Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

TheLittleSongbird I don't think I can add to what has been said(and so well) already but I will try my best. This is my favourite version of Don Giovanni, both sumptuous and dramatic and does justice to a wonderful, complex opera that is quite possibly Mozart's most complex and dramatic.The music is just wonderful. From the dark and dramatic overture, to the champagne aria to the duet between Giovanni and Donna Elvira and of course the final scene with the Commendatore which here was superbly done, it is a choc-a-block of some of the finest music in opera history.Joseph Losey's direction is well handled and secure and isn't overwhelmed by the complexity of the story. And of course this version is sumptuously filmed, with exquisite costumes, settings and scenery, undoubtedly one of the most gorgeously filmed film operas to be put on film.And the performances are excellent, with a superb Ruggero Raimondi, making Giovanni handsome, graceful and charming, yet sinister, devilish and seductive, and a genuinely imposing John Macurdy as the Commendatore. Jose Van Dam stays true to Mozart's concept of Leporello, Edda Mosser is a lovely Donna Anna, Kiri TeKanawa is a fiery Donna Elvira and Teresa Berganza is an adorable Zerlina.Overall, wonderful, sumptuous, complex and dramatic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Framescourer An inspired, if occasionally peculiar production, shot on location with a terrific cast. Raimondi's Don is an extraordinary conflagration of deceit and sexual magnetism, tourettish violence and charm; I watch the film assuming he's going to get away with everything (I once worked with a girl who had learnt the entire libretto in Italin from repeated viewings of this film alone at the age of 8, despite not speaking the language. She was reasonably addicted to the anti-hero).Losey undermines expectations though setting the opera in a (period) rural estate with the principals operating with urbane sensibility. Nothing is quite what it seems and the supernatural forces that begin to take hold are far from unexpected.Far from killing the operatic experience (as films are prone to do), Losey's film manages to set the drama free. Absorbing if not as menacing as its potential. 6/10

FloatingOpera7 Not only do we get a visual feast, but the singers are incredible, fleshing out the dramatic core of this opera and even delivering moments of genuine beauty and splendor. It stars Ruggero Raimondi as the seductive and sinister Don Giovanni, Edda Moser as Dona Anna, Kenneth Reigle as Don Ottavio, Jose Van Dam as Leporello, Kiri Te Kenawa as Dona Elvira, Teresa Berganza as Zerlina, Malcolm King as Masetto and John Macurdy as the Commandatore. In a minor/silent but seemingly important role as a servant in black is the youthful-looking Eric Adjani. The multiple dimensions of this film are too much to talk about but I will try to highlight some of them.First of all, Lorin Maazel as conductor is perfect. He brings out the dramatic content without sacrificing the melodic beauty Mozart wrote into the opera. The cinematography is gorgeous. It was shot in Venice (during the Overture we see the canals and opulent boats), Vicenza the countryside, crowned by Italian villas and palaces the Villa Rotunda is dismissed as a historic Italian landmark and becomes Don Giovanni's regal estate, and some indoors scenes were shot in the interior of the Olympic Theatre. Most of the movie is shot in fresh natural sunlight or moonlight. The powerful performances by the lead singers is extraordinary and each bring a colorful and individual portrayal. Ruggero Raimondi is a rare breed of "high" bass, capable of producing masculine chest voice but also a radiant, tenor-like top register. He is seductive but devilish in his portrayal. His eyes, especially, seem to give away his dark predatory soul. In Raimondi, we have one of the best Don Giovanni interpretations. He's lewd, he's lusty, he's murderous, he's a shameless libertine whose motto is "Viva La Liberta!" Long live liberty! The film has subtle symbolism and poetic imagery. For instance, during the Catalog Aria that Leporello sings to Elvira, he reads from a seemingly unending list in which the Don has written his conquests, a list that goes on and on, draping the stairs and rolling to the road toward the villa. During the Seduction duet "La Ci Darem La Mano" we briefly glimpse a huge Crucifix and we see a dog sleeping. These I took to represent the ethic and morals that Zerlina would compromise if she succumbed to the Don's passions- she would betray her Catholic faith by breaking her engagement with Masetto and being unfaithful unlike the faithful man's best friend the dog. Also, the Commandatore is evidently foreshadowing his vengeance on the Don as he is dying, when he is pointing at the Don.The complex Dona Ana' dilemma: she is possibly lusting after the Don and attempting to fight off her own desire for him and keep faithful to Ottavio. Whom is she mourning really when Don Giovanni is sent to Hell ? She is always claiming that she mourns her father's death but yet as soon as she hears that the Don has been sent to Hell, she postpones the wedding to Ottavio for another year. Very odd. Eric Adjani is the silent and mute strange servant in black. Who is this person ? Who's side is he on ? He is evidently one of the Don's many servants but during the Overture he is looking knowingly at Dona Ana as the fire furnace is being installed in the Don's home. Also, during the scary scene in which the Commandatore statue comes to dinner, this shady character shows no sign of being frightened and in fact one feels that he is in on it somehow, as if he is an avenging angel as well. He seems to have knowledge of something the audience doesn't know and his personage both opens and closes the opera literally as he closes the doors to the Don's villa.Edda Moser portrays a supremely dramatic Dona Anna. She is Wagnerian in her dynamic performance, a steely victim, a wronged woman who seeks revenge on a man we also feel she might possibly be attracted to, mainly because her fiancé, Kenneth Reigle's Ottavio, is so lackluster and dull. Now, I admire and love Kiri Te Kenawa in various other roles- she is the definitive heroine in Cappricio and perhaps even the most definitive Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte and a rather touching Countess in Figaro, but as Dona Elvira she lacks the fire and fury that is so vital to the role. Dona Elvira is the most Italianate heroine in the opera and she has arias and lines which focus on her feisty and fiery temperament. Kiri sings gorgeously but her emphasis is on the beauty and consequently comes off as too noble, too majestic and dignified. She should be outraged and obsessive, wanting more than anything to get back at Don Giovanni as well as to land him for herself. But Kiri does not show us any of this necessary dramatics.Teresa Berganza is an adorable Zerlina, cute and clever. Note how she is almost tempted to run off with the Don but wises up and decides to stay with her fiancé Masetto when she realizes Don Giovanni is a devil. Berganza is actually my first choice for the best Zerlina. Malcolm King, who is sexy as hell, is equally adorable as Masetto, especially when we see how jealous and easily provoked he is. Finally, Jose Van Dam as Leporello is quite good, especially because he's not just a loyal "idiot". He's in fact true to Mozart's concept of Leporello- a servant who is wiser than his master. Van Dam captures the noble spirit of Masetto, who is just a pawn to his master's schemes, but who on his own would definitely be on the side of the good guys.

valadas To make a movie based on an opera is a different thing from filming an opera on stage. Cinema and opera are 2 different forms of art each one with its specific techniques. Nevertheless one can be at the other's service and if the match is excellent the merits of them both will be enhanced. That's what happens with this excellent movie where we can enjoy Mozart's music and the singing talents of such extraordinary artists like Kiri Te Kanawa and others besides a lot of gorgeous and dynamic movie images, sceneries, shots and superb cut and editing. The plot everyone knows: the adventures and misadventures of D. Giovanni the king of philanderers of all times and a more or less disguised attack on aristocracy and its immoral behaviour. We are on the eve of the French Revolution and as everybody also knows Mozart was a freemason and a democrat.