# Aria (1987)



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

While listening to Tristan earlier today I was reminded of Aria, the crazed exercise in operatic short film - star directors, star arias, CULTURE! Here's the NSFW or the easily offended (sex and suicide) Liebestod segment with Leontyne Price and Bridget Fonda. I don't have any particular judgement about it other than "BONKERS" (and why wasn't the sex farce set to Rossini?) but keen to hear any others' impressions of it or personal histories of seeing it a the cinema, remembering when it came out (I was still in single digits) etc






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_(film)


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

dgee said:


> While listening to Tristan earlier today I was reminded of Aria, the crazed exercise in operatic short film - star directors, star . Here's the NSFW or the easily offended (sex and suicide) Liebestod segment with Leontyne Price and Bridget Fonda. I don't have any particular judgement about other than "BONKERS" but keen to hear any others' impressions of it or personal histories of seeing it a the cinema, remembering when it came out (I was still in single digits) etc
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_(film)


Never saw it but your description of "sex and suicide...with Leontyne Price and Bridget Fonda..." has prevented me from clicking on that embedded video. Perhaps there is a perfectly reasonable longer explanation, but I would agree with the BONKERS term.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Yes - the whole thing is very "European Art House"


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

dgee said:


> (and why wasn't the sex farce set to Rossini?


the beginning made me think of The Doors' The End, which I thought would've worked even better.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

dgee said:


> While listening to Tristan earlier today I was reminded of Aria, the crazed exercise in operatic short film - star directors, star arias, CULTURE! Here's the NSFW or the easily offended (sex and suicide) Liebestod segment with Leontyne Price and Bridget Fonda. I don't have any particular judgement about it other than "BONKERS" (and why wasn't the sex farce set to Rossini?) but keen to hear any others' impressions of it or personal histories of seeing it a the cinema, remembering when it came out (I was still in single digits) etc
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Is this the crazy thing with King Zog of Albania in it ?


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I was a real film buff in London at the time and recall seeing this. It probably influenced me in that I went to a live opera for the first time a few months later. The Ken Russell Nessun Dorma sequence stood out at the time, although a YouTube rewatch doesn't do justice to the impact it made then, particularly as it was probably my first encounter with the music.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Why is Pagliacci in this? :lol:


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## Copperears (Nov 10, 2013)

I liked Ken Russell's Mahler, quite surreal.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

As the server seems to be working again - does anyone else have any anecdotes or views on this amazing, maddening creation?


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

I've always rather enjoyed the film, a sort of "MTV for opera", with some of the segments based on a theme of the operatic excerpt, some less connected. I've got it on DVD and crank it up every now and then.

The Buck Henry sequence with Rigoletto music is good comedy. I've always liked the "depuis le jour" segment too.

It's certainly not "authentic" opera but it does have lots of clever film sequences, a pleasant pasttime.


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