It's been movie week around here
Jan. 6th, 2012 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mojosmomSeriously, three movies in the last week.
1. The Women on the 6th Floor
Some guy thought this was an Almodovar movie. No, it's not. It's French. Maybe it was the Spanish women in it that confused him. Plot: stodgy middle-aged Parisian financier and his very social wife hire a Spanish maid. The "6th floor" refers to the fact that the maids (almost entirely Spanish) who work in the apartment building live in small rooms on the building's 6th floor. By happenstance, the guy goes to the 6th floor and is shocked by the conditions in which the women live. He starts to get involved in their lives, and (surprise!) also starts to get discontented with his life. Because, of course, the maids, despite their poor living and working conditions, despite the fact that they are separated from their families, are full of joie de vivre and he isn't. And if the plot sounds trite, the ending is triter.
I'm making the film sound worse than it is. I actually enjoyed most of it, because the acting's good and it's funny.
2. Mozart's Sister
René Féret imagines Nannerl's experiences during the Mozart family's trip to Paris. "Imagines" being the operative word. Look, I know that fiction about real people - whether in a book or film - is bound to take liberties with the truth. Oddly, I found it less annoying that he invented a friendship between Nannerl and the youngest daughter of Louis XV, and a gender-bending relationship with the Dauphin, than I do that he had the Mozarts arrive at Versailles during an event that occurred ten years before Wolfgang was even born, had Louise de France a mere child in the Convent of St.-Denis when in fact she entered it at the age of 33.
The thrust of the film, though, that Nannerl was denied the opportunity to develop her talents as a violinist and composer because of her sex, was well-done. Again, though, the film shows her burning her compositions and states categorically that (after the Paris trip) she "never composed again". Yet surviving letters to her from her brother from a later period make clear that he, at least, was supporting her continuing efforts in that direction.
I'd suggest a reading of Jane Glover's book, Mozart's Women, as an antidote to Féret's wilder imaginings.
Nevertheless, the settings (they were allowed to film at Versailles!), costumes and (of course) the music, were gorgeous!
Turandot
Last and best, a film of a performance of Puccini's Turandot at the Teatro Antico di Taormina. Now that was a performance! Francesca Patanè as Turandot, and the extremely hot Darío Volonté as Calaf.
1. The Women on the 6th Floor
Some guy thought this was an Almodovar movie. No, it's not. It's French. Maybe it was the Spanish women in it that confused him. Plot: stodgy middle-aged Parisian financier and his very social wife hire a Spanish maid. The "6th floor" refers to the fact that the maids (almost entirely Spanish) who work in the apartment building live in small rooms on the building's 6th floor. By happenstance, the guy goes to the 6th floor and is shocked by the conditions in which the women live. He starts to get involved in their lives, and (surprise!) also starts to get discontented with his life. Because, of course, the maids, despite their poor living and working conditions, despite the fact that they are separated from their families, are full of joie de vivre and he isn't. And if the plot sounds trite, the ending is triter.
I'm making the film sound worse than it is. I actually enjoyed most of it, because the acting's good and it's funny.
2. Mozart's Sister
René Féret imagines Nannerl's experiences during the Mozart family's trip to Paris. "Imagines" being the operative word. Look, I know that fiction about real people - whether in a book or film - is bound to take liberties with the truth. Oddly, I found it less annoying that he invented a friendship between Nannerl and the youngest daughter of Louis XV, and a gender-bending relationship with the Dauphin, than I do that he had the Mozarts arrive at Versailles during an event that occurred ten years before Wolfgang was even born, had Louise de France a mere child in the Convent of St.-Denis when in fact she entered it at the age of 33.
The thrust of the film, though, that Nannerl was denied the opportunity to develop her talents as a violinist and composer because of her sex, was well-done. Again, though, the film shows her burning her compositions and states categorically that (after the Paris trip) she "never composed again". Yet surviving letters to her from her brother from a later period make clear that he, at least, was supporting her continuing efforts in that direction.
I'd suggest a reading of Jane Glover's book, Mozart's Women, as an antidote to Féret's wilder imaginings.
Nevertheless, the settings (they were allowed to film at Versailles!), costumes and (of course) the music, were gorgeous!
Turandot
Last and best, a film of a performance of Puccini's Turandot at the Teatro Antico di Taormina. Now that was a performance! Francesca Patanè as Turandot, and the extremely hot Darío Volonté as Calaf.
