throatybeard
08-31-2010, 09:20 PM
Because I am an old man and do things like read newspapers and read the obits on Wiki, I was saddened yesterday to learn of the relatively early death, by cancer, of Alain Corneau, who directed, among other things, the searingly beautiful Tous les matins du monde (1991), a fictionalized version of the life of the baroque composer Sainte-Colombe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_de_Sainte-Colombe). He won the 1992 César, which is like our Oscar for Best Director.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/movies/31corneau.html
The film is based on a historical novel written about a year earlier; it's everything good about fiction. The barest facts may have something to do with what actually happened, but the imaginative world is probably a lot richer than the real world was. The leading characters are Marin Marais (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_Marais), a leading light of Baroque music best known for the chaconne "The Bells of Ste Genevieve", his teacher Saint-Colombe, Ste-Colombe's dead wife, and the young Marais' lover, Ste-Colombe's daughter. If you have like a "greatest baroque hits" CD, Bells is probably on there with Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue, that sort of thing. The film was an international breakout for probably the leading baroque music specialist in the World, Jordi Savall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordi_Savall), and did also did a lot to publicize Ste-Colombe's music, less well-known than that of Jean-Baptiste Lully or Marais, these guys a generation before Bach and Handel. Marais is played by Gérard Depardieu, and the young Marais by his son Giullaume, who died of a weird pneumonia a couple years ago.
The film opens with a six minute uncut shot, a la Hitchcock's Rope, of Depardieu's character, Marais. Now, I know what you're thinking, who the hell wants to look at Depardieu's ugly mug for that long, with a 17thC wig and a mole on his face. But it's amazing and I submit it when people say Depardieu isn't that great an actor. Some want-wit music teacher screams and screams at a lunk-tempoed ensemble playing the Bells of St Genevieve for three minutes. The camera always on Depardieu's' face. He eventually interrupts it and tries to infuse them with the spirit of Ste-Colombe. Then flashback to Marias' youth and Ste-Colombe's life.
I actually missed this movie when it came out. I doubt it made it to American theaters in the small-town South where I was, but I met two lovely sisters at Governor's School in Valdosta, one of whom had like polio or something similar. And they had the soundtrack. And I thought that is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. It was hard to get foreign films in 1994 outside of a major city. I found a VHS tape and I've loved the soundtrack for many years.
http://www.amazon.com/Tous-Matins-Du-Monde...8861&sr=1-2 (http://www.amazon.com/Tous-Matins-Du-Monde/dp/B00005S0MD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1283228861&sr=1-2)
I will forever be grateful to Corneau for this film and I'm watching it tonight on Netflix streaming.
http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70...mp;trkid=226871 (http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70045989&trkid=226871)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/movies/31corneau.html
The film is based on a historical novel written about a year earlier; it's everything good about fiction. The barest facts may have something to do with what actually happened, but the imaginative world is probably a lot richer than the real world was. The leading characters are Marin Marais (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_Marais), a leading light of Baroque music best known for the chaconne "The Bells of Ste Genevieve", his teacher Saint-Colombe, Ste-Colombe's dead wife, and the young Marais' lover, Ste-Colombe's daughter. If you have like a "greatest baroque hits" CD, Bells is probably on there with Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue, that sort of thing. The film was an international breakout for probably the leading baroque music specialist in the World, Jordi Savall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordi_Savall), and did also did a lot to publicize Ste-Colombe's music, less well-known than that of Jean-Baptiste Lully or Marais, these guys a generation before Bach and Handel. Marais is played by Gérard Depardieu, and the young Marais by his son Giullaume, who died of a weird pneumonia a couple years ago.
The film opens with a six minute uncut shot, a la Hitchcock's Rope, of Depardieu's character, Marais. Now, I know what you're thinking, who the hell wants to look at Depardieu's ugly mug for that long, with a 17thC wig and a mole on his face. But it's amazing and I submit it when people say Depardieu isn't that great an actor. Some want-wit music teacher screams and screams at a lunk-tempoed ensemble playing the Bells of St Genevieve for three minutes. The camera always on Depardieu's' face. He eventually interrupts it and tries to infuse them with the spirit of Ste-Colombe. Then flashback to Marias' youth and Ste-Colombe's life.
I actually missed this movie when it came out. I doubt it made it to American theaters in the small-town South where I was, but I met two lovely sisters at Governor's School in Valdosta, one of whom had like polio or something similar. And they had the soundtrack. And I thought that is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. It was hard to get foreign films in 1994 outside of a major city. I found a VHS tape and I've loved the soundtrack for many years.
http://www.amazon.com/Tous-Matins-Du-Monde...8861&sr=1-2 (http://www.amazon.com/Tous-Matins-Du-Monde/dp/B00005S0MD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1283228861&sr=1-2)
I will forever be grateful to Corneau for this film and I'm watching it tonight on Netflix streaming.
http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70...mp;trkid=226871 (http://www.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70045989&trkid=226871)