduced Ernest Hemingway and Dorothy Parker into the story. Need one know more to realize the disaster this remake will be? The Showtime miniseries should be issued on DVD together with a documentary, "The Making of 'Tender is the Night,'" which was made for publicity purposes in connection with this miniseries.