Verdi: Messa da Requiem -
On this recording of Verdi's remarkable "will and testament", his Requiem of 1874, the ... more
playing is everything one could hope for, and moves between the pathos of mourning, the anger of bereavement (the Dies Irae is truly terrifying) and the despair of loss with no emotional short-cuts. Under the direction of maestro Valery Gergiev, the Kirov Orchestra has become one of the world's top ensembles. To hear them play is to expect nothing less than absolute technical perfection: luscious string sounds, iridescent woodwind colours and hair-raising brass blowing. With Gergiev's instinct for drama--the Kirov, after all, is an opera company--their performances are often extraordinarily powerful. The singing is generally beautiful too: when paired with Olga Borodina's volcanic richness of voice, Renée Fleming's cooler approach and miraculous technique are shown off to their best advantage. Andrea Bocelli is perhaps an acquired taste, and doesn't quite possess the abilities to shape a phrase that the others have, but the powerful newcomer Ildebrando D'Arcangelo more than compensates. --Warwick Thompson
Verdi: Messa da Requiem -
On this recording of Verdi's remarkable "will and testament", his Requiem of 1874, the ... more
playing is everything one could hope for, and moves between the pathos of mourning, the anger of bereavement (the Dies Irae is truly terrifying) and the despair of loss with no emotional short-cuts. Under the direction of maestro Valery Gergiev, the Kirov Orchestra has become one of the world's top ensembles. To hear them play is to expect nothing less than absolute technical perfection: luscious string sounds, iridescent woodwind colours and hair-raising brass blowing. With Gergiev's instinct for drama--the Kirov, after all, is an opera company--their performances are often extraordinarily powerful. The singing is generally beautiful too: when paired with Olga Borodina's volcanic richness of voice, Renée Fleming's cooler approach and miraculous technique are shown off to their best advantage. Andrea Bocelli is perhaps an acquired taste, and doesn't quite possess the abilities to shape a phrase that the others have, butthe powerful newcomer Ildebrando D'Arcangelo more than compensates. --Warwick Thompson
Advantages: Energetic visuals and some original techniques overwhelm the viewer. Disadvantages: At it's core it's an update of "Reefer Madness".
...Burstyn is constantly watching in the film.
When you first put the disc in the player the film will become extremely snowy and distorted and there will be a clip of actor Christopher McDonald selling his No Meat self-help program. After a couple of minutes this will change to a clearer but still slightly distorted (tear lines) blue screen with a 900 number and various Tappy Tibbons books. Ah but those books will take you to where you want to go. It's a fun way to start a DVD though it wears out its welcome with the loud audio clip of the infomercial going into loop mode if you don't make a menu selection.
The Making of Requiem for A Dream serves as the documentary on the disc. It's a 35-minute, videotaped documentary with a long sequence devoted to how one of the gory special effects was accomplished. In the actual film we only...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
...I felt compelled to write a review of Requiem For A Dream simply because it blew me away. I had vaguely heard of it for a while; I knew that it was about drugs, it was supposedly good, and that was about it. However, I recently stumbled across it on my trusted font of cinematic knowledge, IMDb, and discovered that not only is it by the director of Pi (another critically acclaimed film); not only is the director, Darren Aronofsky, married to Rachel Weisz; not only is he the guy who's made The Fountain (that film which got booed off at the Venice Film Festival); but that it was also voted as one of the top 58 films of all time. I also read that the last fifteen minutes of this film is the most harrowing thing you'll ever see. I was interested.
First things first; the story. Sara Goldfarb (played by Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
...If I am being honest, after reading the book, I really do not know why i even bothered to buy the DVD. The acting is not the greatest bearing in mind the actors involved with the film, Tom Hanks has so much more to give than he offers in this film. The story is only very losely based on the book - in that they have missed large chunks out and so you jump from one scene to the next with no real explanation. It's a shame that the film does not show more the old churches of Rome as the book discribes, or go into more detail again the secret archives of the Vatican, which would have been of much interest. An easy film to watch as you really do not need to concentrate that much, I would however recommend that the you read the book rather than watch the film....
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Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful
not helpful 17.06.2007
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04.11.2001
06.01.2007
17.06.2007
