Farinelli: il castrato

[pro-bassoonist]

Gérard Corbiau's Farinelli: il castrato (1994) has received a preliminary release date for the Gallic markets: November 4th. Nominated for Oscar, Best Foreign Language Film, 1995. Winner of two Cesar Awards - Best Production Design and Best Sound.

Variety:

"Farinelli" is a lavish, literally baroque account of the triumphant stage career and tortured private life of the 18th century's greatest castrato singer. Somewhat contrived costume meller boasts a technically thrilling re-creation of the vocal prowess needed to perform the now unsingable compositions. Pic will require special handling to attract international arthouse auds beyond hard-core music lovers, but handsome leads, potent sex scenes and strong women's roles help put across the visually compelling package.

No one knows exactly what castrati sounded like, but Farinelli in his prime boasted a range of 3 1/2 octaves and could sing a dazzling 250 notes in a row or sustain a single note for a full minute.

Pic gets off to a dramatic start in Naples with a recently castrated youth plunging to his death during choir practice after warning prepubescent Carlo not to let the music establishment sever his testicles. An upset young Carlo is told by his father that he must put his exceptional voice in the service of his older brother, Riccardo, a composer.

Riccardo writes florid music for his sibling to perform and the two share everything, down to the women who swoon over Carlo.

Many years after the composer Handel (Jeroen Krabbe) tried unsuccessfully to separate the brothers, Farinelli is lured to London, where two theaters -- Covent Garden, directed by Handel, and a rival house directed by Farinelli's former voice teacher Porpora -- are having the 18th-century equivalent of a cutthroat ratings war.

Farinelli is a smash at the rival house but becomes obsessed with winning Handel's respect and decides to aim for pure expression in lieu of frills. His breakthrough as an artist leaves no room for Riccardo.

Muscular Italian thesp Dionisi has the bearing and stage persona of an adored performer weighed down by the knowledge that he'll never father a child, but he lacks the hairless, doughy demeanor ascribed to castrati. Krabbe cuts a demanding and imperious figure as the vindictive Handel. The soulful Lo Verso sparkles and mugs a bit too vehemently as Farinelli's brother.

Lensing and editing are aces, as are the lush period details of costumes and settings.

Helmer Gerard Corbiau, whose 1987 feature "The Music Teacher" was a foreign-language Oscar nominee, delivers patches of heady emotion but allows them to disperse. Still, whatever the pic's structural flaws and historical license, its raw material is intellectually intriguing and succeeds in communicating a melancholy sense of triumph tinged with loss.

Camera (color), Walther Vanden Ende; editor, Joelle Hache; musical direction, Christophe Rousset; production design, Gianni Quaranta; costume design, Olga Berluti, Anne de Laugardiere; special makeup and hair, Kuno Schlegelmilch; sound (Dolby), Jean-Paul Muguel, Dominique Hennequin; sound design, Richard Shorr; IRCAM sound engineers, Philippe Depalle, Guillermo Garcia, Xavier Rodet, Boris Duval; vocalists, Derek Lee Ragin, Ewa Mallas Godlewska; casting, Gerard Moulevrier, Jose Villaverde. Reviewed at Max Linder Panorama Cinema, Paris, Dec. 12, 1994. Running time: 110 min.

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