ARIA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Book publishing has the concept of the "original anthology." Several well-known authors are given a theme to write on and each does a short story bringing an original approach to that theme. Occasionally a similar approach is tried in anthology films, having a different director for each segment, but usually what is done seems to be to give the director a script and let him direct it. Films like QUARTET, TRIO, ENCORE (all based on collections of W. Somerset Maugham stories), O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE, and DEAD OF NIGHT were probably done this way. ARIA appears to be a film that gave its directors even more autonomy. In this anthology film, the only thing that the segments have in common is that each is an interpretation of an operatic aria. As long as the aria is played through the film, it seems to fulfill the requirements.
It would be misleading to try to rate such a mixed bag of short films as a single piece. Instead I will consider each segment. Even there I want to give each piece two ratings, one on how it stands on its own as a film and a second rating on how well it used the music it was interpreting. (Ratings are on the -4 to +4 scale.)
Opera: UN BALLO IN MASCHERA (A MASKED BALL) by Giuseppe Verdi Director: Nicholas Roeg
The opening piece (but for a framing piece that will be described later) involves an assassination attempt on King Zog of Albania. The attractive and versatile Teresa Russell (BLACK WIDOW) has finally been given a role that she is totally unconvincing in. Sporting a handlebar mustache and wearing a tight military tunic, she plays King Zog. Only afterwards did I find out that it was she in the role, but it was obviously an actress rather than an actor. Nor did the punchline of the story work. Story: 0. Appropriateness: +1.
Opera: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO (THE FORCE OF DESTINY) by Giuseppe Verdi Director: Charles Sturridge
I did not care for this segment on first brush, but on discussing it later I see more quality in it. Sturridge shows us troubled children leading a pointless existence of TV-watching and getting into trouble. The original aria is a plea to the Virgin Mary which may well be appropriate. Story: +1. Appropriateness: +1.
Opera: ARMIDE by Jean-Baptiste Lully Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Two attractive female attendants in a gym for body-builders first desire the powerful masculine bodies around them, then try to seduce them, only to be frustrated and ignored by the dehumanized athletes around them. The section is amusing and perhaps even erotic. Story: +1. Appropriateness: -1.
Opera: RIGOLETTO by Giuseppe Verdi Director: Julian Temple
Seemingly out of place we have one Blake-Edwards-style sex farce. A husband and wife cheating on each other both go with their lovers to the same garish motel. The common tension builds as husband and wife nearly run into each other time and again. Will they run into each other? Do we really care? Mindless but amusing. Story: +1. Appropriateness: 0.
Opera: DIE TOTE STADT (THE DEAD CITY) by Erick Korngold Director: Bruce Beresford
Because I read the program I know what the director of BREAKER MORANT and CRIMES OF THE HEART was trying to say with this film, but it does not come from the film. According to the program, it has a man falling "in love with what he believes to be the spirit of his dead wife." It appears to be just two lovers and scenes of an atmospheric (and apparently empty) old European city. Story: 0. Appropriateness: +1.
Opera: LES BOREADES by Jean-Phillippe Rameau Director: Robert Altman
One would expect a good segment from a director as distinguished as Robert Altman. Surprise! This is the biggest loser in the lot. It is dull, but worse than that, it is borrowed from a much better film, MARAT/SADE. Both films deal with the historical fact that in post- Revolutionary France it was though chic to involve the inmates of insane asylums in theatrical productions. In MARAT/SADE the insane put on a play and rich patrons come to see it; in Altman's the insane come to see an opera. In both the mad are uncontrollable, which is one reason the rich want to watch them. But in MARAT/SADE the monkeyshines are only a tiny piece of all that is going on on the screen. They are all that happens in Altman's section of ARIA. Story: -1. Appropriateness: -1.
Opera: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE by Richard Wagner Director: Franc Roddam
I was not fond of Roddam's films THE BRIDE and QUADROPHENIA, but I have to give him the prize for ARIA. This had to be what the people who thought of the film had in mind. This is a very sensual adaptation of Wagner's "Liebestod" that in some ways fits the music as well or better than Wagner did originally. Story: +1. Appropriateness: +3.
Opera: TURANDOT by Giacomo Puccini Director: Ken Russell
I lucked out on this one--I did not read the program. There is a nice surprise in this segment, but the program ruins it by telling too much. The story is of a princess of some sort being decorated by having diamonds and rubies inlaid directly into her flesh. But even as we watch it, more is going on than we realize. Don't read the program. Story: +1. Appropriateness: +1.
Opera: LOUISE by Gustave Charpentier Director: Derek Jarman
An old woman dressed incongruously in the clothes of a much younger person remembers days gone by. This one squeaks by, passable but no great shakes. Story: 0. Appropriateness: 0.
Opera: PAGLIACCI by Ruggero Leoncavallo Director: Bill Bryden
If Bryden was trying to say something with his framing sequence of John Hurt preparing for and singing PAGLIACCI, it went right past me. Not very unusual. This was not up to most of the segments it framed. Story: -1. Appropriateness: +1.
Mark R. Leeper
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