Le maître de musique

I certainly disagree with the viewer who called this tedium--after all when one can't tell Mahler's Songs of Ruckert from a symphony, he is no music lover! The recurring song ("Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen") is very meaningful for it is associated with the teacher, a retired performer (brilliantly played by opera star Jose Van Dam). The words of the song translate as " I am lost to the world with which I used to waste so much time. It has heard nothing from me for so long it may well believe me dead." The song concludes with "I live alone in my heaven, in my love, and in my song." I played this film for a class of students whose knowledge of classical music was nil and they liked it. Of course the young leads were attractive and there was some sex in the film. I suggest you view it should you get the chance. It is one of my favorite films, and you really don't need to be knowledgeable in music to like it as long as you like beauty.

The kind of film that earns "European films" the bad rap and bad rep the get from a lot of people these days. I had the feeling the film was written to showcase the music, not vice versa. And since you can't write a terribly compelling film about training vocalists, we're trapped into watching seemingly endless camera pans of trees, birds in them chirping ad nauseum, pseudo-profound, meaningful stares between people who have nothing to say to each other, and a Mahler symphony on the sound track that just simply won't go away. A terribly tedious film.

Belgium's nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar of 1988 is an elegant highbrow crowd pleaser, in which music scores by Verdi, Mahler, Mozart et al get top billing over the actors, and not without good reason. World-renowned baritone Jose van Dam stars as a (surprise) world-renowned baritone, who for reasons never fully explained abruptly retires to train aspiring soprano Anne Roussel and (again for unclear reasons) a common thief with a raw singing talent. But what begins as a polite, continental variation of 'Pygmalion', with all the usual trappings of a turn-of-the-century period piece, works up considerable steam when, unknown to van Dam, his arch enemy Prince Scotti begins training his own protégé, hoping to match him against his rival's two pupils in a no-holds-barred aria duel (to the death?) It's a thrilling (if slightly ridiculous) climax, and goes a long way toward compensating for some of the film's earlier, nagging deficiencies. If for no one else, this is a must for classical music aficionados.

Yet the back of the box that this videotape came in actually describes this film as such a cross: "Amadeus" meets "Rocky". That in itself should have been a pretty big warning.

The film revolves around the retirement of an opera star, Joachim Dallayrac, and his retreat into seclusion to train two young pupils, Sophie and Jean. The former is a great admirer of his work; the latter is a petty thief whom Dallayrac sees promise in.

Most of the movie simply focuses on the training of the youngsters, which is mostly just shots of them singing while Dallayrac watches. There's nothing very fresh about these scenes, and the writing is weak overall. Quotes Dallayrac's companion Estelle, when Sophie arrives at the house: "He's going to end up loving you," and so it's no surprise when he does, and then she loves him too, but then he wants her to focus on her work, and she gets upset, and ends up falling for Jean, who has already fallen for her. It's a recycled plot, to say the least.

The best characters in the film are the bad guys, Prince Scotti, his attendant, and his pupil Arcas, the former two of which strut around like Bond villains and deliver their lines in similar fashion: Scotti, upon first meeting Jean, asks if Dallayrac has told Jean about him, and then utters the immortal lines: "Je suis le prince. Le prince Scotti." ("I am the prince. Prince Scotti.") It actually comes out funnier in French (to me, anyway), but the sad part is that in any event I don't think it was intended to make me laugh out loud.

Scotti has put on a competition that ends up being between Dallayrac's pupils and his own, and since Sophie and Jean are the good guys it comes as no surprise to anyone when they win the day.

The cinematography is good, at least, and the actors do what they can with what they've been given, but the sentimentality inherent in the premise is milked for all it's worth and then some. Sophie's performance and the vocal duel between Jean and Arcas near the end are pretty much the only highlights in what is otherwise a rather flat picture.

If you're not a fan of opera, you're better off skipping this movie. If you are a big fan of opera, you might as well give it a watch, but you're probably better off actually going to the opera, where it's a lot harder to get rehashed ideas like this one greenlighted. (C)

This film, one of my favorites of all-time, follows a retired opera star, (played by the real-life opera singer, Jose van Dam) and two pupils he agrees to teach after his retirement. When his two pupils must compete against their teacher's arch nemesis Prince Scotti (delectably played by Patrick Bauchau) and his dippy protege Arcas, it immediately becomes a feel-good movie. With gorgeous cinematography, well-written dialogue and the acting capabilities of Anne Roussel and Philippe Volter to carry the show, you don't need to rely on the beautiful music in both the background and the forefront of the story. You don't need to be a die-hard opera nut like myself to enjoy this film, you just need to be able to tolerate a lovely romance set against a stunning backdrop, where the bad guys can only be fought with musical notes. Go see it and tell me what you think.