IL BOEMO (2022)

Having bailed on CHEVALIER/’23 (about the so-called ‘Black Mozart’) after an execrable reel-and-a-half*, I may be overrating this bio-pic of Czech composer Josef Mysliveček, another musician with a tenuous Mozart connection, but this seems awfully good; a fascinating life-and-times effort from writer/director Petr Václav, his cast & crew, with exceptional period art direction & manners.  Hunting up jobs and titled influencers in the ununited Italy of the mid-1700s, Myslivecek (Vojtech Dyk, very fine) does the concert & society circuit of the day, wooing theater managers, fellow composers and many available unhappy ladies.  Swaggeringly tall & handsome, the young musician finds his struggles pay off once he learns how to compromise principles, flatter egos at court, and cultivate an overcharged bedside manner.  Three women stand out: an engaged beauty hoping to run off from her rich, elderly fiancé; a wealthy widow of demanding tastes & appetite; and an hysterical diva of sublime vocal/dramatic gifts.  Stunningly staged and designed, the very texture of the day perfectly caught, there’s none of the current fashion to trim events and sensibilities to modern ideas.  Honest discomfort that extends to a highly erotic ‘clothes on’ orgy.  These people are not like you and me.  And while Mysliveček has the goods to make his mark, romantic disappointments, sexual diseases, overreach and an acquired gambling habit will take him down in his early 40s.  The film sticks to operatic works and some of the actresses can’t quite pull off the dubbing (one late aria uses a trained singer instead of an actress; what a difference it makes!), but the actual musical performances (done at proper pitch with period orchestra) are the real thing though some of the stage lighting seems too modern.  The film really worth a look . . . and a listen.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Ludicrous right from the start, CHEVALIER has Mozart introducing himself as Amadeus, a name he never used (some publisher did), asking a cheering audience of 3000 to suggest an encore.  Which they do, calling out pieces by NUMBER (Violin Concerto #5; Symphony #25) as if the orchestra had all Mozart’s music ready to go on their stands or that these pieces even HAD numbers.  Then has Mozart grow jealous when Chevalier St. George out embellishes him.  Good grief.  Here, a teenage Mozart gets a delightful and believable scene, playing back and vastly improving a new piece Mysliveček has only just played for him.  Years later, when father Leopold wrote to chastise Wolfgang’s morals over the Weber girls (Mozart married the younger sister), Mozart furiously wrote back to his father stating that he was ‘no libertine like that Mysliveček!’

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  FELLINI’S CASANOVA/’76 makes for excellent comparison, mostly in IL BOEMO’s favor.  (BTW - the title translates as The Bohemian, a nickname for Italians who found Mysliveček all but impossible to pronounce.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/01/coming-off-amarcord73-federico-fellini.html

READ ALL ABOUT IT:  The rudely disinterested behavior of royalty & titled in boxes at the Naples’ opera during ‘the season,’ recreated here, is almost as bad as Stendhal described it in his LIFE OF ROSSINI from just a few decades later.