Customer Reviews

Aria

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

ARIA is a wonderful film. Each director chose an Operatic Aria to work with for interpretation to the screen.
The new DVD release is to be avoided. I pre-ordered this a couple of months ago and upon arrival, was totally dissapointed by the quality. It's not 16x9 as advertised. It's not even full frame as it was filmed. Very poor transfer from an old answer or release print. Poor sound, doesn't even look good with a 1080 upconvert DVD player.
I have this film on VHS tape. Three years ago I transfered it to DVD. My VHS tape copy is far superior to this release.
In short, it sucks.......

This movie provided Liz Hurley with her big break. Soon after this, Dennis Potter snapped her up for the lead role in the BBC adaptation of Christabel Bielenberg's 'The Past is Myself'. She became Hugh Grant's girlfriend and the rest is history. She transformed herself physically during her twenties, which is why some viewers have had problems identifying the occasionally nude actress that appears here as the very slim Liz Hurley they now know.

For me, 'Aria' was the classical music community's response to the rise of MTV and the pop video. Directors like Ken Russell and Nick Roeg wanted to show us that opera could be equally colourful and sexy, even if you couldn't dance to it. And they proved their case, to my mind.

But like a pop video, you wouldn't want to watch this too often. There's no substantive connection between each of the videos, so you end up feeling much the same as you would after a 90-minute immersion in MTV.

I have loved this movie for years. Granted, it may be for deep film buffs, but it is powerful.

Each vignette offers a top director's interpretation of a provocative aria. Opera lovers know how emotionally provocative the music can be; and that raw emotion is shown by each director.

The love story is one of the most romantic and tragic stories I have ever seen--the images are still in my mind 10 years after first seeing it. I had enjoyed a light introduction to opera before this movie, but after feeling the raw emotions this film created in me, I bought a few opera CDs based simply on first hearing the arias in this movie. There is even some VERY funny stuff is one scene.

So, in summary, the music, images, and emotions from this movies were all so intense, they've stayed with me for years. If you can take the intensity, do not miss out on this powerful movie that can be both sublime and intense at the same time.

Although I have extensive musical experience as a classically trained singer, I think that even the novice appreciater of opera will find "Aria" appealing. The concept for "Aria" is compelling. Ten directors each make a short film using music from opera that has moved them in some way. As with any compilation of shorts, some do a better job than others. The five star review at the outset means that I think the best shorts of the bunch are worth buying the entire DVD. I will review each short separately.
The short films in this series can be catagorized in several ways. There are films that use excerpts from an opera to tell its film "story", while others use only a single composition. There are films where the visual story takes precedence and the music "accompanies", whereas others have the music as the star.
Images from Bill Bryden's short film are interspersed between each of the others giving the viewer a marker for when one film ends and another begins and this creates a story arc through the whole compilation which culminates at the end. (I will review Bill Bryden's film last.)

1. "Un ballo in maschera" (4 & 1/2 stars) - Dir. Nicolas Roeg uses excerpts from Verdi's opera to tell the story of a lustful Albanian monarch (played by actress Theresa Russell in a pants role!) wooing a young Baroness in Vienna while exiles plot to assasinate him. Those of you who know the opera will recognize the opera's plot mirrored in the film. I delighted in attention to details like the double-headed eagle (Albania's national symbol) over the entrance of the embassy.(Yes, I am Albanian.) The film succeeds in telling its story while allowing the music to carry us along. (Warning for brief partial nudity)

2. "La forza del destino" (5 stars) - The lovely aria, "La Virgine degli Angeli", performed by Leontyne Price, is clearly the star in Charles Sturridge's tragic black & white short and gives the film its needed emotional impact, particularly at the end. (Incidentally, the beautiful voice of Leontyne Price was featured in the previous film also and two other films later.)

3. "Armide" (1 star) - Jean Luc Goddard's short left me scratching me head going "Huh?". Two comely young cleaning ladies flit about, sometimes nude, through a gym and are ignored by the very muscular gym rats. The music would fade in and out to be replaced with the sound of the work-out machines in use. I found this distracting and annoying. The unfamiliar music (though not displeasing for me) and the images it accompanied did not fit well. Takes only ten minutes, but it was too long. Couldn't wait for it to end. By far, the stinker of the bunch.

4. "Rigoletto" (4 stars) - This one is the comedy and it works well. A film producer (Buck Henry) leaves his sick wife (Anita Morris) at home to go scout a location, but he is really going to rendez-vous with a sexy blond (Beverly D'Angelo) at a resort hotel that has "theme rooms". Unbeknownst to him, his wife has her own date with her tall handsome paramour at the same hotel. Near misses abound. Dir. Julien Temple uses several "oners", long continuous takes with no cuts, to propel his tale. Watch out for the Elvis impersonator. Its inclusion and the music that goes with him was a masterstroke. Laugh-out-loud funny.

5. "Die tote Stadt" (5 stars) - Have you ever had a deliciously beautiful dream you didn't want to end? Gorgeous music, breath-taking images, beautiful actors (Elizabeth Hurley nude, vavavoom), no storyline (no need for one) all blended seamlessly by Bruce Beresford to make this fairytale aria. <heavy sigh>

6. Les Boreades (2 & 1/2 stars) - A film of disturbing beauty. I was unaware of the fact that European aristocrats found it fun to bring people from an insane asylum to the opera. Robert Altman shot his subject from the stage looking out at the audience and all the antics that ensue. The unfamiliar music from the French Baroque might not be to everyone's liking.

7. "Tristan und Isolde" (5 stars) - In my humble opinion, this is the best overall film of the compilation. Music, images and story, Franc Roddam creates the complete package. If you are familiar with composer Richard Wagner and "Isoldes Liebestod", the music featured, this film's impact will be especially jarring. (WOW!) I warn everyone of the sexually expicit nature of this short, though it is by no means gratuitous. (Bridget Fonda, in an early role.) There is a sensational cut from the Arizona landscape to the Las Vegas skyline, which is most arresting. And the end! Don't want to give it away. You'll all just have to trust me. This one is worth it. Leontyne Price graces us again with her vocal talents.

8. "Turandot" (4 & 1/2 stars) - I got to give Dir. Ken Russell props for taking on only one of the most familiar and beloved tenor arias in all of opera, "Nessun dorma" by Giacomo Puccini. The surreal images in the beginning will leave you wondering where this film is going, but once the great Jussi Bjoerling starts singing the aria in earnest all will be explained.

9. "Louise" (5 stars) - This one is my personal favorite. The late Derek Jarman gives the viewer only the "impression" of a story and allows his audience to fill in the blanks to everyone's own taste. Who is the old woman bowing on stage and being showered with flower petals? Are she and the young woman the same person at different times? (Tilda Swinton, in an early role. As an actress, she has taken roles that have downplayed her looks. I didn't realize just how beautiful a young women she was.) The aria "Depuis le jour" (the incomparable Leontyne Price doing the honors, once again) sets the mood perfectly and whisks us along until the film ends long before we want it to. <another heavy sigh>

10. "I Pagliacci" (2 & 1/2 stars) - As stated above, this film is shown in tiny little snipets thoughout the whole compilation (a ritornello, of sorts, for all of you musicians out there), and its use does create interest. The part when the great character actor John Hurt goes into the church to pray before an icon of the Virgin Mary leads us smoothly and logically to "La Virgine degli Angeli" in the second film. As each vignette is presented, it becomes clear (to us opera buffs, at least) that our actor is preparing himself for the role of Canio in Ruggiero Leoncavallo tragic one act opera and its seminal aria "Vesti la giubba", heard in an old phonograph recording by Enrico Caruso. So why the 2 & 1/2 stars? The final culmination left me disappointed and unsatisfied. The lead up was better than the finale. You'll have to see it to understand why.

To sum it all up, this DVD was an instant keeper for me. The good films were great. If you are new to opera and want to learn more, you might find it rewarding to make cursory study of each musical piece you find enjoyable. Knowing what I knew already about the music certainly added to my own enjoyment of this DVD. As for the ones I didn't enjoy, I will defer to those other reviewers who might do a better job than I at explaining and defending their worth.

I first saw Aria in the theater back in high school (about 3 million years ago) and only because I wanted to impress a girl way more artistic than myself.

It worked, but not in a way I'd expected. The movie, a series of vignettes, runs the whole emotional spectrum. In my younger days, we were blown away by the Wagner/Roddam piece starring a young Fonda, so loving and jarring at the same time. These days I find all the music beautiful, but one or two of the vignettes boring. The entire movie is beautifully shot and all deserves to be watched at least once.

After having done that you'll find continual enjoyment watching Sturridge, Beresford, Roddam, Jarman, and Bryden's interpretations.

Who knows, you might fall in love with opera too.

Aria is the MTV of Operatic music. Each of the 10 directors chose a aria and made a music video for each. THE MUSIC IS FANTASTIC! I was not a Opera fan before I saw the video, but now I only wish there was a soundtrack. The Music videos range form the surrealistic to comedic. Many well known and new actors and actresses are in the videos including Buck Henery, Elizabeth Hurley and Bridget Fonda. I like to play the video loud and sometimes not pay attention to the video part. Once again I wish there was a Soundtrack. If you liked Brazil, you will like this.

Aria is 90 minutes of pure wonderment -- I'm not certain what demographic this project was aimed at, but I definitely fall into it. You have to love opera style music yet not be so attached to the operas themselves that the re-presentation of the music offends. You have to enjoy video that your average couch potato won't get, no matter how many mind altering drugs he takes.

To really enjoy Aria, you have to check your expectations at the door and accept it for what it is -- a set of brilliant visual explorations fueled by some of the most incredible music ever written. With any other attitude, you're far more likely to find this a miserable experience. Too vulgar, too highbrow, too bizarre, too surreal, too whatever.

Some pieces tell a solid story, ranging from humorous to tragic. Others lack story line and speak to a different level of consciousness. Pathos. Humor. Death. Life. Celebration. Brilliance. Aria cleanses windows of perception, like a good wine between courses of a meal. On the other hand, it's a main course, in and of itself.

This is not fodder for young children, and most teens won't have the patience for it either. If you thought "Dude, Where's My Car?" was a brilliant movie, perhaps you'd better pass on this one as well. I only wish that more Wagner had been included ... perhaps an Aria II consisting solely of Wagner arias?

(If you'd like to discuss this movie or review in more depth, click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

There comes a time when you are exposed to a film...to a song...to a photograph...to a piece of history that sends you to a place where you either want to be...or wish to avoid.

I saved the film "ARIA" for Father's Day...because when I began to watch it six months ago I was quickly enveloped in an aura of nostalgia that tugged at my heart.

I don't know how to review such a film as "ARIA". There's never been anything like it, nor will there be again. It is cinematic brilliance...cinematic brilliance...cinematic brilliance. Do you get the point?

It is a visual masterpiece...a musical masterpiece...simply a piece of art!

I'd be remiss if I told you it was for everyone. This one is very much a romantic (sometimes erotic) flick I would highly recommend to the hopeless romantics on this planet. Unfortunately, that eliminates most of the men on Earth...but not me.

I don't remember the last time I cried so much...so hard...so consistently...than with this operatic, eroti,. connectic, endearing...and sometimes tragic epic.

It is filled with love...with pain...with hope...and joy...and sprinkled with passion...with eternal love...with lost dreams...with hopeful fantasies...with ART!

Many films have left me speechless...this one will never find a way to keep my trap shut.

Maybe it's the romance in me that provoked the tears...but this film is one that goes straight to the heart...the soul...the ears and the tears. If you've ever been in love...lost a love...yearned for love...or simply enjoyed the thought of being in love..."ARIA" is for you.

See it with a loving friend. I swear you'll swap tissues...you'll hug...you'll cry out loud...

and that's what makes this film such an epic of the heart. What's wrong with tears? What's wrong with wanting...having...losing...possessing the strength of eternal love and passion? Isn't that what life is all about?

All of this is captured without a script. The soul is orchestrated by operatic classics.

It is profound sound...visual candy that only a cinematic artist could capture on film.

This one was made for PR...for me. It will go down as one of the finest films I have ever seen.

Only one hint...it is a series of vignettes that build in intensity. The star-studded cast includes many classic actors and actresses...but their challenge in this ditty was to capture your heart without a script. Guess what? They do.

Here's the box. Go out...rent or buy this box...along with some Kleenex...a bottle of Chardonnay...and hold the hand of someone you love. I, regretably, was home alone...and when I let Stan (my dog) in the house after the film...he never received a better back rub (scratch behind the ears). I'm still lost in "ARIA". The tranquil mood...the imagery...the beautiful music will live with me forever. Phew! This one was simply awesome!

Take 10 well known opera arias then ask 10 established or up and coming directors to interpret them visually in any manner they choose. Either a collection of opera videos or modern day silent shorts with musical accompaniment, take your pick. What you end up with is a film that ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Each person must judge for themselves which segments work best for them. My favorite episodes were directed by Ken Russell, Bruce Beresford, Franc Roddam, and Derek Jarman. My favorite arias used were by Korngold, Verdi, Lully, and Leoncavallo. In only one instance (Bruce Beresford's interpretation of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's DIE TOTE STADT) do the video and the audio coincide.

As a devotee of silent movies, I am always drawn to films that attempt to tell their stories visually. Just as music is a key element in silents so it is with ARIA. When it was first released the movie did not satisfy opera purists and the music video crowd didn't care for it either which is a shame on both counts. ARIA is visually ravishing and the music is superb. It's just not for all tastes. This 2008 re-release is the same as the 2002 one.

You must watch this film as a true artistic experiment and nothing else. It' s a successful encounter of well talented filmmakers who gave the best of themselves in order to create and recreate the Opera and extend the range of its possibilities.