Touches You

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Farinelli is a 1994 Belgian-Italian-French biographical drama film directed by Gérard Corbiau and starring Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Elsa Zylberstein and Jeroen Krabbé. It centers on the life and career of the 18th-century Italian opera singer Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, considered the greatest castrato singer of all time; as well as the relation with his brother, composer Riccardo Broschi. Although based on real-life events, dramatic license was taken to a great extent, and only the basic facts of Farinelli's life are correct, while the plot line is completely fictional and far removed from what is known about real-life Carlo Broschi (1705-1782). For example, the ambiguous relationship between the Broschi brothers, the stormy one with rival composer Handel, and Farinelli's own amorous escapades and over-the-top rock star attitude are totally spurious. Additionally, Farinelli's brother is given much more importance than he actually had in his brother's career, while Porpora's own (and that of other composers of the Neapolitan School as well) is De-emphasized; the movie also offers a different explanation for how Carlo Broschi came to take the stage name Farinelli than what has been historically ascertained. George Frideric Handel, played by Jeroen Krabbé, is made out to be somewhat of a villain, but that is based on the competition between the London theater at which Handel's music was played and the rival theater at which Farinelli sang for a short period It was released in 1994 and won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 1995. It was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

The sets and costumes are magnificent and give a 21st century viewer a glimpse of what life must have been like for the fortunate wealthy in the days of the baroque composers, but the story is confusing and there was far too much gratuitous sex. It was as if the filmmakers did not think that the beautiful music and sumptuous settings could carry the film. I don't know if something was lost in the subtitling, or whether too much film was left on he cutting room floor, but I was baffled by a number of the characters. Who was Benjamin and why did he wear a body brace? Who were Alexandra and Margareth? The characters simply seemed to be a device to move the story along to the bizarre and unnecessary sex scenes.My biggest problem was with the poor lip synching, which was so obvious that it distracted and spoiled the flow of the film. It was not just that the facial mannerisms did not match the voice, but that the volume actually dropped to the extent that the voice seemed to be coming from off stage. Nowhere was this worse than the trumpet scene at the beginning. The castrati had very powerful voices, but Farinelli's voice sounds like a far-off squeak. Synching has been done very successfully in the past, most notably by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Ava Gardner is Show Boat, and most famously by Edmund Purdom in the Student Prince, so it should not be beyond the capability of film makers 40 or more years later. I felt that the film would have been more convincing if Farinelli had been played by a soprano doing her own singing, and had concentrated more on the relationship with the brother who was riding on Farinelli's coat tails. How often have we seen a partnership where one half is nothing without the other, and knows it.As for the comparison with the decadent rock star life style, that is how the castrati stars allegedly lived in the hedonistic 18th-century. I am not sure either that the castrati strutted around the stage like drag queens as they were supposed to be playing the women's parts as women. Given Ken Russell’s record of appallingly bad taste portrayals of musicians, it is surprising that he never attempted this one. It was right up his street. Opera lovers would be better served by listening to recordings of Handels operas.

See the movie for the music, the costumes and the set designs. I first heard of this movie through a classical music station and I was hooked immediately. Bought the soundtrack and fell in love with the strength of the voice. A voice with a three and a half octave range! Buy the CD to read about how the voice was created for the movie. Just incredible.

The first time I watched this film the subtitles didn´t work, but I wasstill hooked on its beauty and emotion. After a proper viewing Iwent straight out and bought the soundtrack - and I´m totally notinto opera. The scene where Farinelli sings Händel sent suchhuge shivers down my spine and tears down my face.The story itself may not be entirely historically correct (when wasever filmmaking all about facts and figures?), but the tale about Farinelli is captivating to say the least. The castrato singers wereboth worshipped and shunned by society, loved for their heavenlyvoices and scorned for their lost manhood.Michael Jackson is the obvious modern day comparison, but I´dsay that´s not fair to Farinelli. Check out this film, enjoy the music,and learn that extreme celebrity is not a new thing!