Dreadfully Boring

Best movie of this year hands down!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Leonard Maltin's BOMB rating for "Aria" has kept me off this movie for years, but it's not really all THAT bad. It's not as good as it could have been, either. I believe the main problem is that in some of the shorts the filmmakers fail to make a strong connection between the music and the images; opera buffs may still love listening to some of their favorite pieces, but they might as well do it with their eyes closed. But they - as well as the other viewers - should keep them open for at least three segments: Julien Temple's amusing bedroom farce, lowbrow in its content but sophisticated in its camera work and featuring the super hot Beverly D'Angelo, Ken Russell's imaginative visual extravaganza (with a perfectly timed finale), and Derek Jarman's elegiac salute to youth. Most of the other contributions are fair-to-middling, but the worst of the bunch by a wide margin is Godard's inexplicable homoerotic infomercial. It's the one segment that I would advise anyone to skip. ** out of 4.

Guess a few upscale film directors were sitting around sipping their absinthe, grappa, aramangac or jungle juice some night in the 80's during the Cannes or other film festival and one said "Hey, guys let's do a movie where each of us creates a segment around a world class aria." Welllll...it kind of sort of worked. Clearly someone was smart enough to select some of the best recordings of the arias chosen, for example Bjoreling's Nessun Dorma, so if you were blind and lying on the floor just listening to the DVD you got more than your money's worth. Not every director succeeded but more did than not and the flick seems to improve with each viewing over the years. My favorite is the eerily beautiful love duet from Die Todt Statd; okay a young naked Elizabeth Hurley is eye candy but her husband singing to her, his wife's ghost, is incredibly beautiful with the love music second only to Otello and Desdemona's "Gia nella Notte Densa" in all the operatic repertoire. Could the flick been better, sure, what couldn't not have been but it's well worth a view especially of you're in a hyper-romantic mood.

OK, yes I know I'm a Philistine, and I have no knowledge of, nor love for opera. I readily admit that I might feel differently about this film if I did. But I don't. So, for those of you like me, skip this one unless you want to look at the pretty (sometimes unclothed) girls. For what it's worth, I thought the first segment with Theresa Russell (who I didn't recognize) was the best of the lot.

Definitely worth watching.Ten different directors each present a segment based on their favorite opera aria. You don't need to be an opera lover to watch this film. (Although, of course, if you hate opera, you're really going to have a bad time with this!)Not surprisingly the segments range from brilliant to only fair. Most of the fuss seems to be over Godard's contribution -- whether you think he's brilliant or pretentious, his segment won't change your mind.Some of the pieces have a clear narrative; others are more a montage of connected images.None of the pieces is more than 10 minutes or so; if you're not happy with what's on the screen, wait for the next segment, and think about how much culture you're soaking up.Keep your eyes open for performances by Buck Henry, Beverly D'Angelo, Elizabeth Hurley, Briget Fonda, Tilda Swinton, and John Hurt. (The Buck Henry segment alone is worth the price of admission).