La Symphonie Fantastique (Film 1942)

La Symphonie fantastique is a 1942 French drama film by Christian-Jaque and produced by the German-controlled French film production company Continental Films. Audio in French with English subtitles.

The film is based upon the life of the French composer Hector Berlioz. The title is taken from the five-movement programmatic Symphonie fantastique of 1830.

The cast included several members of the Comédie-Française (Barrault, Saint-Cyr, Seigner, Berthau, Delamare, Fonteney). As well as the symphony, the music used in the film includes the Invitation to the Dance by Weber, Roméo et Juliette (during the scene where Berlioz and Smithson fall in love), a staged excerpt from the first act of Benvenuto Cellini, the Rákóczi March from La damnation de Faust and the Requiem.

Cast & Characters:
Jean-Louis Barrault: Hector Berlioz
Renée Saint-Cyr: Marie Martin
Lise Delamare: Harriet Smithson
Jules Berry: Maurice Schlesinger
Bernard Blier: Antoine Charbonnel, friend of Berlioz
Gilbert Gil: Louis Berlioz (son)
Julien Bertheau: Victor Hugo
Catherine Fonteney: Berlioz’s mother
Louis Seigner: François Antoine Habeneck
Louis Salou: opera director
Georges Vitray: captain
Jacques Dynam:
Marcelle Monthil: Smithson’s dresser
Mona Dol: a maid
Maurice Schutz: Niccolò Paganini
Pierre Magnier: anatomy lecturer
Roland Armontel: Eugène Delacroix
Jean Darcante: Prosper Mérimée
René Fluet: Jules Janin
Georges Gosset: Alexandre Dumas
Joé Davray: a student
Georges Lafon: Russian minister
Martial Rèbe: Smithson’s coachman
Noël Roquevert: policeman
Lucien Coëdel: printer
Michel Vitold: conductor
Georges Mauloy: the dean