User Reviews

If you're not a Liza Minnelli fan, don't even bother because despite the other talent involved, this is her show (and not a very good one -- father Vincente Minnelli, the director, very wisely disowned the edited picture). This isn't one to watch for Minnelli's acting (like "The Sterile Cuckoo" or "Cabaret") or even her charm ("Arthur," "Stepping Out"), but her voice is incredible. While the songs (except for Gershwin's "Do It Again") are middling, Minnelli's delivery makes you forget how silly the story and her character are. Mother Judy had better songs to sing, but Liza's instrument was phenomenal at its peak.

On the plus side is Ingrid Bergman as the aging contessa. She's so at ease and has so much fun as the grande dame that it's impossible not to love her -- again. Reunited briefly with Charles Boyer more than 30 years after their first pairing (in "Gaslight"), she has on-screen history working for her in her playful scene with him. (Watch the melodramatic "Arch of Triumph" if you really want to see Bergman and Boyer connect.)

Another reason to watch is for the film debut of Bergman's daughter, Isabella Rossellini. She's barely in "A Matter of Time" -- and you can barely tell it's her under her nun's habit -- but seeing her luminous face next to her mother's has the feeling of the passing of a torch, or at the very least a blessing. To give you an idea of the kind of cornball humor at work here, Rossellini's character is called Sister Pia; the actress's real-life sister, of course, is Bergman's daughter Pia Lindstrom.

Ingrid Bergman is excellent in this unfortunate misfire, gruesomely "re-edited" by the clueless American-International studio. Vincente Minnelli disowned the finished project, and other directors (such as Martin Scorsese) took out ads in Variety protesting the re-cutting of the project. Liza's performance is all over the place, although she does have a few affecting moments. Overall, an intriguing mess.

I saw this when it first came out and haven't seen it since. I do remember that some of it was typically Minnelli-beautifully composed and gorgeous, other parts were obviously stock footage and not very attractive at all. The whole film had a disjointed air to it which wasn't surprising since it was well known before the movie was released that "the powers that be" took the film out of Minnelli's hands in post-production. What a shame-even if the film wasn't first rate I certainly would've preferred to see Minnelli's version. I vividly remember the "Do it Again" number. I thought it was beautifully done and the equal of Minnelli's work in his heyday. I've never seen it included in any of the documentaries on Minnelli's work and it should be. Just because the movie as a whole isn't perfect it doesn't mean that some parts aren't worthwhile.

It is not hard to understand why this movie has never been released on anything but 16mm, which is how I came to see it. This movie is a bit too eccentric to actually accomplish it's purpose. The acting is much too stylized and emphatic with the plot rather weak. The interest in this film lies in the fact that has many firsts and lasts. It is Charles Boyer's last film, and Isabella Rossellini's first. It is also the last film that Vincent Minnelli directed, and close to the end of Ingrid Bergman's career. Other than that there is little to recommend it, but it does have some interesting footage of Rome. It is about a chamber maid who gains employment in Rome taking care of a declining socialite who once strutted across the world stage but who is now on the rocks. She is unable to accept being a has-been and continues to live in her mind as though she is still the consort of emperors. Her new chamber maid Liza Minnelli tries to support her as well as she can, although it is a hopeless task.

Director Vincente Minnelli's final bow--one that was taken out of his hands by nervous studio chiefs and rearranged completely, resulting in disaster. The main plot, about an eccentric Contessa taking an Italian chambermaid under her wing, is fairly intriguing and well-performed (especially by a luminous Ingrid Bergman). However, the film, as it now stands, stupidly uses all the main action as a flashback, framed by useless footage of the chambermaid--now an international celebrity--riding around in limos and giving gooey advice to fawning youngsters. It's a near-travesty. I did enjoy the bits of fantasy that allow Liza Minnelli's character to travel about in her imagination, putting herself in the Contessa's place; and much of Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography is truly evocative (like all those black birds taking flight at once as seen from Bergman's window). But the bungled editing doesn't allow this thing to ever come together or absorb the audience. It's no wonder this was a box-office failure. *1/2 from ****

So much talent behind and in front of the camera to lay such a big egg. The whole thing reeks of decay and that seeps into the tenor of the film. There's no strong narrative flow to the film just a collection of scenes that lead nowhere. Liza is all over the place and only registers in a positive way twice, in the final hospital scene and most of all during the musical performance of the song Do It Again-really her only powerful moment. Of interest more for its cast of second generation performers than any merit or entertainment value of the actual film. Beside Liza there's a brief appearance of Isabella Rossellini in her screen bow and as Liza's cousin Tina Aumont, who was the daughter of B movie star Maria Montez and Jean-Pierre Aumont. Nonsensical mess was the unfortunate swan song of both Vincente Minnelli and Charles Boyer. Such a missed opportunity.

A big disappointment, but with the talent involved, this movie couldn't not be worth a look - Bergman, the Minnellis, Boyer's brief cameo, a John Gay screenplay (which evidently went awry and became something of a muddled mess) and Geoffrey Unsworth (though time hasn't been kind to his cinematography, which looks murky now). Something was definitely missing here, and I had trouble keeping track of who was who among several of the characters. Bergman was an interesting combination of Auntie Mame and The Madwoman of Chaillot. Liza's in great voice here: the two Kander and Ebb songs aren't bad at all, and "Do It Again" was superb (we know who she must have been thinking of), but where do the songs fit into this muddle? Was it intended as a semi-musical? And why does Liza Minnelli (as Nina) suddenly take Bergman's place as the Countess in the 'flashbacks' - are these supposed to be scenes from Nina's film, or merely in Nina's head? Also, the movie is supposedly set in 1949 but has no period feel or look at all - it looks like 1976. The soundtrack - music and dialog both - sounds like it was almost entirely post-synched, and is reminiscent of one of those bad Italian sword-and-sandal or horror movies of the 1960s or, what's worse, like one of those imported "art films" (the X-rated variety).

Vincente Minnelli in his farewell film as director got to direct daughter Liza. When the film opened up with Liza doing a full production number, I thought we had another Cabaret for Liza. Sad to say that that number and another one Liza did are the highlights of the film. When the players stop singing and dancing and get down to dialog, the film becomes rather pedestrian.

I don't think Ingrid Bergman ever got a handle on her character as the eccentric countess living on dreams and charity. Possibly Minnelli was concentrating too much on his daughter. Minnelli a country girl from rural Italy comes to Rome and gets a job as a chambermaid in a posh hotel courtesy of her cousin Tina Aumont. There Ingrid Bergman playing a slightly daft countess kind of takes her under her wing. Liza blossoms but Ingrid becomes more daft, Ingrid is just this side of Norma Desmond. Minnelli goes up and Ingrid goes down.

In addition to being the last film Vincente Minnelli directed this was also the farewell performance of Charles Boyer who co-starred with Bergman in Gaslight and Arch Of Triumph when they were big box office. Boyer plays a brief role as a former husband of Bergman, stopping by to see how she was doing.

See this one for Liza and her numbers.

The biggest tragedy of this film is that American Independent Pictures pulled the rug on the ageing Minnelli during his directorial work. Rumours abound about how much over budget he was - but then AIP always funded cheap productions - and this could never be.

The original French novel is languorous, passionate, compelling and exciting, telling the story of how a country girl goes to work in a hotel and meets the Countess Santziani, a legendary star in her day, but who has fallen on hard times.

Bergman plays the role of the Countess with all her usual dignity, but having to let go to be the near-mad Countess. She is fabulously over the top and Liza plays the awe-struck Nina with her usual flair, finally rising to the stardom that comes her way. The cameo role of Charles Boyer adds a touch of period nostalgia.

When seeing the film, it is easy to see Minnelli's rich direction, what a pity that it is intercut with stock footage, which clashes horribly with the passion that Minnelli could still bring to directing his daughter and Bergman.

The story is fantastic - but so is the novel. With a couple of songs by Kander and Ebb, it's a pity that it could not have been completed by the late master.

Still, it is a rare treat - and beats a number of other musicals from that same period.

How could the final film to be directed by Vincente Minnelli, for which he got to direct his daughter, Liza, and 1 starring Ingrid Bergman, for which her daughter, Isabella Rossellini, got to play her nurse, turn out to basically suck lemons?!? Just try and watch it all the way to the end (Liza's second singing bit comes near the end, and those two musical moments are the only bright spots in this dreadful film, although the movie itself is not a musical). I gave this 3-4 star (out of 10) movie an extra star because I love Ingrid without reservation, and Isabella would turn out to be darned good, too, but it's just a gift. Mr. Minnelli apparently spent his time encouraging Liza to over-emote (and hence overact), while ignoring his stars (even, in a bit part, Charles Boyer's last movie appearance), their roles and motivations. Watch "Cabaret" instead.

Film star Nina (Liza Minnelli) remembers her early days as a maid in an Italian hotel. There are many eccentric guests including Contessa Sanziani (Ingrid Bergman) who is longtime estranged from her husband Count Sanziani (Charles Boyer).

This is the last film from director Vincente Minnelli, Liza's father. This is rather flat. Maybe it could have been turned into a full fletch musical. Liza keeps singing but as a musical, it keeps holding back. Maybe it could strip away all the jumping around to get to a simple female friendship story. There is a dullness to the rundown hotel set. The various eccentric guests have an uncontrolled randomness to it all. The 'rape' scene shocked me at first. It's a bit of a mess. There is a good film here somewhere.

Both Vincente Minnelli's attempt to go out on a high note and Sam Arkoff's attempt to be Sam Spiegel end badly here. Of the two I actually feel sorrier for the AIP head since his was by far the more desperate try.

On the Canadian comedy show SCTV, which debuted in the mid-70s, Andrea Martin played a slightly fictionalized version of Liza named Lorna Manelli, complete with exaggerated head turns and that distinct way of turning her hands palms out and putting them in front of her face. There is little doubt now what inspired that characterization. The boys on the Farm Film Report blew her up real good.

Decades later on another show called Made In Canada (aka The Industry) Emily Hampshire played Siobhan, the spoiled rotten daughter of studio head Alan Roy, played by Peter Keleghan. Siobhan went around, in character, talking about her star turn in a bio-pic of Liza named Me And Liza or something. Anyway, genius of the episode was that it the pampered, indulged, petulant, and dare I say, talentless daughter of the studio head was starring in a bio-pic of the....well, you get the idea, except of course Liza's dad was Vincent Minelli.

Anyway, I fail to see the appeal of Liza, except when she played Lucille 2 on Arrested Development, where she played what I'd like to think was a slightly exaggerated version of herself.

Oh, this movie is a mess. Interesting to look at in a gauzy way. But still a gigantic mess.

Imagine it: one of the biggest superstars in the world...a silver screen icon who had recently won an Oscar...a director whose films had won countless awards and become favorites the world over... What could go wrong? In a word, everything. First and foremost, when it comes to discussing the myriad reasons why this surefire hit was a flop for the ages, one need look no further than the studio behind it: American International Pictures. Like The Cannon Group/Golan Globus Productions in the 1980's, AIP had a problem: they were proud purveyors of grindhouse fare - lots of sex, bikers, horror, action, and cheap gore - but longed for respectability, something they thought they finally had with Vincent Minnelli and a fairy-tale sort-of-musical fantasy. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Minnelli - the man who helmed such classics as "Meet Me In St Louis", "The Clock", and "Gigi", just to name only a few - was long, LONG past his prime, as evidenced by the production problems during the filming of the 1970 Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand musical, "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" (which also featured a fantasy angle). As had happened on that musical, Minnelli's initial finished product ran roughly 3 hours and was wildly overbudget, resulting in that studio (Columbia) to wrest the film from him and trim it without his input. Fast-forward 5-6 years and a repeat performance: his final film was removed from his control and reedited by the studio. Oftentimes, it's bewildering why a studio hires a visionary, only to get cold feet when said visionary creates something; however, upon viewing "A Matter of Time" (or "Nina", as it was known in some European countries), it's all too easy to see why AIP had gotten scared, for the final product is, I'm so very sad to say, a mess. The Cinderella-esque fairy-tale story of a simple hotel maid who befriends an old Countess and is then discovered by a movie producer and becomes a star has been told numerous times, and should provide every opportunity for movie magic yet again, especially considering the talent both behind and on the screen; alas, it's all for naught: where the story should be light and magical, it thuds. Where there should be wonder, there is bewilderment. Whatever powers Minnelli once possessed to bewitch an audience have seemingly disappeared because everything has the distinct feeling of being JUST THAT LITTLE BIT 'OFF', and that extends to the dubbing. Being a co-production of Italy and America, a most definite European flavor is weaved throughout the film, and, like so many Italian features, the dubbing is all-too-obvious and quite poorly done, an issue not helped by non-existent sound effects (apparently, people in this movie don't breathe, make sounds when moving about, no one chatters in the background, etc.). Making matters so much worse is the cinematography: at least on the copy I've seen (Amazon Prime Video and other locations), it's viewable only in 4:3 aspect ratio (at one time known as 'full-screen' on older DVD's) and alternately impossibly grainy and weirdly blurry (Minnelli's films often had that Vaseline-lensed look that worked impeccably in the past to give a dreamy quality), spoiling the effect of the quite-obvious glamour on screen, as well as the fantasy itself (it's hard to feel wonder when what you're seeing looks bedraggled). As for the stars - and, really, despite the other folks sharing the screen, this belongs to its leads, Liza Minnelli and Ingrid Bergman (Charles Boyer does show up briefly but, honestly, doesn't make much of an impression beyond lending some class and movie-star clout to the proceedings) - Bergman comes off best as the Countess, a woman at one time the toast of Europe and now reduced to living out her days in an old hotel; she plays the part big but doesn't overdo it, for the most part, and her costume is effective; Liza isn't quite as successful here, though she's still charming and gives it her all: her performance is a bit scattershot. To be completely honest, there's the impression that she is at once so proud to be finally making a film with her father and yet overwhelmed by what surely had to have been the realization the troubles he was having (he later died of Alzheimer's and it's quite possible some of those symptoms were already on display); she overplays some scenes, as she sometimes did in other films, but, as stated, she's also clearly thrilled to be making a movie with her dad. Sadly, the poor cinematography and occasional glitches in costuming (the Venician fantasy sequence where she is adorned in a black curly wig) aren't always flattering for Liza, and while it's nice that her buddies Kander and Ebb lend a couple of songs here for her, neither of those is at all memorable. The overwhelming sense one gets throughout every frame of this film is that of the missed opportunity: what should have been Minnelli's beautiful swan song instead is a lead balloon, a misfire, a miscalculation, but one that wasn't all the fault of American International Pictures, who took, and retain, the position of The Bad Guy, stealing the film from a venerable old master and chopping it to bits. No, the saddest part is that the film was doomed from the moment Minnelli became involved, for while this master had created so many indelible scenes throughout the previous decades, his talents - once so prodigious - now seemed at once lost and terribly and irrevocably outdated. It joins the number of other misbegotten 1970's musicals, such as "Lost Horizon", "At Long Last Love", and "The Blue Bird", that remain cinematic curiosities directed by great directors at the end of their careers as well as 'should-have-been' classics that never were.

Nina, as it is known in Italy, is probably not a masterpiece, but it is full of enchanting and affecting moments, mostly involving Bergman's grand countess. There's a number of concessions to the fashionable cinematic effects of the time (the '70s weren't the best of times for period recreation unless you were Visconti or Kubrick) but this is a film with a genuine and generous heart - best expressed by the beautiful, moving and haunting score composed by the great Nino Oliviero (of MORE fame). It's one of the best music scores for a film ever and a particular favourite of mine: it will stay in your heart and memory long after you have seen NINA.

Think what this movie could have been had it been done in the 1950s. The Contessa would have been a perfect role for Ethel Barrymore and the girl could have been a star-making role for Leslie Caron, Julie Andrews, Yvette Mimieux or Audrey Hepburn. The film shares elements with the Mademoiselle sequence in Minnelli's film The Story of Three Loves, but sadly, this movie doesn't deliver. It could be remade with someone like Rita Moreno or Ann Margret as the Contessa and Amanda Seifried as the girl. (Maybe she's too old for the role now). Minnelli's last film should have been terrific. It just isn't.

A shame she couldn't exchange it.

This film is a fail. The meandering script. The horrible songs. It is a silly Cinderella story about a hotel maid who gets a screen test and becomes a famous star overnight. Unbelievable. No one shows up for a screen test with their original nose, least of all Liza Minnelli.

There are some bright spots. Bergman is magnificent as the contessa who lost her marbles. She is regal, enchanting and pathetic all at once. There are beautiful shots f Rome. Finally, Liza get a flattering bra to wear. A first.

A matter of Time (NINA) is a film for dreamers. Yes, the originals reviews was bads, maybe because there not a film for this time. Is a magical movie without age, with a terrific performace of Liza Minelli and Ingrid Bergman. I have the luck to see the film in cinema in a retrospective of Vincent Minelli and I love the film. Maybe the films is not a jewel of the cinematography, but have all the magic of greatest talents like Liza, Ingrid and Vincent.

"if you're not an original, you are nothing." OK, so i don't remember if that was word for word but hands down, the best quote ever. i loved it! but that being said, i do think this movie could've been done a little better. yeah, we get that nina got to be as great as the contessa said she would be from how the beginning of the movie starts and through various flash-forward clips throughout, but i would've liked to see how nina got to be that way after the contessa died. or even to just see more moments of nina and the contessa together, the contessa teaching her "the ways," because there weren't really enough scenes or incidences that showed the two together, only that nina grew to love and really care for the contessa. but i did love the movie none-the-less. i want to be a contessa when i grow up!

All of the production problems and the casting peccadilloes not withstanding A Matter of Time – 1976, is fun, fun, fun. This is really the highest form of camp. Sally Bowles as the sterile cuckoo goes to a fancy dress ball with bits of existentialism sprinkled hither and yon which was the angst, albeit upbeat, style of the mid-1970s. It is as if everybody is in on it except these condemnatory reviewers and possibility anyone under thirty-nine-years of age. We have to know that Vincent Minnelli and his daughter at some point knew exactly the effect this would have on all. I can't be sure it started out with this in mind but at some point during production camping it up became the intention of the day. Was it subconscious? We could try to get a perspective from Miss Minnelli but there is no need to bother her, really. It's thirty-five-years later and I am surprised you guys don't get it. It is quite simply, the highest of ball-gowned-Marie-Antoinette-wigged-Erte-donned, high camp.

I watched this for the names. I stayed for the names. I enjoyed it as an old woman filled with happy memories of Movies, Directors and Artisans past. That is why many came and viewed 'A Matter of Time'. I am certain this could have been great had they left it to Vincente Minnelli to completely craft. Shame on you American-International. No, does not contain any spoilers here, I feel. Have a blessed day and enjoy the movies!!! 🎥🎬