Aria

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STU L I recently watched this again on DVD along with my girlfriend, who had never seen it. Several of the segments were confusing, and at times the nudity (mostly female) seemed to exist because the directors enjoyed working with beautiful nude women. There were some high points, however. The depiction of two lovers in the "dead city" of Korngold's opera was beautifully shot (was it in Bruges, the locale of the opera?); The aria from "Louise," in which an elderly woman looks back on her joyful youth was touching; the comedy of a married couple both cheating on their spouses at the same resort (while an Elvis impersonator sings "La donna e mobile") was a highlight; and the framing device (no plot spoiler here) was well crafted. A number of the arias were sung by Leontine Price, who may be the greatest soprano of all time. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/16/25 Full Review 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 3/5 Stars •  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 3/5 Stars •  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 4/5 Stars •  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 5/5 Stars •  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 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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