Galileo movie storyline. This biopic is about Galileo Galilei, the seventeenth century Italian who laid the foundations of modern science. Galileo made himself one of the world’s first telescopes and discovered the moons of Jupiter. He supported Copernicus’ theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
This brought him in conflict with the Catholic Church. By threatening him with torture, the Church forced him to recant his views in front of a tribunal, and sentenced him to house arrest. However, Galileo’s trials and theories inspired others like Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler to prove that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Some years ago, the Pope accepted that Earth does revolve around the Sun and issued a rare apology for what the Church had done to Galileo. The Catholic Church recanted.
Galileo is a 1975 biographical film about the 16th and 17th century scientist Galileo Galilei, whose astronomical observations with the newly invented telescope led to a profound conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. The film is an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play of the same name.
The film was produced by Ely Landau for the American Film Theatre, which presented thirteen film adaptations of plays in the United States from 1973 to 1975. Brecht’s play was recently called a “masterpiece” by veteran theater critic Michael Billington, as Martin Esslin had in 1960. The film’s director, Joseph Losey, had also directed the first performances of the play in 1947 in the US — with Brecht’s active participation. The film is fairly true to those first performances, and is thus of historical significance as well.
Galileo (1975)
Directed by: Joseph Losey
Starring: Topol, Georgia Brown, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Margaret Leighton, Michael Gough, Michael Lonsdale, Tim Woodward, Richard O’Callaghan, Judy Parfitt, Mary Larkin, Patrick Magee
Screenplay by: Joseph Losey, Barbara Bray
Production Design by: Richard Macdonald
Cinematography by: Michael Reed
Film Editing by: Reginald Beck
Costume Design by: Ruth Myers
Art Direction by: Richard Rambaut
Music by: Hanns Eisler, Richard Hartley
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: American Film Theatre
Release Date: January 27, 1975 (US)
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