The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1964)

Original title

Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoë

Genre

adventure film

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 13 episodes

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 7 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man is shipwrecked alone on a tropical island and must learn to survive. He builds shelter, finds food, and faces dangers while dreaming of rescue. The story also shows earlier adventures from his life in flashbacks.

adventurouslightheartednostalgicleisurelydeterminedsereneclassicepisodic

What happens

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (French: Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoë) is a French-German children's television drama series made by Franco London Films (a.k.a. FLF Television Paris) and based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. The show was first aired in Germany in October 1964 under the title Robinson Crusoe as four 90-minute episodes by co-producers ZDF television, and syndicated in the USA the same year. It was first aired in the UK in 1965 as a 13-part serial. This English dubbed version produced by Henry Deutschmeister also had a new musical soundtrack composed by Robert Mellin and Gian-Piero Reverberi instead of the music composed by Georges Van Parys for the French/German original. The production concentrated not only on events on the island but included Crusoe's other adventures, told in flashback. The English-language version's theme music, which the BBC requested before they would buy the serial, has been praised. Radio commentator Glenn Mitchell said "The theme tune, with its rumbling introductory notes suggesting the rolling waves of the on-screen title sequence remains distinctive, as does the full incidental score, comprising numerous cues that in each case represent some part of Crusoe's existence. The score combines the maritime idiom of the late 17th and early 18th centuries with some very 1960s influences - (later, composer Gian Piero Reverberi's Rondò Veneziano re-imagined Vivaldi for the 20th century, a recognisably similar project.)" The theme has been covered by musicians such as The Art of Noise on their album Below The Waste. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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