Cubussoli
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Reptileenbu
Did you people see the same film I saw?
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Michael Neumann
A reclusive, enigmatic French musician rejects invitations to play at the court of Louis VIII, preferring a life of solitude and study after the death of his wife, emerging only to teach (reluctantly) the pursuit of pure music to a brash, ambitious pupil. The student is portrayed, in old age, by Gérard Depardieu, who gets top billing for a relatively small role. Most of the film, exploring the conviction, dedication, and loneliness of his mentor, unfolds in flashback, with Depardieu's character played by the actor's son Guillaume, making his big-screen debut.Of course few things are likely to be more pretentious than an art film about Art, but there's enough plot here to suggest an austere 17th century soap opera (a seduction, a suicide), plus an integrity altogether lacking from other, similar costume dramas (most of it was shot using only natural sound and available light, often only candlelight). The result is as beautiful, if also occasionally just as exciting, as a still life on canvas, evoking the luminous paintings of George de La Tour and held together by the somber, melancholy music of the viol de gamba.
bw-49
Seeing this gem of a film again 13 years on was a revelation. Amazingly I recalled so much and dejavued my way through it . Sometimes you find melodies and tunes that is like music of the spheres, the blissful sound of an ethereal and divine sound delivered by an instrument, in this case the gamba. Seeing the film now on DVD on a when I want to- basis I also use it to teach myself french by avoiding English subtitles. Somehow the Hellenistic triangle of the good, the true and the beautiful melts together . That happens rarely but certainly happens here. The acting of Depardieu pere et fils is superb, the photography and imagery is stunning, and no one with a heart will forget the melancholy harmonies and the modest but lovely storyline. But for DVD I could have longed for my reunion with this treasure chest for years. Now I and my loved ones own it for all the evenings in the world. Go for it.
jimstinson
Other reviews have focused on the music, but this film is not really about guys in funny clothes with ribbons speaking French and playing cellos with 7 strings instead of 4. It is a meditation on two opposite forms of male egotism: the older genius who is too good for the world and everyone in it and the younger opportunist who will use anyone and anything – including his own talent – to get ahead. They meet, mesh, clash, and part over music for the viol (viola da gamba), not incidentally leaving the older man's daughter pregnant, ill, and ultimately a suicide. The story is narrated by the opportunist – now old himself – as a confession, to a room full of his sycophantic music students at the court of Louis XIV (the character, Marin Marais was an actual composer of the time, as was the older man, M. de Sainte Colombe). No other film since Bergman's best seduces you into such hypnotized concentration or breaks your heart with such economy of action.
Isabelle Michelet
France -17th Century. Little known 17th Century viol player and composer Monsieur de Sainte Colombe regarded public performance as an act that corrupted the purity of music. Since his wife's death, he had lived in isolation with his two daughters Madeleine and Toinette –until a young musician, Marin Marais, convinces him to teach him viol. The ambitious pupil, aware of the unique quality of his master's music, will stop at nothing to get hold of the scores. The entire movie is played in rhythm with the viol -slow, melancholic, pure, beautiful. Action addicts should not even try to watch. But art lovers will have a delightful time.
