Tosca

An interesting curiosity--not a film of the Puccini opera, but a dramatization (with background music from the opera). Visually, it's fantastic, filmed at many of the locations referenced in the opera. I find it interesting that most of the "operatic" lines of text from the opera are not in the script at all. Equally interesting to me is that the two most interesting screen presences, Argentina (Tosca) and especially Simon (Scarpria) are not Italian and their lines are clearly dubbed.

Tosca (1941) was supposed to be directed by French master Jean Renoir, and he did do the first few scenes, but the war resulted in him having to flee and Carl Koch took over the task. And he continued the work in fine manner creating a elegant drama with carefully selected musical moments. Not fine-tuned for the best emotional peak, but still the narrative keeps one's attention with solid performances, especially the toned down presence of Michel Simon is effective.