JOHN MARK - WRITER/NOVELIST/SCREENWRITER: July 2019

WHY MAKE AN EPIC ABOUT CHOPIN AND LISZT?

There are several great reasons to make such a great film:

One is that movie theaters can be used for other than potboiler type of movies we see every week in theaters and instead deliver the ultimate classical music concert on the highest level to millions of fans of classical music, and especially Chopin and Liszt who are so popular around the world.

Two is that it's the greatest love story ever told, as great as the love story portrayed by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet equally exciting and literary in equally exciting period of time that we all love and admire.

Third is that Liszt & Chopin In Paris is a sequel to two great movies that were already made and that were immensely popular in the 50’s and 60’s. The first one was Song To Remember directed by George Cukor with Cornell Wilde and it was about Chopin. The other was about Franz Liszt - starring Dirk Bogarde and Capucine and it was called Song Without End.

Both films were enormous hits during their day. Now, imagine a high-end Liszt & Chopin In Paris today with the best recording techniques, our amazing, superb talent, best costumes, best special effects, best technology, best director and the greatest stars in supporting roles bringing us inside and to the heart of the Romantic Age.

Historically, Liszt & Chopin In Paris could be a great movie on its own, on the scale ofTitanic as one of the biggest grossing movies of all time, because it is a great love story - but it can also stand as a sequel to those two films that were incredibly popular during their time.

But at the same time this is not like those films at all - both Chopin and Liszt are in the twenties literall, they are superstars and act more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and both take the City of Paris over with their amazing talent with a little help of their friends - Nicolo Paganini, Camile Pleyel and many others.

Liszt & Chopin In Paris is also a powerful synthesis of two previous films, although with a whole new story line and classical music that pre-recorded using latest recording techniques, and my expertise in classical music that I grew up featuring the true pyrotechnics of the piano like you never heard before.

Last time we heard classical piano and classical piano music performed like that was during the time of of Cortot and Hoffman. Unfortunately, no one can play like that today and the amazing virtuosity of Liszt and Chopin must come across as if the music was truly performed by young Liszt, and young Chopin not recorded by someone else. The recordings must also express the enigmatic poetry of the piano by Chopin, and the incredible virtuosity of Liszt.

This story is also steeped as an incredible and devouring epic about Liszt's powerful personality and about his friendship and their rivalry, in Chopin's trials and successes in the greatest city on Earth, the City of Lights in the most amazing period of time - The Romantic Age.

This is also a true story, about two greatest musicians that ever lived, with the greatest music every recorded for cinema. That's why filmmakers will always come back to this subject over and over again - until someone makes a true masterpieces about this period, about their lives and records the music that sounds like they were playing it.

Here are a couple of excellent pictures that were highly popular at the time of their release - Song To Remember and Song Without End.

This was the first film about Chopin directed by George Cukor right after WWII called Song To Remember and it was highly popular.

The second film starring Dirk Bogarde was about Franz Liszt and it was called Song Without End with Jorge Bolet performing piano music for the soundtrack.

Liszt & Chopin In Paris is the synthesis of the above two films into one incredibly dynamic story utilizing state of the art technology in recording the music as if it was truly performed by Chopin and Liszt as if they played it.

The following is a visualization from the scene of Liszt & Chopin In Paris - with the young Chopin performing in front of the Parisian crowd at Rothschild's house:

The music pre-recorded by John Mark for Liszt & Chopin In Paris - 4th CD entitled "Magical Moments" from 150th Anniversary Box-Set (Chopin's death in 1849) features all the selections for the film.

The soundtrack is a pre-amble demo to final release. The CD's were actually sold for very limited time online by Universal Studios via Universal Music Group (UMG) and immediately got tremendous amount of attention.

The recording was produced as a preamble to get an idea of the multitude of selections featured in the script for Liszt & Chopin In Paris, but it was an amazing tour de force featuring one the best recordings ever made for a motion picture.

This is is not a hyperbole.... Endorsements from around the world followed. and that's just on the music part of and the conceptual framework for the possible film project in development.

The piano - the greatest mechanical mastery ever devised by man, more complex than any Swiss watch, or computer ever built by man is one of the stars as it keeps listeners wondering on the edge of their seats through every note of Liszt's and Chopin's improvisations and through every scene in the movie.