An Exercise In Nonsense

Am I Missing Something?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Juan is a musical where the music is great, the cast is talented, the directing is bold but the scenario has issues.The concept of the abusive womanizer is captured very well in either Mozart's opera (Cesare's 1955 version being my favorite) or in Jude Law's Alfie. Both works follow the protagonist in his adventures with women, his heartless abuse of their trust and both works ultimately punish him in the own ways: supernaturally the former, sentimentally the latter.Juan tries to combine the concepts.But the story fails almost immediately for he is a serial murderer. He does it at the intro of the film -- without the possibility of an equivalent to a "fair sword duel" as it existed in the age of Mozart where victory didn't count as murder. And he does it again at the finale.His guilt therefore, can no longer be attributed to breaking women's hearts for fun, but for murder instead. Which would be fine in a movie but it doesn't justify neither the origin of the music nor the volumes of sex.Both Alfie and Don Giovanni explore the issue of trust betrayal in multiple relationships much better than Juan.

I am not terribly familiar with Don Giovanni (although I know some of the tunes), which may be part of the reason that "Juan" did not impress me. I'll admit the live voices gave the film an admirable authenticity, and several of the main actors were very good (esp. Juan himself), but besides this I only have criticisms.Any modern, present-day setting of a classic opera is a huge gamble. It works when the director really knows what he's doing and has the artistic chops to pull it off, but sadly this one doesn't quite. He seems more interested in the modernized staging than in emphasizing the music. And most catastrophically, he introduces profanity into one of the highest human art forms. It then becomes a tasteless pandering to an extremely low common denominator, bordering on reality-TV. Perhaps it is an attempt to attract new audiences, but personally I find it wrongheaded. High art is about beauty and truth, and base profanity belongs in the gutter; it is not worth preserving for posterity in a full-scale original film production. I know many will find my view puritanical, but for me it's a question of beauty over ugliness. Profanity promotes and maintains negative emotions and has no noteworthy redeeming qualities. It certainly does not belong in opera.Even at 105 minutes, I found this very altered and abridged version long enough to be tiresome, and I have no desire to watch it again.My rating: 6 stars out of 10.

This is a bold interpretation of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" with modern settings (Budapest) and modern language(English, cause we have the best swear words!)including profanity, and even a smattering of nudity and violence. The singers, all international stars, are young, slim and attractive. They do not lip sync, but sing live on location, so there is an immediacy to their performances. I was lucky enough to see the US premiere at Palm Springs International Film Festival, even before the Danish premiers. The director explained at the festival Q&A the complicated process of recording the singers live to give the movie it's "real" feel, and it works.

I doubt that "Juan" will win many new converts to opera, but it's great fun for the already converted, an ingenious attempt (mostly successful) to update Mozart's opera to the smart-set of Budapest — people who fall hopelessly in love and thrive on delusion using cell phones, TV monitors, video cams and Mac laptops. Frankly, I wouldn't wish Italian opera sung in English on my worst enemy; I would have preferred a "Juan" sung in Italian, but I guess English is the world language of update. One aspect of the film I did not enjoy was the English subtitles: why use them when everyone sang loud and clear? For me the best singer was Mikhail Petrenko (Leporello) followed by Christopher Maltman as Juan who looks sexy enough to conquer 1003 women in Spain.Leporello's aria "One thousand and three" blew me away: his use of a Mac laptop and Mac software to display Juan's conquests is utterly brilliant.