Carmina burana

My high school period was dominated by Carmina burana. And after decades, the affection for this great work of Carl Orff remains the same.

This adaptation is absolutey fantastic, from cothes to voices, from atmosphere to the beautifu reflection of symbols.

It is more than inspired opera adaptation but a precious gift as trave across a wor who you feeled , in many occasions, so familiar and who obtains the fantastic refection.

At its end, the gratitude for the effort and genius of Jean - Pierre Ponnelle is the only fair reaction.

In short, just a great film , fantastic in each aspect , impressive at whole.

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's interpretation of Orff's brilliant piece of music is a visual orgy of iconic images and art history references, a tribute to the sacred, the profane, the celestial, the mundane, and all that makes art art. It transcends the boundaries of the sacred and profane, showing how they both make up what it is to be human. One of the reviewers of this rare piece of European cultural and cinematic history remarked that this version of Orff's masterpiece of the sacred and profane was hard to find in Germany. Not so strange, it was banned there for decades, most likely because of its almost literal interpretation of the texts Orff put music to. I first saw this when I was 12-13 years old at the Goethe Institut i Bergen, Norway, with my father, sister and mother. Someone had managed to get hold of an 8mm film roll with it and had a secret screening. This was in the 1980s and, believe it or not, there were strong forces opposed to what the considered blasphemous content in films. The mixture of Christian and pagan imagery is completely consistent with the lyrics, which were found in a monastery, and are a mixture of sacred and profane songs, but were obviously too tough to swallow. Copies of the film were destroyed, but luckily, art prevailed.

I'd heard much about this film, but wasn't sure how anyone could possibly stage what is essentially an a-capella chorus. Me, I had my own ideas of how and what I wanted to shoot, but alas I wasn't sure how it could be done, nor think that any film maker would take on the challenge.

Like a lot of young males my age I first heard Orff's music in Boorman's "Excalibur". The music itself (and if you can't understand Latin) is very pretentious with a sense of urgency, and is also operatic in scope (no obvious self referential pun intended). Orff infuses a great deal of joy and magnificence in his composition and arrangements, to a level that I think most others would envy. I know I do. However Boorman, being a film maker and interested only in the image of thing to convey a message, chose the wrong music for his movie. "Excalibur" tells of Arthurian legends, where battles take place, strife, struggle, honor and deep angst, where Orff's piece is supposed to be a celebration of life, as the Latin tells. Did Boorman really mean some other message with Orff's music when he put it in during the battle sequences? Ehh... maybe, but I doubt it. To Boorman it was just really cool sounding music, so he dumped it in his film.

But, to the film: Sex. There's a lot of sexual references in this thing. So much that one wonders if director Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden had anything else in mind (or on his mind for that matter during shooting) when he conceived this project. But, he's not the only one, for Orff himself wrote the piece as an ode and celebration of life. The message is to not take life too seriously, and to enjoy life for what it is. If that means finding the person of your fancy and bedding them, then so be it.

We don't see much sex, just a lot of sexual imagery and innuendo. There's the whole Christian thing going on here conflicting with people's natural instincts and desires. All the high minded spiritual stuff is there, but essentially gets shelved, for men and women need one another. The two meet, fancy one another, and the woman challenges her man to prove his worth. He rises to the occasion, and through the struggle they come to couple. "It's the way of things" (to borrow from Boorman).

I first saw Orff's music performed by the San Francisco Symphony and chorus. It was very moving if somewhat bland by the visuals. However the German film makers here have put together a tapestry of inner desires, and the joys of living and being with the one you LOVE. Not the one you're forced with, not the one your parents or guardians chose for you, but the one you chose, and the one who chose you. That is the true message of Orff's piece.

Visually and stylistically the film may be a bit much for some people, but then again it was created and designed for the artsy classical music crowd, me included. It's shot indoors, lots of lighting, some adequate lip-syncing, lots of sexual imagery, and a very energetic and enthusiastic cast who tell the tale of want, desire and need of not just man, but of all creatures as time goes on. Lots of props, costumes, even a few FX/process shots, all amount to a unique look to this film.

Criticisms? My only one is that I haven't had a chance to shoot my version... as yet ;-)

Carl Orff wanted to see some sort of staging of his musical score, Carmina Burana. I'd like to think he would have approved of this one. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle films Carmina among stage pieces that often take the viewer where no theater audience could go. The effect is a bit like entering a Bosch painting.

This is the same method Ponnelle used with a number of operas, but here he is more free to create a fantasy world of images; here he has only a series of poems; no plot structure to furnish. If a few of the effects look a bit primitive, others are magical. And sometimes the whiplash from comedy to horror was so swift that I found myself questioning the smugness that led me to question this or that image, and I quickly found myself immersed in the work again.

The DVD has English subtitles for the Latin. How wonderful finally to be able to follow the text all the way through! However, I urge you, watch WITHOUT TEXT the first time through. The musical performance is good enough that, if you like the work, you'll happily go back. Orff chose to set Latin because he wanted us to take the meaning from the music. Trust that the outrageous things occurring on stage grow from the text, and submit to the pull of sounds and images. Words will clog the process, and the images will surprise and delight best on that first encounter if you're not busy reading. I'm a fan of subtitled movies, but we process words differently from sound.

I bought the DVD of this for the movie, but any movie of Carmina would be of passing interest if not well sung and played. This one is excellent. I have long admired Lucia Popp's Queen of the Night for Klemperer, and she is as good here. The rest of the cast and the orchestra is also up to the competition.

Alas, to my knowledge the DVD has never been issued in the US. I got my copy from England and play it in the US on my laptop which knows nothing of region codes and is equally happy playing PAL as NTSC. With laptop connected to my sound system I had a front row seat. No extra software was required for this on my Mac. I've been trying to see this production for 30 years. It says a lot that I wasn't disappointed.

This was a colourful and lusty movie,set to Carl Orff's music. Costumes and settings spectacular which I have never seen the like of since. Regret not copying it on video at the time - have tried various places to purchase it over the years- even West Germany - without success.