Genre Drama
Romance
War Music by Georges Delerue | Directed by Waris Hussein Country of origin United Kingdom | |
Written by Charles E. Israel
Erich Maria Remarque (novel) Starring Anthony Hopkins
Lesley-Anne Down
Donald Pleasence | ||
Arch of Triumph is a 1984 British television film by Harlech Television. It is based on the novel Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel was previously adapted in 1948 for a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. It was released on 19 December 1984 in the UK, and on 29 May 1985 in the US.
It was directed by Waris Hussein and produced by Mort Abrahamson, Peter Graham Scott and John Newland. The adaptation was by Charles E. Israel, the music score by Georges Delerue and the cinematography by Bob Edwards.
The film stars Anthony Hopkins, Lesley-Anne Down and Donald Pleasence with Frank Finlay, Joyce Blair and Richard Pasco.
In the film, Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down) sings "J'attendrai".
Synopsis
Ravic (Anthony Hopkins), is an Austrian doctor who helped Jews escape from the Nazi regime. He was tortured in a concentration camp. In 1939 he is living in Paris, under a false name and without any documents, constantly aware of the risk of being arrested. At night, on one of Paris bridges over the Seine, Ravic meets Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down), a woman about to (possibly) attempt suicide, and helps her. This is the start of a romance. But the prickly Ravic has unfinished business with the Nazis, and he is separated from Joan after being discovered as refugee without papers. With no communications possible between them, they each try to manage under difficult circumstances and, when they finally met up again after six months of unexplained absence, there are shadows hanging over their relationship. They cautiously try to mend their broken affair as international events spin out of control around them.