Bröderna Mozart

Another hyped-up, critically acclaimed movie I waited 20 years to watch... and I'm quite stunned at how bad I actually find it! An almost abysmal attempt at theatrical farce about a Swedish staging of Mozart's opera "Don Juan" with a new, subversive director that puts more than one spin on its cast and orchestra ensemble.

Opens OK in its chaotic style but snowballs into a sort of non-stop charade of worse and worse, pointless theater sports ad-libs, with loud, seemingly impromptu dialog and opera song outbursts that are increasingly tiresome. Clearly a Fellini-wannabe in its anarchistic spirit and setting, but seriously, any of the scenes between the 15th and 100th minute could be randomly swapped around without making any difference to the story whatsoever! One also might have to be an opera aficionado to appreciate it. I, myself, can't stand opera, which of course makes this even more unendurable.

A few random chuckles and Glaser offers a good performance, but this is among the worst, so-called classic Swedish movies I've ever seen. I honestly, honestly can't see why it's so hailed. Artsy, you say? Fartsy, say I!

Tip: Director Osten and her steady team HAVE made a good movie: "Skyddsängeln". Catch that one instead!

2 out of 10 from Ozjeppe

This is a farce, although a bit high-brow, about what happens when an experimental stage director tries to make an opera ensemble get out on a limb, and do some daring acting. It is soon far too obvious that the two stages are quite different, and even more so the people who walk on them.

The director has a hard time, trying to accomplish anything at all, and chaos is soon at hand. It's a lot of fun, especially for an audience familiar with both the theater and the opera.

Suzanne Osten and Etienne Glaser, the couple responsible for this movie, have a long experience with the theater, where they have been frequently praised for their accomplishments. The movie was a huge hit in Sweden, when it premiered, although it did not seem to have significant lasting qualities. I'm not even sure it was intended to have any.

A somber circumstance, which is hard to label 'trivia', is that this movie was the one Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme saw, on the night of his assassination in 1986. He was shot when leaving the cinema.

If you know Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and opera, you'll enjoy "Mozart Brothers" (English title). A young filmmaker making a documentary on a composer staging "Don Giovanni" finds herself drawn into a storyline that mimics the opera. I think it's hilarious as well as profound--satirizes Bergman at least as much as Fellini. If I had a means of watching it again--we have only a VHS copy but no working VHS machine--I'd write a more detailed review and perhaps rate it higher.