The Music Teacher (1988)

Very disappointed :(

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Yes, this is a movie for opera lovers. Yes, maybe other persons will be bored. But, anyway, IT IS A REAL JEWEL. Excellent music, lovely photographed scenes, charming performances... From the beginning to the end, this film deserves an undoubted adjective: BEAUTIFUL. José Van Dam is an excellent bass-baritone and one of the wold's most famous singer. Although his students (Anne Roussel as Sophie Maurier and Philippe Volter as Jean Nilson) had small timing faults during their performance in Sempre libera, whose voices were doubled by Dinah Bryant, soprano, and Jerome Pruett, tenor, their acting are so tender that you can forgive these minor troubles. The last Dallayrac scene is delicate, sublime and superb. A Gerard Corbiau masterpiece, indeed. I haven't seen Pelle, the conqueror yet, but it should be something, because Pelle defeated Le maitre de musique and Almodovar's masterpiece: Womans in the verge of a nervous breakdown and won the Oscar for a foreing language movie in 1989.

Belgium's nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar of 1988 is an elegant highbrow crowd pleaser, in which music scores by Verdi, Mahler, Mozart et al get top billing over the actors, and not without good reason. World-renowned baritone Jose van Dam stars as a (surprise) world-renowned baritone, who for reasons never fully explained abruptly retires to train aspiring soprano Anne Roussel and (again for unclear reasons) a common thief with a raw singing talent. But what begins as a polite, continental variation of 'Pygmalion', with all the usual trappings of a turn-of-the-century period piece, works up considerable steam when, unknown to van Dam, his arch enemy Prince Scotti begins training his own protégé, hoping to match him against his rival's two pupils in a no-holds-barred aria duel (to the death?) It's a thrilling (if slightly ridiculous) climax, and goes a long way toward compensating for some of the film's earlier, nagging deficiencies. If for no one else, this is a must for classical music aficionados.

I have just watched this film for the second time after nearly twenty years and it surprised me. I did not find it so intense and dramatic as it seemed to me the first time I saw it. The arias are beautiful, although I am not an opera lover, and the photography is gorgeous.The fault that I found with the film is its rather fast pace that conspires against the development of the characters and the whole drama. The young protegé of Dallayrac (Jose van Dam) goes through some very hard times and, all of the sudden, he is ready for the competition. It could, and would, have been better if the relationship master-pupil between Dallayrac and Jean had be given some more coverage since he (Jean) represents the greatest challenge for the aging master.The final scene where the two tenors face each other in a grand finale is fairly predictable and takes away much of the dramatic climax.Having said this, on a broader outlook it still remains a very nice and moving film, particularly when we put it against most of the films of the last twenty years, full of irrelevant stories, unnecessary bloodshed and foul language, with characters that do not show any redeeming qualities.

I certainly disagree with the viewer who called this tedium--after all when one can't tell Mahler's Songs of Ruckert from a symphony, he is no music lover! The recurring song ("Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen") is very meaningful for it is associated with the teacher, a retired performer (brilliantly played by opera star Jose Van Dam). The words of the song translate as " I am lost to the world with which I used to waste so much time. It has heard nothing from me for so long it may well believe me dead." The song concludes with "I live alone in my heaven, in my love, and in my song." I played this film for a class of students whose knowledge of classical music was nil and they liked it. Of course the young leads were attractive and there was some sex in the film. I suggest you view it should you get the chance. It is one of my favorite films, and you really don't need to be knowledgeable in music to like it as long as you like beauty.