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Cosi

  • 1996
  • R
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
Cosi (1996)
Dark ComedyComedyDramaMusicRomance

A directionless young man hired as a drama teacher at a psychiatric hospital is roped by a demanding patient into helming an ambitious production of Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte".A directionless young man hired as a drama teacher at a psychiatric hospital is roped by a demanding patient into helming an ambitious production of Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte".A directionless young man hired as a drama teacher at a psychiatric hospital is roped by a demanding patient into helming an ambitious production of Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte".

  • Director
    • Mark Joffe
  • Writer
    • Louis Nowra
  • Stars
    • Ben Mendelsohn
    • Barry Otto
    • Toni Collette
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    2.3K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mark Joffe
    • Writer
      • Louis Nowra
    • Stars
      • Ben Mendelsohn
      • Barry Otto
      • Toni Collette
    • 25User reviews
    • 11Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations total

    Photos58

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    Top cast34

    Edit
    Ben Mendelsohn
    Ben Mendelsohn
    • Lewis
    Barry Otto
    Barry Otto
    • Roy
    Toni Collette
    Toni Collette
    • Julie
    Rachel Griffiths
    Rachel Griffiths
    • Lucy
    Aden Young
    Aden Young
    • Nick
    Colin Friels
    Colin Friels
    • Errol
    Jacki Weaver
    Jacki Weaver
    • Cherry
    Pamela Rabe
    Pamela Rabe
    • Ruth
    Paul Chubb
    Paul Chubb
    • Henry
    Colin Hay
    Colin Hay
    • Zac
    David Wenham
    David Wenham
    • Doug
    Tony Llewellyn-Jones
    Tony Llewellyn-Jones
    • Kirner
    Kerry Walker
    Kerry Walker
    • Sandra
    Robin Ramsay
    Robin Ramsay
    • Minister for Health
    Henry Maas
    • Bernard Goldman
    Jack Walsh
    • Air Wrestler
    • (as Raymond Walsh)
    Lawrence Woodward
    • Electrician
    Brian Ellison
    • Rigger
    • Director
      • Mark Joffe
    • Writer
      • Louis Nowra
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews25

    6.62.3K
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    Featured reviews

    garboventures

    Marvellous movie

    I found this film by accident the other night, occupying the late-night slot on terrestrial. I'd never heard of it, but from the first few moments of watching it - it was already 20 minutes in - I was rolling with laughter, and completely keyed-in to the fine display of ensemble acting, occasional surreal moments, lovely characterisations and brilliant humour. The film was touching too without ever being mawkish.

    A real treat.
    ruhmin8

    An opera within an opera.

    I agree with most of the reviews already posted, but would like to add that I found the characterizations to be what endeared me most to this production. I'm a recent explorer of opera and have seen movie versions of some of them. This can stand toe to toe with any movie version of an opera in terms of its ability to reach gut level. I cried when the house lights went down and the curtain up as the six on stage were transformed into something bigger than themselves and so participated in the healing mystery that mankind has been experiencing since the first dramatizations and plays were enacted.
    7raymond-15

    Unmistakably "Aussie" in character

    Normally I would draw the line at using mentally ill patients as characters to be laughed at or derided in any way. They are really sick people and have some big problems to overcome. Some may be rehabilitated while others will always be hopeless cases.

    But this film shows that even schizophrenics and drug addicts have dreams and goals in life and who are we to pass judgment on their wildly impossible desires? Just imagine a bunch of crazy people wanting to act out a Mozart opera Cosi Fan Tutte. They can't act; they can't sing:they can't speak Italian; and none of them has had any experience in stage production.

    Lewis (Ben Mendelsohn) has just been appointed at this mental hospital and it seems that all patients are eager for him to produce this opera. Roy (Barry Otto) is overwhelmingly enthusiastic. "Why shouldn't we reach for the stars?" he asks.

    There is a great assortment of unstable uninhibited players whom Lewis finds are uncontrollable. Certainly they would be any producer's nightmare.

    There are many farcical situations in a typical Aussie style. Some of them are funny; some I thought were very ordinary. But as the film proceeds we do find that we are starting to warm towards the characters. In some strange way we are beginning to understand their plight and that their lives of emptiness are being filled by something worthwhile. May be it's a form of escape.

    The characters are played by well known Australian actors. Doug is played by David Wenham. Doug likes to dip cats in petrol and set them alight. Julie (Toni Colette) gives a touching rendering of the song "Stand by me", a message perhaps for all of us.

    Needless to say the film ends with the final elegant production staged for those in authority. While there is general acclamation at the end, stage gadgetry can still go wrong as every actor knows.

    This is a light-hearted romp and a real tonic for the blues.
    isabelle1955

    Entertaining diversion

    I caught up with this movie ten years late because I'm working my way slowly through the seminal works of David Wenham, but I'm sorry I didn't catch it sooner, as it's a very entertaining means of whiling away a couple of hours when you have the 'flu (as I did when I watched it). Quite cheered me up. Australian films often seem to be able to do that, offering as they do a slightly skewed and non-PC perspective on life. California sunshine with a British sense of humour? Sounds like paradise to me.

    The story is, of course, quite ridiculous, but the performances from a good ensemble cast are so engaging that the unlikely plot can be excused, especially if you have taken enough 'flu meds to knock out a cart-horse. Lewis – rather blandly played perhaps by Ben Mendlesohn – is drifting between jobs and college and obviously irritating his highly focused and perky girlfriend, Lucy (gorgeous, leggy, Rachel Griffiths) He accepts a job at the local psychiatric hospital to provide drama therapy to a group of inmates, led by opera fan Roy (the marvelous Barry Otto). Now what the hospital authorities and Lewis are envisioning is an unambitious variety show. But what Roy has in mind is no less than a production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, and he's nothing if not determined. No one can sing a note or speak Italian, but by a combination of bravado and insult, Roy talks Lewis into it and the patients start auditioning. Badly. Really badly.

    For those of you not familiar with Cosi Fan Tutte, basically it's Mozart's take on the perceived perverseness of the female character (it translates as "It's like that" or "Woman are like that" or something similar. You get the idea?) and it explores the idea that when let off the leash of fidelity by the absence of their lovers, women are straight after the nearest thing in trousers like a rat up the proverbial drainpipe. Alongside the main story of Mozart's opera, and the inmates' "let's put the show on in the barn" attitude, there runs a sub plot of whether or not Lucy can be faithful to Lewis, which is not terribly subtle, and given that the temptation on offer is the total plonker Nick (Aden Young - don't take it personally Aden), the outcome is not a complete surprise.

    The movie explores the themes you might expect from a film centered around a psychiatric institution; are the inmates any madder than the people outside, how do we deal with people who don't fit into our neat patterns of what is and isn't normal, how much liberty can you allow people who might be a danger too themselves as well as to others etc ? But the reason to watch this movie is to see the characterization of the patients. I'm not going to get into the ethics of whether it's moral to use psychiatric patients as fodder for humour in a movie, let's just accept that it is, and take it from there. Pamela Rabe is utterly moving as depressive Ruth, Jacki Weaver is wonderful as Cherry, a very anorexic and yobbish looking David Wenham is priceless as the pyromaniac cat burner Doug, and Paul Chubb grabbed my attention as mild mannered Henry. But the total stand out for my money was Toni Collette. I had no idea she could sing like that! She gives a marvelous performance as Julie, who is almost, but not quite, ready to leave the institution and face life and its temptations outside. Every performance I see of Toni Collette just reinforces how wonderful she is. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Not great, but well worth a couple of hours of anyone's time. Especially if you have 'flu.
    JSlack

    Brillant Performances underline Dreamy message.

    When it comes down to it, Così is a film about the right to dream and the tragedy of dreams being lost. The characters outside the institution, Lewis included, are a pragmatic lot. They have pragmatic views on life, pragmatic humor, and are cynically short of ideals. Nick, in particular, suggests that doing away with loyalty in a relationship is a valid concept, not because of any devotion to an ideal of 'free love' but simply because it does away with all the complications over infidelity.

    The actors, however, are far less restrained in their grips on reality, (however clichéd that may sound, trust me, these characters are not) and thus are allowed to dream. It isn't so much that they are delusional, (none really are) it's simply that they don't seem to have been indoctrinated with a grim view of reality. Roy doesn't just lie about his childhood to others, he allows himself to dream that he really did have a childhood that was remarkable and marvelous. More subtly, Henry is permitted to idolize his father in a way Nick never could. And sure enough, when the two's views on life collide, there are sparks, with Henry delivering most.

    Lewis, of course, must gradually progress from one to the other, but this is done in a way which is subtle and beautiful. His dream is the play itself, and he progresses from dreading his own misfortune in getting the job of making these nutcases perform a play successfully; to dreaming of making a perfect play with beautiful costumes and wonderful responses. What matters is that they dreamt of it and had the lack of sense to follow that dream.

    The film has a sterling wit and proceeds nicely, following the course of the patient's dreams and the friend's pragmatism and lack of dreams. (For a good contrast showing this message, check out the overdone, amazingly clichéd and unimaginative performance by Nick, and compare it to the dream laden performance of the patients.)

    In the end, the film is delightfully unrealistic in its applications. Plot devices do appear to be coming out of left field. But in a film about dreaming, surely that can be excused?

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Bruno Lawrence was originally cast as Errol the nurse, but during shooting he was hospitalized due to severe chest pains and was subsequently diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. As a result, the role of Errol was recast, with Colin Friels taking over. Lawrence died during post-production on this film, which is dedicated to his memory.
    • Quotes

      Cherry: [to Doug] Go burn a cat.

      [she exits]

      Lewis: Why are they always saying that?

      Doug: That's what I did.

      Lewis: Burned a cat?

      Doug: No, CATS. See mum had five cats, and me and mum we'd been having some... differences. So one night I rounded 'em up, put 'em in a cage, doused 'em with petrol and put a match to 'em!

      [Lewis chuckles, thinking it's a joke. Doug grins and laughs]

      Doug: Heh-heh! Funny, eh?

      [He sits next to Lewis]

      Doug: Then, I opened up the cage door and I let 'em run loose. Welllll, what a racket. They were runnin' round the backyard, burnin' and howlin'.

      [He gives a psychotic little laugh]

      Doug: No such thing as grace under pressure for a burning cat, lemme tell ya. Then, me mum came outside to see what was happenin'? Darn near freaked out she did. See, I figured I'd wait a couple of hours till the cats were dead and mum was feeling a bit sorry for herself, and I'd go up to the front door and I'd knock on it and I'd say, "Hi, Mum! I'm here to talk about our unresolved conflicts."

      Doug: But oh no, One of those FUCKING cats ran into the house; a couple of minutes the whole bloody house was on fire. Within half an hour there was no front door to knock on.

      Doug: Yeah, if it wasn't for that damn cat, I wouldn't be in here.

    • Crazy credits
      At the start of the credits, the character of Zac performs Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" on his accordion as an act of defiance against the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart he was told to play throughout the movie. A squealing piglet accompanies him.
    • Alternate versions
      In the "edited for TV" version, Doug's "Shang A Doo-Dee" rap features different lyrics that focus on his experiences in the asylum rather than sexual innuendos and profanity.
    • Connections
      Featured in Cosi: Excerpt of Oral History with film buff Paul Harris and Richard Brennan (2006)
    • Soundtracks
      Cosi Fan Tutte
      Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

      Performed by Wiener Symphoniker

      Conducted by Rudolf Moralt

      Courtesy of Phillips through Polygram Pty Limited

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 28, 1996 (Australia)
    • Country of origin
      • Australia
    • Official site
      • Miramax
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Так чинять усі
    • Filming locations
      • Rozelle Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia(hospital, location: aka Callan Park Mental Hospital)
    • Production companies
      • Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)
      • Meridian Films
      • Miramax
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $35,489
    • Gross worldwide
      • $35,489
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 40m(100 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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