FARINELLI Movie Review

Farinelli the Castrato
Farinelli il Castrato

Carlo Broschi, whose stage name was “Farinelli,” was the most famous of the 18th-century music world's many castrati—male singers whose high, heavenly voices were preserved for a lifetime by a flick of the knife in their youth. Broschi was the Sinatra of his day—in terms of popularity, that is—and he reportedly drove his cult-like following of young women into adoring frenzies at his performances. Director Gérard Corbiau has focused his film on the intense sexual and professional rivalries between Broschi (Stefano Dionisi), his brother Riccardo (Enrico Lo Verso), and composer George Frederick Handel (Jeroen Krabbé), and dressed up the whole, rather campy enterprise with all-stops-out costumes and sets. Unfortunately, Corbiau forgot to bother with anything like a compelling script, so once the gimmick of hearing Farinelli's digitally synthesized, Dolby surround-o-fied voice has grown tiresome, the whole picture grows tiresome with it. Carlo and Riccardo do have a pretty amusing routine for seducing women, but it's not that amusing and once would have been enough. Not an embarrassment, but a bungle. If you want to hear the tunes, get the CD.

NEXT STOP … Amadeus, The Music Teacher, Tous les Matins du Monde

1994 (R) 110m/C FR IT BE Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Jeroen Krabbe, Elsa Zylberstein, Caroline Cellier, Omero Antonutti, Jacques Boudet; D: Gerard Corbiau; W: Gerard Corbiau, Andree Corbiau, Marcel Beaulieu; C: WaltherVanden Ende; M: Christopher Rousset. Cesar Awards '95: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound; Golden Globe Awards '95: Best Foreign Film; Nominations: Academy Awards '94: Best Foreign-Language Film. VHS, LV COL