Farinelli (1994)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Gérard Corbiau

Writers:

Marcel Beaulieu (writer)
Andrée Corbiau (writer)

Release Date:

17 March 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Tagline:

Où s'arrête le pouvoir de sa voix?

Plot:

Farinelli, is the artistic name of Carlo Broschi, a young singer in Handel's time. He was castrated in his childhood in order to preserve his voice...

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Opera | Brother | Castration | Public Nudity

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Stefano Dionisi	...	Carlo Broschi (Farinelli)
Enrico Lo Verso	...	Riccardo Broschi
Elsa Zylberstein	...	Alexandra
Jeroen Krabbé	...	George Frideric Handel
Caroline Cellier	...	Margareth Hunter
Renaud du Peloux de Saint Romain	...	Benedict
Omero Antonutti	...	Nicola Porpora
Marianne Basler	...	Countess Mauer
Pier Paolo Capponi	...	Broschi
Graham Valentine	...	Prince of Wales
Jacques Boudet	...	Felipe V
Delphine Zentout	...	Young admirer
Richard Reeves
Jonathan Fox
Jo Betzing		(as Josef Betzing)

Also Known As:

Farinelli (International: English title)
Farinelli voce regina (Italy) (alternative title)

MPAA:

Rated R for depiction of adult themes and sexuality.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

Belgium | France | Italy | USA

Language:

French | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 (w) | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

K2 SA

Trivia:

Both male and female voices were combined to create the sound of Farinelli's singing voice. The male voice was Derek Lee Ragin, a British countertenor and the female Ewa Małas-Godlewska, a Polish mezzo-soprano.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 52nd Annual Golden Globe Awards (1995) (TV)

A truly excellent historical reconstruction, and a brilliant film!

This remarkable film remains one of my favourites. The story line at first left me wondering why the director had chosen to make the film in the first place. Luscious scenery, beautiful costumes, sets, extravagant, but historically accurate stagings for the opera scenes, great language and dialogue - but why make a film about an all but forgotten singer from almost three centuries ago? Nothing in the film seemed to give a clue as to why anyone would go to all the bother of reconstructing a marvelous voice so painstakingly, and choose one of the great performers of our time to oversee the performances of the music. Repeated viewings did not seem to throw any light on the vexing question that, despite all the lushness and splendour I was still missing some point to the whole exercise. It was only on the third or fourth viewing that I noticed in the opening credits a small remark - in French - "to the memory of my daughter . . "name"". Suddenly the whole thing made sense. This marvelous and true story of the castrato is, perhaps, the directors attempt to describe his impotence in the face of the loss of his beloved child. Viewed in this light the ending of the film and the sequences in London between Farinelli and Benedict finally begin to have a poignancy and a sadness that is truly stunningly and sensitively achieved whilst adding to the story line. I love this film and cannot possibly recommend it enough. Any lover of Early Music should revel in it, but it has been lifted out of the ordinary and into the universal and sublime by that one small realization. Superlatives cannot do it justice.