ARIA
A film review by Daniel M. Rosenberg
Copyright 1988 Daniel M. Rosenberg
ARIA A mini film review by Daniel M. Rosenberg
Directors: various (10 of them) Music: various (10 of them)
This film isn't going to be widely realeased, and that's too bad. It's rated X, or rated such that "No one under 17 will be admitted," and this is the kind of film that rated X was meant for. Stuff like GRENDEL DOES THE GREEN BAY PACKERS should have its own rating.
ARIA is ten, loosely linked segments, each with a different director and a different musical score. Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner are in there a lot. Almost all of the segments are shot on location, from a weightlifting room in Paris to the Madonna Motel in San Luis Obispo, California. Each segment is the director's interpretation of an opera piece.
Some of the segments are *really* fantastic. The "Tristan and Isolde" starts with a young couple driving through an Arizon desertscape into Las Vegas, and it's simply beautiful. They drive down the strip, we see the old ladies at the slot machines, the odd people on the street, the wedding chapels, and the motel room.
In Jean-Luc Godard's segment, two young cleaning women in a Paris gym are ignored by muscle-bound Narcissuses. It's *hilarious*.
The idea behind the whole thing -- show modern people what opera felt like to the contemporaries of the composers -- is really executed well. Usually, I hate opera; for once, I loved it.
Released nationally, but mostly in artsy places like the Varsity in Palo Alto, CA. +3 on the -4 to 4 scale.
-- ## Daniel M. Rosenberg /////// CSLI/Stanford //////////////// +1 (415) 323-0389 ## INTERNET: dmr@csli.stanford.edu //////////// UUCP: {ucbvax, decvax}!csli!dmr
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