'Passion' DVD....zzzzzzzzzz

I just watched my Passion DVD and I'm so disapointed. I love Company and Sweeney Todd but this was kind of a let down. The music was lovely but I was so put off by Fosca's character. I've always disliked shows/films where a woman just grovels after a man at the expense of her own pride. I just wanted to smack her and say "snap out of it" (a la Cher in Moonstruck). In the end it just seemed to me that she only loved him because he was handsome and tolerated her. And he eventually cared for her because Clara dumped him and Fosca loved him more than anyone else had.

I dunno, the whole thing left me cold.

Can someone help me with this? I really wanted to love it.

First of all, I think Lapine didn't direct the show that well, and Jere Shea is not the best actor in the world, but I think the actual material is amazingly written.

Second of all, Clara hardly dumped Giorgio, it was the other way around. Giorgio saw that the love he had from Clara was not really love at all, so he broke it off with her.

And you talk about doing these things at the expense of her pride, but pride means nothing to Fosca...and in any case, Fosca is not a rational character, she operates completely on emotions.

I'm very sad you didn't like it :0(

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I disagree. I think this is one of the best films of a stage musical, ever.

I happen to love it. Fosca is not supposed to be a loveable character until a little later in the show. If you read the book you realize they made Fosca a lot nicer in the play - you want to like her. In the book she's even more of a martyr.
Its a tough one to get used to, but hopefully you'll learn to love it.

I guess it depends how much you relate to the character too...
I sort of feel like I understand her. Not everyone does. But trust me, I've felt a lot of the things that she said aloud. She's very human.

If you think about it, in the sewing scene, she seems like a sort of cold. But, if you think about it, this guys has been being nice to her for awhile, yes, she knows it's not entirely genuine, but she wants to belive it so badly that she puts that aside. Then she recieves this cold cold letter...

What would you do if you one day recieved a letter from someone you loved, even if unrequitedly, calling you and your love for them tacky.

While you understand Giorgio's point of view, and why he wrote the letter the way he did, it's actually a very cruel letter. Especially for someone to write to a dying woman. Giorgio is all she has, and he rebuffs her.

Fosca comes from a very lonely place. I guess it's not easy for everyone to understand her if they've never quite been in that place.

You have to really imagine her, and think about her, to come close to understanding her.

Sweeney is a lot more obvious to understand. I think it's a less-flawed show and brilliant, but I also love the understatedness of Passion. My two favorite shows.

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It really is a tough one to like right away. You need to let it marinate and then watch it again.

The score is so amazing. I fell in love with it on a first listen!

Something I had trouble coming to terms with was Georgio actually falling for Fosca. Does he fall in love with her or with the attention? It seemed like there was no indication that he had any romantic feelings for her until Clara puts it into his head. And when he sings "No One Has Ever Loved Me" it seems like he is saying just that-he likes the attention. He never says anything specific that he loves about Fosca as a person.

Maybe I'd get something else from watching it again-Donna Murphy plays such an unlikeable character but I still loved her in it, and Marin Mazie is absolutely gorgeous!

PerForMeg -- it's an interesting question of why Giorgio falls in love with Fosca. On the London cast recording, there's a song that I don't think is in the Broadway version (I listen to the London one WAY more because the cast is so fantastic). Giorgio sings:
"No one has ever loved me,
As that woman has.
No one has truly loved me, till Fosca.
Love without reason, love without mercy,
Love without pride or shame,
Love unconcerned with being returned,
No wisdom, no judgement, no caution, no blame.
No one has ever known me as that woman has....
I was wrong, love's a demand, I was wrong.
Love needn't grow,
LOVE CAN BE SUDDEN SURRENDER NOT TENDER NOT SLOW
AND I KNOW NOW THAT I LOVE FOSCA.
Not the way that she loves me,
But I love Fosca, and nothing will come of it."

From this, I would gather two things. 1)The love he feels for her just hits him -- which is kind of the point of the whole show. His meetings with Clara were PLANNED, his love with her was very regulated. This love with Fosca is beyond control, beyond planning or organizing. In other words, THERE IS NO explanation for it. 2) Love sometimes does come as a result of someone else looking at you in a way that others don't. I think most people's reaction to a love like Fosca's would be one of two things: repulsion or attraction. Her love was extreme, so his reaction had to match it. Repulsion changed into love BECAUSE Giorgio realized that Fosca's love was the opposite of what he had with Clara -- what he mistook for love from her, wasn't really love. She would not compromise for it, she wouldn't leave her husband -- she was bound to societal rules. Fosca was the opposite -- devoted and raw -- it was a powerful force that he had never experienced before.

I hope that makes sense -- or at least gives you something to think about...

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It's weird, Passion hooked me from the first listen. SUNDAY IN THE PARK hasn't completely grown on me yet.

Updated On: 8/22/05 at 12:58 AM

ljay, I'm the very same way. Passion I got after watching it 2 years after my first viewing (the first time I liked Donna's phenomenal acting, and I liked it, but I didn't fall in love with it.) I'm working on Sunday. I've only seen it 2 times though so I'm giving it another go.

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Fosca does not grovel. She simply knows their love is right. She has faith. She has hope. And, hell, she gets what she wants, right?

I think the film version, and the show itself, is simply amazing. The score is BEAUTIFUL, and I think all three of the principal characters on the DVD are extrememly well-done (and not like a steak). The lyrics make me cry everytime. "Loving you is not a choice. It's who I am." In my opinion, one of the greatest love showtunes, if not songs, ever.

As for you're dislike of Fosca, well, all I can say is, don't read her book. I find her one of the most fascinating and complex characters ever written; one that I will always aspire to play.

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Passion is indeed, in my book, a masterpiece. The score is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and moving, and its themes of love and beauty are immortal. It's a musical that makes one think, reflect and take in a lot of interesting notions about life in general (at least that's what it did for me!)

IMHO, Fosca is one of the most amazing female characters ever written for any medium. I can also, in a way, relate to her obsesiveness, and I find it very human.

For me, it took watching the DVD to really get hooked - listening to the cast recording itself was good, but after watching it I really got what it was about and fell in love completely. It is now my absolute favorite musical.

*Edited to say that I really like people's responses to this thread! I'm so happy to see there are more people who feel like I do about it, and can analyse it so well.

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Updated On: 8/22/05 at 03:09 AM