Originally posted on 4/18/19
The very notion of the "castrato" has always been utterly grotesque to me, so I didn't know what I was getting into with FARINELLI (1994), the biography of real-life 18th-century Italian castrato Carlo "Farinelli" Broschi. And the last thing I expected was for it to be so moving, so engaging, so lavishly produced, and, ultimately, so much fun.
Not a comedic sort of fun--there are few actual lighthearted moments--but the fun of delving into something purely enjoyable and being dazzled by it. The story is a richly dramatic one that's well-acted and impeccably rendered, with fine costumes and locations including some of the grandest opera houses in Europe.
But the main appeal here is the journey of our main character, Carlo (Stefano Dionisi), who becomes a castrato (thus preserving his exquisite pre-pubescent singing voice) against his will having already witnessed another boy's suicide after suffering the same fate.
His musician father makes him vow to never deny his voice to his older brother Riccardo (Enrico Lo Verso), an aspiring composer who uses Carlo as a vocal instrument to increase the appeal of his own pedestrian music. Later, when Carlo's fame elevates him to rock-star status, this brotherly partnership will extend to Carlo's sexual conquests, which Riccardo also shares in tag-team fashion.
The early part of the film reminded me a bit of Ken Russell's LISZTOMANIA--sans the over-the-top ridiculousness--with women, nobility included, throwing themselves at Carlo and sometimes even reaching sexual climax during some of his more impressive vocal gymnastics.
Riccardo seems to enjoy this aspect of his brother's fame the most, though, as Carlo is clearly unfulfilled and searching for something more. That something, we discover, is to sing music with genuine passion, as opposed to the ornate but empty passages penned by his brother.
At one point, the great composer Handel (Jeroen Krabbé, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS), who previously rejected the brothers and ridiculed Carlo as a freak, has a change of heart after Carlo's rise to fame and wishes for him to perform his music. This will create a rift between Carlo and the increasingly jealous Riccardo that will grow wider with time, especially when a terrible secret from the past is revealed.
Meanwhile, Carlo's sensitive side emerges when he meets Margareth Hunter (Caroline Cellier) and her disabled young son Benedict, with whom he forms a deep mutual affection. He also falls in love with Benedict's nurse Alexandra (Elsa Zylberstein) and they form a close relationship that will, as usual, include Riccardo.
Most of this, as I found after a bit of online research, is made up of whole cloth and bears little resemblance to the life of the real Farinelli (Carlo Brochi's stage name). But I didn't mind, because it's such a gorgeous, sumptuous fiction that I found myself captivated by it from tumultuous start to emotional finish.
Not the least of its charms are its performance scenes, during which Farinelli's incredibly rich and nimble soprano voice is simulated by the painstaking combination of real-life male and female opera singers after much experimentation.
Stefano Dionisi himself underwent extensive training to learn how to convincingly lip-synch the songs amidst all the pomp and splendor the production designers could muster.
Director Gérard Corbiau brings it all together with a surehanded, straighforward style and a keenly artistic eye. FARINELLI is both a visual and aural confection and a dramatic delight that one can indulge in like a rich dessert. And like any sumptuous treat, I didn't want it to end.
Buy it at Film Movement
BONUS FEATURES:
Making-Of Featurette
Behind-The-Scenes Interviews
Illustrated Booklet With Essay
Trailer
TECH SPECS:
Format: NTSC, Subtitled
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Film Movement Classics
New 2K Digital Restoration
1.85:1 Widescreen, 2.0 Stereo
Language: French and Italian, English Subtitles
DVD Release Date: April 23, 2019
Run Time: 111 minutes
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