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.

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.

The kind of film that earns "European films" the bad rap and bad rep the get from a lot of people these days. I had the feeling the film was written to showcase the music, not vice versa. And since you can't write a terribly compelling film about training vocalists, we're trapped into watching seemingly endless camera pans of trees, birds in them chirping ad nauseum, pseudo-profound, meaningful stares between people who have nothing to say to each other, and a Mahler symphony on the sound track that just simply won't go away. A terribly tedious film.

This film, one of my favorites of all-time, follows a retired opera star, (played by the real-life opera singer, Jose van Dam) and two pupils he agrees to teach after his retirement. When his two pupils must compete against their teacher's arch nemesis Prince Scotti (delectably played by Patrick Bauchau) and his dippy protege Arcas, it immediately becomes a feel-good movie. With gorgeous cinematography, well-written dialogue and the acting capabilities of Anne Roussel and Philippe Volter to carry the show, you don't need to rely on the beautiful music in both the background and the forefront of the story. You don't need to be a die-hard opera nut like myself to enjoy this film, you just need to be able to tolerate a lovely romance set against a stunning backdrop, where the bad guys can only be fought with musical notes. Go see it and tell me what you think.