Aria (1987)
Country: GB/US
Technical: col 98m
Director: Nicolas Roeg, Charles Sturridge, Jean-Luc Godard, Julien Temple, Bruce Beresford, Robert Altman, Franc Roddam, Ken Russell, Derek Jarman, Bill Bryden
Cast: Theresa Russell, Buck Henry, Beverly D'Angelo, Elizabeth Hurley, Bridget Fonda, John Hurt
Synopsis:
Various directors have a go at providing visual frontage for a famous opera aria.
Review:
A smart idea to get opera on film, but alas most of the directors seem able only to ape their own styles, not tap the inspiration of the music. While even the most banal of film music can linger in the mind for days because it backed the visuals so well, here already great music fails to make much of an impression. Rarely does a director actually attempt to match the rhythms of the music and when he does so in the most basic sense, by having the actors mouth the lyrics (Beresford's Korngold section), the consequences are an unsynchronised mess. Temple's is the most entertaining section (Rigoletto) thanks to Buck Henry, but only on the rudest level. Altman is ambitious with his theatre of grotesques (Rameau) but the effect is ultimately cheapened by overstatement. Russell, a past master at this sort of thing, admittedly delivers a coherent little tale, full of arch metaphors and repellent close-ups (Turandot). The others are Un Ballo in Maschera (Roeg), with Theresa Russell in drag as would-be royal assassination victim, Tristan and Isolde (Roddam), in which the modernised lovers have sex in Las Vegas, Lully's Armide (Godard), all body-building men and naked bimbos trying to turn them on (don't expect uninterrupted music here either: this is Godard, remember?), La Forza del Destino (Sturridge), a very brief joyride by ten year-olds in a Mercedes, and Charpentier's Louise (Jarman), more home movies apparently. Finally, there is a linking sequence in which John Hurt prepares to mime Caruso singing I Pagliacci to an empty house. The latter, at least, don't have any bosoms in them.
Country: GB/US
Technical: col 98m
Director: Nicolas Roeg, Charles Sturridge, Jean-Luc Godard, Julien Temple, Bruce Beresford, Robert Altman, Franc Roddam, Ken Russell, Derek Jarman, Bill Bryden
Cast: Theresa Russell, Buck Henry, Beverly D'Angelo, Elizabeth Hurley, Bridget Fonda, John Hurt
Synopsis:
Various directors have a go at providing visual frontage for a famous opera aria.
Review:
A smart idea to get opera on film, but alas most of the directors seem able only to ape their own styles, not tap the inspiration of the music. While even the most banal of film music can linger in the mind for days because it backed the visuals so well, here already great music fails to make much of an impression. Rarely does a director actually attempt to match the rhythms of the music and when he does so in the most basic sense, by having the actors mouth the lyrics (Beresford's Korngold section), the consequences are an unsynchronised mess. Temple's is the most entertaining section (Rigoletto) thanks to Buck Henry, but only on the rudest level. Altman is ambitious with his theatre of grotesques (Rameau) but the effect is ultimately cheapened by overstatement. Russell, a past master at this sort of thing, admittedly delivers a coherent little tale, full of arch metaphors and repellent close-ups (Turandot). The others are Un Ballo in Maschera (Roeg), with Theresa Russell in drag as would-be royal assassination victim, Tristan and Isolde (Roddam), in which the modernised lovers have sex in Las Vegas, Lully's Armide (Godard), all body-building men and naked bimbos trying to turn them on (don't expect uninterrupted music here either: this is Godard, remember?), La Forza del Destino (Sturridge), a very brief joyride by ten year-olds in a Mercedes, and Charpentier's Louise (Jarman), more home movies apparently. Finally, there is a linking sequence in which John Hurt prepares to mime Caruso singing I Pagliacci to an empty house. The latter, at least, don't have any bosoms in them.
Country: GB/US
Technical: col 98m
Director: Nicolas Roeg, Charles Sturridge, Jean-Luc Godard, Julien Temple, Bruce Beresford, Robert Altman, Franc Roddam, Ken Russell, Derek Jarman, Bill Bryden
Cast: Theresa Russell, Buck Henry, Beverly D'Angelo, Elizabeth Hurley, Bridget Fonda, John Hurt
Synopsis:
Various directors have a go at providing visual frontage for a famous opera aria.
Review:
A smart idea to get opera on film, but alas most of the directors seem able only to ape their own styles, not tap the inspiration of the music. While even the most banal of film music can linger in the mind for days because it backed the visuals so well, here already great music fails to make much of an impression. Rarely does a director actually attempt to match the rhythms of the music and when he does so in the most basic sense, by having the actors mouth the lyrics (Beresford's Korngold section), the consequences are an unsynchronised mess. Temple's is the most entertaining section (Rigoletto) thanks to Buck Henry, but only on the rudest level. Altman is ambitious with his theatre of grotesques (Rameau) but the effect is ultimately cheapened by overstatement. Russell, a past master at this sort of thing, admittedly delivers a coherent little tale, full of arch metaphors and repellent close-ups (Turandot). The others are Un Ballo in Maschera (Roeg), with Theresa Russell in drag as would-be royal assassination victim, Tristan and Isolde (Roddam), in which the modernised lovers have sex in Las Vegas, Lully's Armide (Godard), all body-building men and naked bimbos trying to turn them on (don't expect uninterrupted music here either: this is Godard, remember?), La Forza del Destino (Sturridge), a very brief joyride by ten year-olds in a Mercedes, and Charpentier's Louise (Jarman), more home movies apparently. Finally, there is a linking sequence in which John Hurt prepares to mime Caruso singing I Pagliacci to an empty house. The latter, at least, don't have any bosoms in them.