Benedito Dias Rodrigues
The Cardinal l'd watched in 1984 on TV,a overlong movie...in that time l didn't have any idea how meaning of the pictures itself...today after a long time l've the opportunity to re-watch this Otto Preminger's unknown movie and After almost three hours long l finally recognized this picture is really amazing...telling a story about a young priest in Boston until a high position in Catholic Church,the movie is showing in flashback since the beginning,all the facts one's most remarkable to me is about the Father Ned Halley played by Burgess Meredith who died in poverty...another was when he has to help a nigro priest in Georgia and has to confront the segregationist system in this town....the story through the time have many faces until the final....once more Otto Preminger proves as one's best directors for all times!!Underrated movie!!Resume:First watch: 1984 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8.5
GrigoryGirl
I'm not a major fan of Otto Preminger's work. I find much of his work too long and self important. But I was wonderfully surprised at how much I loved this film, and now it's my favorite Otto Preminger film.This is a wonderful film. It's moving, complex, literate, articulate, and surprisingly thought provoking. The subjects it tackles are still relevant today. The subject of faith, entering the priesthood, sacrifice to God, dealing with abortion, sex, racism, and church leaders and their dealings with politics are issues that haven't gone away, and Preminger handles them quite well without resorting to melodrama and sledgehammer points.The Cardinal moves along at a beautiful pace, and it feels like a grand novel, leisurely, but enthralling. Out of the entire film, there is maybe one or two scenes that are superfluous and could have been cut (the inclusion of a song in a vaudeville theater is one of them), but overall, all the scenes here are valid and tell the story. The film's dialogue is excellent, quite literate and intelligent. The film's score is very subtle, and it's never used as a cue on how to make the viewer feel. In fact, most of the scenes have no music.Preminger's mise en scene has never been better. His framing is immaculate, using long takes extremely well, giving the literate dialogue extra weight by making the viewer really concentrate. Quite often, too much cutting simplifies things, but luckily, Otto avoids that. The cinematography and the production design are magnificent. The film reminded me of, surprisingly, Luchino Visconti's The Leopard. Not in the story (Visconti's film was about the unification of Italy as seen through the eyes of an aristocratic family), but in the production design (which is sumptuous in both The Leopard and The Cardinal), framing, cinematography, and beautiful performances.Tom Tryon, a relative unknown here, is quite good as The Cardinal. He's in nearly every scene and he holds his own very well. Many found him boring, or as least too stoic, but I thought he was pretty damn near perfect. John Huston is great as a cranky but caring Bishop, Burgess Meredith is excellent as a dying priest, and Ossie Davis is great as a black Catholic priest. The scene in which Tryon confronts a racist town where Davis's parish resides is one of the most powerful scenes in the entire film. The film has an abortion scene (which was shocking for 1963, when the film was made), and it's still incredibly powerful and uncomfortable to watch. Some of the film is dated (mostly attitudes about marriage and social mores), but most of it is still valid today.The film is not as deep, mystical, or as intellectual as a Tarkovsky, Bergman, or de Oliveira film, but it comes surprisingly close, and it doesn't have the usual Preminger manufactured controversy. Here he doesn't do that, and makes what I believe is, if not his best film, certainly his most underrated. I recommend this film highly.
ianlouisiana
I don't think Otto Preminger ever made a really bad movie,but he skirted the abyss a few times and "The Cardinal" must be regarded as one of his narrow escapes.Catholicism remains a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century,and at the tine Mr Preminger shot this movie its influence was at its height in the United States with John Kennedy the most influential Catholic in the world after the Pope.A fortuitous happenstance that added to the appeal of a story of a young man's rise through the Church's hierarchy during a tumultuous phase of the 20th century. Non - Catholics may find it less than riveting as it suffers from Mr Preminger's customary grandiosity and the acting is decidedly low - key until the arrival of those two grand old hams messrs Huston and Meredith whose double act,I suspect,may save many agnostic viewers from the slough of despond. Where the movie brushes with history it becomes more interesting.There has been much debate about the Church's stance on Nazism and Civil Rights and these issues are presented straightforwardly. Mr Preminger may have been considered a safe pair of hands to translate a rather lumbering novel to the cinema,a man with a prestigious reputation capable of producing a respectful,well-crafted adaptation to the screen - which he certainly was.However,to the non - committed it remains one of the least personal of his works,in no way apparent as an example of the canon of one of the cinema's great eccentrics.
dowdosean
The stiffness in the telling marks the destiny of this confused tale. At times is quite simply, unendurable. The wooden rigidity of Tom Tryon makes things even harder to take. Unconvincing should be the polite way of putting it. Preminger shows an eye for the travelogue part but a total diffidence in the subject at hand. No feel for it at all. Solemnity shouldn't be the way but it is and a rather phony solemnity at that. At times, they all behave like creatures from another planet and nothing they say or do sounds or looks credible. The over long saga is told in little disjointed episodes, the only thing that remains constant is the inexpressive brow of Mr Tryon. Most of Otto Preminger's opus looks terribly dated now. "The Cardinal" is, perhaps, the most dated. Carol Linley goes from saintly sister to exotic dancer in one single throw and Romy Schnaider has a brief and calculated moment. If I had to save something it would be the scene in which John Huston goes to visit his dying friend Burgess Meredith. But those kind of moments are rare. For some reason that I haven't been able to figure out there is a long musical number by Robert Morse, but as absurd as it was, it came as a welcome change from the agonizing pace the film suffers through its interminable length.
