Galileo (1975 film)

Joseph Losey had a long relationship with Bertolt Brecht that commenced in the 1930s and culminated with the 1947 stage performances of Galileo. After these, Losey mainly worked as a film director. Losey was blacklisted in the US in the early 1950s due to his political activities, which effectively ended his career in the US film industry. He emigrated to England, where he was able to re-establish his career.[6] Over the years he made several efforts to produce a film based on Brecht's play.[7] These were finally realized when Losey was engaged to direct a film of Galileo for the 1974–1975 season of the American Film Theatre. In its two seasons, American Film Theater presented thirteen film adaptations based on well-known plays. By design, these were not films of stage productions — they were plays "translated to the film medium, but with complete faithfulness to the original play script."[8] While the films were intended for US movie theaters, Galileo was produced in England.[9][10]

The screenplay for Galileo was written by Barbara Bray and Losey. Bray had a long career as an editor, translator, and critic. She is also noted as the longtime companion and mistress of Samuel Beckett, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Besides Galileo, she wrote two other screenplays with Losey.[11] Their screenplay for Galileo relies primarily on the "American" version of Brecht's play that was first performed in 1947. This English language version was written between 1944 and 1947 by Brecht with Charles Laughton, his collaborator and translator. The play was produced in Los Angeles, California and then in New York City, with Laughton (a famed film actor) starring as Galileo. The play was first published in 1952.[12] Bray and Losey's screenplay made changes in this version that reflect the ultimate 1956 "Berlin version" (in German), as well as the English translation of the Berlin version and additional materials published by Ralph Manheim and John Willett in 1972.[9][13] Scene 14 from the 1947 play was dropped from the film version.

Casting for the American Film Theatre films was unusual. As described by Raymond Benson, "The talent (directors, actors, designers, technicians) was asked to work at a reduced rate or at scale. No one refused. It was for a cause they all thought was worthwhile. Lee Marvin, for example, joked that he 'lost $225,000' by starring in The Iceman Cometh (which meant he did the movie for only $25,000—his going rate at the time was $250,000)."[8]

For Galileo, Losey and producer Ely Landau were able to secure several well-known actors for roles major and minor:

• Topol played Galileo Galilei. He had enjoyed great popularity after his starring role in the film production of Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
• Georgia Brown played the Ballad Singer's wife. Brown was noted for her work in musical theater (she was nominated for a Tony Award for Oliver! in 1963, and as a film actress (she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for The Raging Moon (1971)).
• Edward Fox played the Cardinal Inquisitor. His work with Losey on The Go-Between (1971) had won him a BAFTA award.
• Sir John Gielgud played the Old Cardinal. He had been knighted in 1953 for his distinguished acting career.
• Margaret Leighton played an elderly Court Lady. Her work with Losey on The Go-Between (1971) had won her a BAFTA award and an Oscar nomination.
• Tom Conti played the adult Andrea Sarti. In the first scenes, Sarti is a child and the son of Galileo's housekeeper. As an adult he is Galileo's protege.
• Patrick Magee played Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, an historical figure in the Galileo affair who was sympathetic to Galileo's scientific work, but warned him to avoid explicit conflict with the church doctrine. Bellarmine had been one of the judges at the trial of Giordano Bruno for heresy by the Roman Inquisition. Among the charges against Bruno was his espousal of "cosmic pluralism", which holds that the earth is only one of many planets. Following Bruno's conviction, he was burned at the stake in 1600. There are several allusions to this event in Brecht's play.
• John McEnery played Federzoni. Nominated for a BAFTA Award for Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968).
• Michael Lonsdale played the historical figure of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623. In the film, while Barberini is protective of Galileo when he is a Cardinal, after he becomes Pope he sanctions Galileo's trial by the Roman Inquisition.
• Clive Revill played the Ballad Singer. Revill had worked with Losey previously on Modesty Blaise (1966).
• Job Stewart played a Monk-Scholar.

Hanns Eisler (left) and Bertolt Brecht, his close friend and collaborator, East Berlin, 1950.

For the 1947 stage production, Hanns Eisler composed music for a series of songs that were sung by a trio of boys at the beginning of each of the fourteen different scenes of the play. In addition, the ninth scene is a musical entertainment occurring on April Fool's Day, 1632. Historically, 1632 was one year before Galileo was convicted of heresy by the Roman Inquisition. The Ballad Singer and his wife sing about Galileo's effect on civil order to a rowdy crowd. Eisler composed the music for the ballad, which included orchestration for seventeen instruments. A recording of Eisler himself singing this ballad has been released, together with many other recordings related to the collaboration of Laughton, Brecht, and Eisler.[14] Since 1930, Eisler had been Brecht's close friend and collaborator, and their collaboration continued after they had both decamped from Hollywood to East Berlin.[15]

The film retains both the songs for boys' voices and the ballad. During production of the film, it was discovered that the scores for most of the instruments in Eisler's orchestration of the ballad were lost. Losey had Richard Hartley finish the orchestration anew.[16] The Ballad Singer was played by Clive Revill, and his wife by Georgia Brown. The orchestra is apparently uncredited.

Joseph Losey had been the director for the 1947 theatrical productions. He was selected by Brecht himself, and he gained an intimate knowledge of Brecht's intentions for the play. Referring to the first production in Los Angeles, John Houseman said later, "Joe was to be the director of this, which really meant ... that actually Brecht would produce and direct himself with aid from Charles Laughton."[17] James Lyon comments that "Because he was willing to learn, Losey qualified as Brecht's kind of director. He seems to have been one of the rare theater and film people in America who recognized Brecht's genius at once and at least partially understood him."[17] Losey produced and directed the subsequent New York production after Brecht had left the US. He wrote at the time, "It is such a great play, so clean and clear and architectural ... what I have worked for and prepared for my entire life."[18]

In Losey's film version he maintained several theatrical concepts that had been part of the 1947 theatrical production. These included the use of a trio of young boys whose songs preview parts of the plot, and also the staging of Galileo's recantation against a shadow-filled white screen (cyclorama).[19] Losey's opening shot, an overhead view of the film sound stage, also calls attention to the theatricality of the production. At times, the film's characters speak directly at the camera to address the audience.

Losey's long-time collaborator Reginald Beck was the film's editor. Critic Tom Milne remarked that the "smooth theatrical continuity tends to blunt the raw edges of Brecht's distancing effects".[20]