A Matter of Time

PG

1976

1 hr. 39 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

50%

10 Reviews

Tomatometer

30%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

During a press conference, international star Nina (Liza Minnelli) remembers simpler times, flashing back to her days as a maid in a run-down Italian hotel. As a young woman, Nina befriends Contessa Sanziani (Ingrid Bergman), an elderly woman who entertains Nina with memories of her vibrant, wealthy life with Count Sanziani (Charles Boyer). Inspired by her tales of success, young Nina fantasizes about her own adventures and seeks to find the same excitement in her life.

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Audience Member

The current showing copy of the film on TCM seems to have bad quality. But Bergman's late performance is worth to watch anyway.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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. 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.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Audience Member

hands down vincente minnelli's worst pic and his last too bad he ended it with this mess.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

I found myself positively bored out of my mind.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Audience Member

Sad end to the great career of Vincent Minnelli. Awful editing, silly performance by Liza, not much music - a waste of time.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

What a travesty. First they took a beautiful book called The Film of Memory by Maurice Druon; they stripped it of all its' poetry and drama and everything unique and interesting about it. Then they hired Liza Minnelli to play a part she was wrong for; and, frankly, did the same thing for Ingrid Bergman - only for Ingrid they added insult to injury by putting her in a ridiculous white wig that didn't match her black painted on eyebrows. They wrote in ridiculous fantasy sequences for Liza Minnelli, trying to make her appear as a woman so sexy as to be one of Europe's great courtesan. Then they dressed her in costumes so appalling (in these fantasy sequences) that they look like rejects from the Crazy Horse Saloon at Six Flags Over Texas. Then they gave these two legendary and talented women dialogue that wouldn't sound good if you were watching the non-dubbed version in an Iraqi jail cell and didn't speak English. Then they made them dub half their lines. Then they surrounded them with local European actors and looped in all the English lines with the delicacy of a bulldozer in a tissue paper shop. To frost the cake on this unholy mess, they gave Liza three songs -- two written for the movie, one a classic, none of which belong in the picture, none of which fit. Even a Liza Minnelli fan (of which I am one of the biggest) cannot help but roll their eyes and say "Her FATHER did this to her!" Have mercy

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Vincente Minnelli

Director

Liza Minnelli

Nina

Ingrid Bergman

Contessa Sanziani

Charles Boyer

Count Sanziani

Gabriele Ferzetti

Antonio Vicari

Fernando Rey

Charles Van Maar

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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

The ideas don't mesh, and even allowing for the evisceration by the producers, the John Gay script shifts between old-fogey full about women as the inspirers of genius and hew-fogey speechifying about the plight of women.

Jan 19, 2024

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The movie just doesn't hold together... And yet we sit in this failed movie and give our attention to Ingrid Bergman, and there is a certain consolation.

Rated: 2/4

Oct 30, 2018

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

A bittersweet masterwork about the raging and frustrated passions of old age.

Aug 3, 2015

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Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

We shall archive this as a disastrous family matter. [Full review in Spanish]

Aug 15, 2023

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Donald McLean

Bay Area Reporter

An embarrassment for all concerned.

May 21, 2020

Full Review

LAFP Staff

Los Angeles Free Press

This film is, such an embarrassment to everyone involved (except Bergman) that it makes Lucky Lady seem like Gone With The Wind.

Oct 29, 2019

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Synopsis

During a press conference, international star Nina (Liza Minnelli) remembers simpler times, flashing back to her days as a maid in a run-down Italian hotel. As a young woman, Nina befriends Contessa Sanziani (Ingrid Bergman), an elderly woman who entertains Nina with memories of her vibrant, wealthy life with Count Sanziani (Charles Boyer). Inspired by her tales of success, young Nina fantasizes about her own adventures and seeks to find the same excitement in her life.

Director: Vincente Minnelli
Executive Producer: Giulio Sbarigia, Samuel Z. Arkoff
Screenwriter: John Gay
Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP)
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 6, 2020

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