CERT: PG / BLU-RAY / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 2ND
A film based on a hit Broadway musical, itself based on a Fellini film, Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Charity is the story of, as the film’s subtitle tells us, The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved.
As played by Shirley MacLaine, Charity has a series of unsuccessful relationships and disastrous events as she works in a dance hall where she’s a woman for hire, and yet she keeps on smiling through the heartbreak until a chance of real love walks into her life.
The first film directed and choreographed by the legendary Bob Fosse, Sweet Charity display some of the hallmarks he’d go on to perfect a few years later in Cabaret. And whilst there’s no doubting the superiority of that film, Sweet Charity has plenty of spark and some truly cracking songs, ones you probably know but weren’t aware of which musical they were from, like Big Spender and If They Could See Me Now.
In the central role, MacLaine is just fantastic, she carries it. You believe her naive optimism whilst wanting to shake her out of it. And therein lies the problem. Despite the charm, Charity is a woman who is defined only by her relationship with men. Only at the film’s climax do we see a glimmer of hope that Charity could find out who she actually is without them.
Extras include an alternate ending (not a good one), a short documentary interview with Fosse, which is fascinating, a wonderful Super 8 version of the film plus trailer and a commentary. And the whole things looks shiny, colourful and bright in this Blu-ray edition.
