MEETING VENUS
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
MEETING VENUS is a film directed by Istvan Szabo, produced by David Puttnam, and written by Szabo and Michael Hirst. The film stars Glenn Close and Niels Arestrup. Rated PG-13 for sexual themes.
MEETING VENUS is a witty film about grand opera, in this case the mounting of a new production of TANNHAUSER in Paris for a live and a television audience. The director is the Hungarian Zoltan Szendo, played by Niels Arestrup, who is getting his first big break in the West. The political dimensions of opera have never been thrown into a clearer light as Szendo not only has to contend with unions and "democracy," but also the lingering effects of World War II, the Spanish Civil War, and the Cold War on the attitudes of the singers, musicians, administrators, and everyone else involved in any way, however tangentially, with producing TANNHAUSER.
Szendo wants to talk about the passion of the music. Everyone around him wants him to sign petitions, cancel rehearsals, take sides in the internal politics of l'Opera Europa, the fictive production company. Then, on top of all his other frustrations, the great diva Karin Andersson, played by Glenn Close of all people, sails into rehearsal one morning a week late and promptly snubs him. Miraculously (in a literal way) and inevitably, TANNHAUSER does get produced and the movie ends with a smashing, greatly moving, and unrehearsed version, but the road to that point is what makes MEETING VENUS so satisfying and so much fun.
The script has a certainly inevitability to it, but Szabo and Hirst do fill the script with any fine smaller moments, such as the improvised duet between Szendo and Andersson about "cheesy Swiss" and all the other national antagonisms of united Europe.
Arestrup, a newcomer, as far as I know, is a wonderful screen presence. His appearance is not conventionally handsome, but he projects so much energy and concentration that he is quite overwhelming. His interpretation of Szendo is perfect and intense as the artist clinging to the one steady rock, Wagner's music, in this new and confusing world of private enterprise, private art, and the chaotic, messy politics of democracy, all of which appear to care not one whit about the music for which he is prepared to sacrifice anything. When he finally asserts himself, it is to assert the primacy of the music above all else, and it is an exciting and dramatic moment. Arestrup was capable of keeping up with Close, who, although not a scene-stealer, is such a powerful presence herself as to be always the focus of any scene she's in.
Glenn Close is, of course, wonderful. I'm aware that Close has her fans and her detractors, inexplicable as the latter is to me. I think she is one of the two best screen actresses of her generation in American films today -- the other being Meryl Streep (I think they're rough contemporaries). She is mercurial -- one moment, the imperious diva passing out air kisses like dukedoms, the next moment, the lover slick with the sweat of love-making and her anger, one moment obsequious and mocking at the same time, the next radiant and exultant. The only thing that keeps her from being a perfect diva is her physical size which -- despite her relatively high lip-synching skills -- prevent us from ever fully accepting the power of Kiri Te Kanawa's voice emanating from that thin, tiny body.
The other cast members constitute a charming ensemble miscellany of delightful character actors: the little dumpy man from Dresden who matches a glorious voice with the meanest of small minds, the passionate and hefty singers as much in love with pasta as with each other or Wagner, the seductive younger singers who want to cuddle up with a new genius, the politicking and adversarial bureaucrats. The only cavils I have here are that the lip-synching skills of some of the singing roles were not as strong as they ought to have been and that (once again) I have to protest the exclusively flaky homosexuals.
No one in opera, the move seems to say, is what we the audience would call normal, but the gay men in the opera world are abnormal even by opera's standards. There's the production designer who dresses and looks like the leather queen of Elm Street and whose reaction to stress is decidedly off the wall; there's the American singer who is big, tall, butch, and ineffectual; there's the choreographer who is simply a bitch. I'm not buying and Szabo shouldn't be selling it: not every queer in show biz is out of his mind.
Szabo has got to be one of the great directors of world cinema. His Mephisto trilogy (MEPHISTO'S WALTZ, COLONEL REDL, and to a less extent HANUSSMAN) ought to settle that for some time to come. By contrast with MEPHISTO, MEETING VENUS is a much lighter-weight entertainment. This latest Szabo film is very funny all the way through. It has some serious things to say about democracy and about art and love and making choices (and the freedom to make those choices). However, the comedy and romance are so delightful, and the glorious music so completely charming, that I leave the theater feeling uplifted and relaxed MEPHISTO or REDL never would have let me.
I don't know if you will get a chance to see MEETING VENUS in your area, but if you can I recommend that you do so and not worry about the ticket price. This movie is is worth.
One note: if necessary, you might want to bone up on Wagner's TANNHAUSER a little. It will add to your enjoyment and understanding of the movie.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews