Aria

R

Released Jul 14, 1987

1 hr. 31 min.

Musical

List

57%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

47%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this opera-based anthology, 10 directors interpret 10 popular arias. Among others, Robert Altman imagines the opening night of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Les Boréades" in 1734 Paris; Jean-Luc Godard envisions Jean-Bapiste Lully's "Armide" as the story of French maids desperately trying to seduce burly bodybuilders lifting weights at the gym; and Julien Temple stages Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" with synchronous infidelities occurring at the same hotel.

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Audience Member

An ambitious and interesting experiment to bring together a group of acclaimed indie directors to present various short stories set to the sound of many different operas. As most experiments go some segments work, some don't with Franc Roddam and Charles Sturridge's segments reign supreme and Jean-Luc-Godard and Robert Altman's segments fall flat disastrously. Give it a watch for some unique imagery and music on display along with the late great John Hurt in a central role.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

As with any of these 8 director shorts kinda films, half of them are bland, a handful are great and some are just bad. Unsurprisingly Ken Russell delivers one of the best, and so does Julien Temple's amusing romp through the glorious Madonna Inn. Godard surprisingly wins for biggest stinker, with a real vapid short. All in all, Pretty enjoyable due to the fact it's only an hour and a half long- keeping each film in the 10 minute range. Plus the music is all super classic opera which you can't exactly go wrong with.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

There's something for everyone. I liked almost all of them. Ken Russel, Charles Sturrige and Franc Roddam pieces were fantastic. Derek Jarman visually stunning too. Good stuff.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It starts out mild enough, but in the later parts it becomes so emotionally acute as to seem other worldly. Yet the stories have to do with worldly matters: love, longing, despair, death. Love it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Aria (Ken Russell et al., 1987) Anthology films are a tough beast, and especially in America, we're not quite sure what to do with them. (The Asians are still churning out excellent anthologies like Rampo Noir and 4bia.) Even at their best, anthology films in the western world are usually a mixed bag. Aria, while still fitting this descrption pretty well, is the least mixed-bag of them I've seen from American/European directors in recent memory. When it is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad, it's... less bad than it could have been. Ten directors make ten short films about sex, each attached to a particular aria (and each named for the opera from which the aria is taken). Some are comedic (Julien Temple's "Rigoletto", one of the film's true high points), some melodramatic (Robert Altman directs a meta piece tied to "Les Boréades", also excellent). A lot of them, to me at least, were surprises indeed; both of the pieces I've mentioned were some of the director's best work I've seen. Some I expected to be great, and they were (Derek Jarman). Some I expected to be awful, and they were (Godard, who has never been more than useless). But the upsides here vastly outwight the downsides; Godard's segment is the only one that's truly unlikeable here, and while the others vary in quality, all of them are at least worth watching. Some are a great deal more than that. Ken Russell's, especially, may have been his final spark of greatness, a last glimpse of the art-for-art's-sake director who would soon go the way of the great auk. It's all very pretty, and most of it is kind of brilliant, examining its subject from a number of different angles-almost all of them worth your time. If you've never had the chance, give it a look-it's quite fine. ****

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

the one by some guy named julian temple was the worst by so much. easily the least interesting.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

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Robert Altman

Director

Bruce Beresford

Director

Bill Bryden

Director

Jean-Luc Godard

Director

Derek Jarman

Director

Franc Roddam

Director

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Janet Maslin

New York Times

The best of the 10 segments is, perhaps predictably, the rare one without lofty pretensions.

Rated: 2/5

May 20, 2003

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

I am not sure that any indispensable statement about opera has been made here, and purists will no doubt recoil by the irreverence of some of the images. But the film is fun almost as a satire of itself.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

'...a sporadically interesting project, but what it shows clearly in 2020 is that diversity is something that cannot be ignored. If all films are directed by elderly white men, then self-indulgence and juvenilia result...'

Rated: 3/5

Jan 9, 2024

Full Review

Jason Best

Movie Talk

The most successful episode, though, is Julien Temple's cheerfully vulgar interpretation of 'La donna è mobile' from Verdi's Rigoletto.

Nov 22, 2020

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: C

Jun 30, 2005

Full Review

Thomas Delapa

Boulder Weekly

Rated: 2/5

Jun 9, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

In this opera-based anthology, 10 directors interpret 10 popular arias. Among others, Robert Altman imagines the opening night of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Les Boréades" in 1734 Paris; Jean-Luc Godard envisions Jean-Bapiste Lully's "Armide" as the story of French maids desperately trying to seduce burly bodybuilders lifting weights at the gym; and Julien Temple stages Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" with synchronous infidelities occurring at the same hotel.

Director: Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple
Executive Producer: Tom Kuhn, Jim Mervis, Charles Mitchell
Distributor: Miramax Films
Rating: R
Genre: Musical
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 14, 1987, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 2, 2017
Sound Mix: Surround

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