Constance, a poor but aspiring composer, meets the great conductor, Franz, through their old music teacher. They fall in love, despite Constance knowing about Franz's weakness for pretty women.
Katharine Hepburn Charles Boyer John Beal Jean Hersholt Sam Hardy Inez Courtney Helene Millard Ferdinand Gottschalk Susan Fleming Lee Kohlmar Jean Howard Anne Grey Lowden Adams Gino Corrado Jay Eaton Dick Elliott Sam Hayes Eddie Kane Cornelius Keefe Ray Mayer Torben Meyer Bert Moorhouse Edmund Mortimer Broderick O'Farrell Inez Palange Jack Rice Jason Robards Sr. Adrian Rosley Alexander Schoenberg Show All…
Corazones en ruinas, Komödie um Liebe, Corações em Ruínas, Hjertets Stemme, Corazones rotos, Cors trencats, Coeurs brisés, Ragismenes kardies, Eszményi asszony, Quando si ama, Sužalotosios širdys, Forsmådd, Corações Desfeitos, Du är min hela värld, Pripadam tebi, Ask Senfonisi, Cœurs brisés, Разбитые сердца
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For a film that is explicitly about matters of the heart, there is something half-hearted about Break of Hearts. Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer, though individually good, display no true chemistry. You can’t discern why they are so wholly smitten with each other - the script certainly fails to provide proper insight. Their falling into rapture is too rapid, as is their falling out of it. The ‘infidelities’ that occur are merely mild flirtations, yet, despite Kate knowing from the outset that Charlie has an eye for the ladies, they cause the world to collapse in on the couple.
Hepburn is in her early perky phase, oft glistening of eye, the angular contours of her face constructed in a lab…
well, at least it was short. tcm kate hepburn pride month breaking out the deep cuts, i see! too bad i actually hated this one. like yes every time it cut to a close-up of kate’s face i clapped and hooted and hollered like a trained seal, but every other second of this film was a slog. she puts up with the walking red flag factory for entirely too long!! it’s at the very least a novelty to see her play against type, but dear christ how i longed for her to grow a backbone. it was so surreal to watch KATE HEPBURN of all people just sort of swan around, forsaking her morals and personal fulfillment for such an absolute rat fink of a man. might fuck around and start a franz roberti hate club. hmu to talk shit about this long-dead culturally irrelevant fictional douchebag
Katharine Hepburn was in a weird spot here. She’s typecast as the innocent wide-eyed girl that’s head-over-heels for the talented composer who happens to be an asshole womanizer on the side. The other Hepburn film I’ve seen from 1935 was Sylvia Scarlett, and that performance is night-and-day from the one here. Hepburn doesn’t feel like Hepburn here. Maybe it’s because I haven’t seen the few films that came before this. Anyways, this movie is pretty bland and generic melodrama. Nothing memorable, and no real reason to watch it unless you’re keen on watching as much Katharine Hepburn or Charles Boyer as possible.
“She was beautiful. And wise! That’s something a woman should never be: wise.”
😒
Break of Hearts is melodrama out the wazoo.
Katherine Hepburn is endearing, but isn’t all that memorable. She looks WAY too much like Garbo in this film, with the way her hair is done, the way she carries herself, the way she is lit. Everything screams Greta Garbo. The only difference is Hepburn’s idiosyncratic voice.
To my great bewilderment, Charles Boyer was considered to be one of the greatest actors of his time. I don’t know how. His voice has a thick French accent that becomes too distracting. In short, he is a great actor, but not a great voice.
Unless you want to see all…
Break of Hearts is a forgotten early Katharine Hepburn film which was a critical and commercial failure. Hepburn's very good performance in Break of Hearts is not the film's problem, nor is costar Charles Boyer's; instead, it's the material that makes Hepburn such a weak character and Boyer an unlikeable hypocrite unworthy of a second chance. I did like moments of the story, and I thought the diagetic music was nicely incorporated. However, I simply could not get over Hepburn's character throwing away her chance at happiness in exchange for guaranteed misery.
The economy of 30s Hollywood storytelling usually counts as one of its distinctive triumphs, but here the feeling we're skipping through the highlight reel of a deteriorating relationship mostly plays like an easy way out of the hard work of depicting the nuances of human feeling and behavior - first Boyer and Hepburn are losing themselves in love, now he's philandering, now he's an alcoholic, now she's feigning fidelity to the third-wheeliest of third wheels (John Beal). Initially the movie presents both characters as artists (he's a conductor, she's a composer) whose passions relate directly to their talents, but as the movie drifts toward its finale, she transforms into a patient, suffering witness to his faltering brilliance, her ambitious artistry…
If Katharine was alive right now and I would tell her that I watched this movie in ratched ass quality on YouTube just to see her face, she would probably laugh at me lol.
BUT I liked this movie actually a lot
HATE it when a movie shows Katharine Hepburn sitting at a man's feet. Everyone involved should be prosecuted!!!
"These are the things I've learned ... how to live.. how to be gay...to life.. to love... to all the things you've taught me"
The camera man deserves an award for the countless beautiful close-ups of Katharine- This was a role that was quite different to most of her films in the 1930's, her character seemed to me a lot more vulnerable, and also showed a lot more affection than many other films so in this regard it was good to see. Overall, I wasn't really impressed with the storyline.
This is one of those movies where the majority of the plot wouldn't have happened if the two main characters had just pulled their heads out of their asses and talked to each other. I am not a fan of those movies. Hepburn is very good though and my two stars are for her. Boyer seemed off for me -- it felt like he was either all in or completely disinterested which is unusual and it was a bit distracting.
