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75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A feast for the senses--and the spirit!, June 20, 2006
This film is a feast for the senses--and the spirit. The story is a fictionalized version of the apprenticeship of a famous viol player, Marais, in the 1600's. His teacher, the legendary Sainte Colombe is a man who makes a spiritual discipline of playing music to the exclusion of nearly all else. Sainte Colombe's talent is supposed to be so great that he can imitate any human sound. Yet he does not care about fame and fortune. He shuns the frivolity of the French court of Louis XIV and even refuses to go to court when commanded by the King who wishes to hear him play.
Sainte Colombe fires his young disciple Marais despite his considerable talent. Colombe states in essence that Marais' astounding techinical expertise aside that there is no music in what he plays. Marais goes on to become court musician but still yearns to learn from the master.
This incredible story was filmed with precision and artistry. Each scene looks looks like a renaissance painting. The story is sad and haunting--clearly many of the characters are clinically depressed. Yet somehow this film conveys an unearthly beauty and dedication to art that is inspiring.
In addition the music is a wonderful discovery. Having never heard these composers it is a joy to be exposed to these plaintive complex melodies.
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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Levels of loving, December 23, 1999
I first saw this movie during its theatrical run and found it so haunting that I have had to watch it again and again. It seems to me that, like many European movies, there is an overriding idea running behind the incidents of the story. In this case, the overriding idea is that love has different forms and levels.
The plot, which is set primarily in the middle years of the 17th century in France (1640-1670), involves the interrelationship between the familiy of Monsieur de St. Colombe, a great, but reclusive virtuoso on the viola da gamba, his two daughters, and Marin Marais, St. Colombe's pupil who becomes a successful player and composer on the viola da gamba.
The great contrast is between St.Colombe's intensely passionate interior life (his "vie passione") and Marais' superficial one. St.Colombe's intense love for music and grief for his dead wife excludes everything else, even his own daughters. Marais is unable to love anything or anyone deeply enough and uses both Madeleine de St.Colombe and music to suit his own selfish ends. He is cold rather than passionate. Yet, at the end, his goals achieved, he finds the rewards of being cool so empty that he must return to St.Colombe where he, at last, begins to explore the depths of feeling which attracted him to music in the first place. He eventually breaks through to this depth enough to merit the approval of his master's ghost.
Given the film's meditative themes of love, grief, loneliness and the damage of ambition and it's rather brooding quality it isn't for everyone. The subtitles often are superficial, especially when dealing with matters of 17th century French politics and religion (translating every mention of the Jansenist circle at Port-Royal as "the reformists" for example). However, the film looks and feels right to this Baroque art historian and amateur musician. As an exploration of the intensity which humans are capable of expressing it is a masterpiece.
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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
French Baroque Masterpiece, July 29, 1999
By A Customer
This haunting story is based on the historical relationship between Marain Marais and this teacher St Columbo, two of the most renown gambists of all time (the gamba is a stringed, fretted instrument, popular in the 1700's, which looks something like a cello). St. Columbo (his first name is unknown) is an extremely dark and complex person, "all passion and rage yet mute as a fish". When his beautiful young wife dies unexpectedly he retreats from the world, devoting his life to his instrument and his art. Although recognized as the finest gambist in France, he becomes a recluse, defying even the king's order to play at the royal court. What is the meaning of music? Is it to impress one's rivals? To entertain? For gold? No, says the master, none of these. And one who makes music is not necessarily a musician. The young Marais, who has become his student, struggles to fathom its meaning. . Great attention is paid to details and authenticity. The viewer is given glimpses of the lavish court of France in the 1700's, the decadence of the privileged, and immersed in a sound track of Marais' exquisite French baroque music performed by virtuoso players. There is a love interest between Marais and Columbo's eldest daughter (also an accomplished gambist), which, although almost incidental to the plot, allows the film to be billed as a passionate love story. Other than a few graphic moments, however, All the Mornings of the World is a story of the love of music, rather than carnal love All the Mornings is a must-see for people with artistic inclinations. Those who love baroque music (1600-1750) will definitely want to order this film. And if you should happen to play the viola da gamba you have no choice but to purchase it (sheet music for much of the sound track is available in a collection from the Boulder Early Music Shop, if you feel adventuresome). For the esoteric viewer, All the Mornings rates five stars.
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