Aria (film)

Summary

The opening credits are set to the overture to Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata.

Un ballo in maschera

A fictionalised account of a 1931 assassination attempt on King Zog I of Albania, notable for his shooting back at his would-be assassins and surviving. (In the actual attempt, King Zog was leaving a performance of Pagliacci.)

Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi

Extracts: Prelude, "Re dell' abisso", "Di che fulgor che musiche", "La rivedra nell'estasi", "Ebben si t'amo", "Mezza notte", "O giustizia del fato"

Sung by Leontyne Price, Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill, Shirley Verrett, Reri Grist; conducted by Erich Leinsdorf

Directed by Nicolas Roeg

Starring Theresa Russell

Running time: 14 minutes

"La vergine degli angeli" from La forza del destino

Two London teenage girls and a young boy steal a car.

Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi

Sung by Leontyne Price; conducted by Thomas Schippers

Directed by Charles Sturridge

Starring Nicola Swain, Jackson Kyle, Marianne McLaughlin

Running time: 5 minutes

Armide

Two young women try to attract the attention of oblivious bodybuilders, eventually stripping off.

Music composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully

Extracts: "Ah! Si la liberté me doit être l'Amour", "Enfin, il est en ma puissance", "Venez,venez, Haine implacable"

Libretto by Philippe Quinault

Performed by Rachel Yakar, Zeger Vandersteene, Danielle Borst; conducted by Philippe Herreweghe

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Starring Valérie Allain and Marion Peterson

Running time: 11 minutes

Rigoletto

A bedroom farce set in San Luis Obispo's famous Madonna Inn, in which a movie producer cheats on his wife unaware that she, too, is there with a clandestine lover of her own.

Music by Giuseppe Verdi

Extracts: "Questa o quella", "Gualtier Maldè... caro nome", "La donna è mobile", "Addio, addio"

Sung by Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, Alfredo Kraus; conducted by Georg Solti

Directed by Julien Temple

Written by Charlie Coffey

Starring Buck Henry and Beverly D'Angelo

Running time: 14 minutes

"Glück, das mir verblieb" from Die tote Stadt

A look at the seemingly-dead city of Bruges, Belgium. Scenic footage of the empty streets and cemeteries is intercut with a duet of two lovers, providing counterpoint to the dead city.

Music composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Sung by Carol Neblett and René Kollo; conducted by Erich Leinsdorf

Directed by Bruce Beresford

Starring Elizabeth Hurley and Peter Birch

Running time: 5 minutes

Abaris ou les Boréades

A re-creation of opening night at Paris's Théâtre Le Ranelagh in 1734. The audience is filled with a raffish assortment of inmates from an asylum.

Music composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau

Libretto by Louis de Cahusac

Extracts:Entr'acte – "Suite des vents", "Nuit redoutable! ... Lieu désolé", "Jouissons, jouissons! Jouissons de nos beaux ans"

Performed by Jean-Philippe Lafont, Philip Langridge, John Aler; conducted by John Eliot Gardiner

Directed by Robert Altman

Starring Julie Hagerty, Geneviève Page, Sandrine Dumas, Chris Campion

Running time: 7 minutes

"Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde

Two young lovers arrive in Las Vegas. After driving down Fremont Street, they check into a cheap hotel room where they unsuccessfully try to commit suicide following the consummation of their relationship.

Music composed by Richard Wagner

Sung by Leontyne Price; conducted by Henry Lewis

Directed by Franc Roddam

Starring Bridget Fonda in her first credited film role.

Running time: 7 minutes

"Nessun dorma" from Turandot

After a car crash, a lovely young girl imagines her body is being adorned by jewels mirroring her injuries, in a tribal ritual parallel to the procedures of the surgical team treating her, until she wakes up in the operating room after resuscitation.

Music composed by Giacomo Puccini

Sung by Jussi Björling; conducted by Erich Leinsdorf

Directed by Ken Russell

Starring Linzi Drew

Running time: 7 minutes

"Depuis le jour" from Louise

A veteran opera singer gives her final performance, intercut by 8mm home movies of an early love affair.

Music composed by Gustave Charpentier

Sung by Leontyne Price; conducted by Francesco Molinari-Pradelli

Directed by Derek Jarman

Starring Tilda Swinton

Running time: 6 minutes

"Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci

A virtuoso remembers his career while arriving at an opera house, visiting the dressing room to put on his clown makeup, and performing the aria for his audience of one. (This story provides a vague framing narrative to link together the other segments.)

Music composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo

Sung by Enrico Caruso

Directed by Bill Bryden

Written by Bill Bryden and Don Boyd

Starring John Hurt and Sophie Ward

Running time: 4 minutes

The closing credits, after replaying a small excerpt of each of the ten operas, are again set to the overture to Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, thus finally closing the cycle.

Critical response

The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (won that year by Sous le soleil de Satan).

rogerebert.com http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aria-1988

Guerand, Jean-Philippe. In: Première (France). (MG), June 1987, p. 17

Godard, Jean-Luc. "Jean-Luc Godard par Jean-Luc Godard", vol. 2, 1984–1998. Cahiers du cinéma, 1998, 2866421981

Leonard Maltin from his guide: "BOMB (i.e.0/4) Godawful collection of short films, each one supposedly inspired by an operatic aria. Precious few make sense, or even seem to match the music; some are downright embarrassing. Roddam's bittersweet Las Vegas fable (set to Tristan und Isolde), Beresford's sweet and simple rendering of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt are among the better segments—relatively speaking. A pitiful waste of talent."