Aria
Every decade or so, those wacky independents try this stunt -- getting a bunch of Big Name Directors together to make a collaborative movie. Invariably, it sucks (see Lumiere and Company), but rarely does it suck so hard as it does in Aria.
The conceit this time: Each director takes a piece of classical music and sets it to film -- mostly without dialogue and invariably without any sense whatsoever.
Examples: Naked women fawn over/threaten to stab sweaty bodybuilders. Buck Henry and wife cheat on each other unknowingly. Naked Elizabethans watch a play. Bridget Fonda (naked) romps in a Vegas hotel then commits suicide with her man. There is a clown with a drum. Elizabeth Hurley makes her (naked) screeen debut.
We applaud all this nakedness, we really do -- but seriously, do vanity projects like this really need to be made? Don't we all have better things to do?
Rating
1.5 out of 5 Stars
Buy Aria on DVD from Amazon.com
Buy Aria on VHS from Amazon.com- Director: Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple
- Producer: Don Boyd
- Screenwriter: Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Don Boyd, Bill Bryden, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple
- Stars: Theresa Russell, Stephanie Lane, Roy Hyatt, Sevilla Delofski, Nicola Swain, Jackson Kyle, Marianne McLoughlin, Marion Peterson, Valérie Allain, Jacques Neuville, Buck Henry, Beverly D'Angelo, Gary Kasper, Anita Morris, John Hostetter, Elizabeth Hurley, Peter Birch, Bridget Fonda, James Mathers, Angie Tetamontie, Esther Buchanan, Lorraine Cote, Renee Korn, Bertha Weiss, Linzi Drew, Andreas Wisniewski, Kwabena Manso, Amy Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, John Hurt, Sophie Ward, Paul Collard, George Ellis Jones, Danny Fitzgerald, Gordon Winter, Derek Farmer, Michelle Read, Maximillian Roeg
- MPAA Rating: R
- Year of Release: 1987
- Released on Video: 08/01/1988
Rent this film on DVD from Netflix
