La tentation de Vénus

Lord, how I love this movie!

I have been a Wagnerphile for most of my adult life. The entrance music at my wedding (30+ years ago) was from Parsifal. I hum leitmotifs when I'm feeling good. And when I really want an emotional catharsis, I put on "Meeting Venus."

I watched it again, after several years' hiatus, a few nights ago. I laughed out loud time and again and sat with tears streaming down my face during the finale. What a wonderful film!

I recommend this time and again to my music-loving friends. Imagine "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind," set in Paris, produced by the BBC, and with an international, stellar cast of both performers and voice talent. (Not to put down the Christopher Guest ensemble, but consider Glenn Close, Kiri Te Kanawa, et. al., - really!)

Raise the curtain!

Spiritus ex Machina

The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we CAN imagine!

A Hungarian conductor tries to unite a multi-national European opera company preparing for a televised production of Wagner's Tannhauser, with mixed results. The same might be said of the film itself, which represents director Istvan Szabo's bid for a wider slice of international box office. Unfortunately, what begins as a mild but engaging Murphy's Law comedy (complete with labor disputes, political arguments, artistic conflicts and so forth) soon devolves into a phony feel-good melodrama, with all the comic frustrations of the early scenes jettisoned in favor of a predictably stormy off-stage romance between the conductor and his temperamental superstar diva (Glenn Close). A few incidental pleasures and an attractive, charismatic cast (presenting the entire European community in a fascinating microcosm) aren't enough to hide all the obvious shortcomings, including (but not limited to) shoddy lip-synching, unnecessary voice-over commentary, and the assumption that listening to Wagner is like dying and going to heaven.

I've seen this movie many times now. It covers most of the things that is evident in an opera house and productions. Though some of the sceneries, dramatic situations are slightly exaggerated, I still think it is well achieved attempt to recreate typical scenes of an opera production, love stories, conflicts with opera managers, strikes, problems with orchestral musicians and singers, corrupt non-environmental cooperation sponsors, Paris and Budapest cultural milieus.

But there is some small flaws. Erland Josephson who plays Picabia (General Director of Opera Europa) is a great actor but he doesn't do it all well with his Spanish pronunciation and pronounces Karin in with real Swedish accent. Otherwise he's portraying the role of with absolute perfection.

Glenn Close is simply marvelous as the Swedish soprano and Niels Arestrup as Maestro Szanto is very credible in his role as the conductor.

The music from Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner works as a third character in this movie, same function as the other movie Amadeus (1984) by Milos Forman. I would recommend anyone to see this movie, to simply enjoy it over a nice evening!!

A marvelous film that anyone with an interest in classical music will enjoy - be they an opera lover or hater. Excellent bravura performances by Close and Arestrup conjure up a heady mix of artistic temperament, the politics of "The Arts" and great music. It is great fun. The film is exuberantly directed and the pace never lets up. A triumph for Director Victor Szabo.

This film is much more than a customary movie about opera, though opera lovers get first-rate extracts from Wagner's Tannhauser as well. The action takes place in an imaginary "Opera Europe" in Paris. István Szabó, the excellent film director is really interested here in fanatic people of the theater who came from several countries of Europe to unite their talent in order to create a successful performance of Wagner's youthful masterpiece. The ensemble is a mixture of multinational people: the head of the company (a Spaniard, a former hero of the Spanish Civil War,) her private secretary and mistress (descendant of a noble Russian family,) the conductor (a talented young Hungarian who suffers from inferiority complex because of his East-block origin,) the singer who plays Tannhauser (a permanently offended dumpy man from the DDR with beautiful voice,) the French theatrical technician (a pig headed trade unionist who causes much trouble,) etc. They carry with themselves all good and vicious habits and traditions of their origin which cause many conflicts but humorous episodes as well during the rehearsals. There is a remarkable scene when at a dinner party the protagonists put aside all of their conflicts and sing together a song called "Suliko" which was once Stalin's favorite. (They sing it not because they love Stalin, but because of a certain nostalgia for their youth.) In the center of the story stands the Hungarian conductor's and a Nordic singer's (played by Glenn Close) stormy love affair which ends in diminuendo (using here deliberately this term of music.) Strongly recommended for everyone who loves art and theater.