The poet William Congreve said: "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast" yet according to Woody Allen, listening to Wagner gives him "the urge to invade Poland". I guess the truth about music lies somewhere between these two conflicting interpretations.
For some, music is the perfect embodiment of men's capability for abstraction. Whether for love, ideals or faith, it's the only universal language meant to awaken hearts and souls before intellect. And because of its so high and noble purpose, music can also be a devil's tool and inspire the most aggressive and vindictive reactions. It's a double edged-sword, maybe the most dangerous form of artistic expression precisely because anyone provides his own meaning.
The great achievement of "Orchestra Rehearsal" is to offer us, for the first and only time, the opportunity to understand the value of an instrument from the intimate and privileged perspective of the player. The film has such an immense pedagogical value that I recommend it to any music teacher, for its magnificent illustration of the variety of instruments that enrich the world of music. Each instrument has a personality eagerly embraced by the player, as if man became the obedient tool of a greater instance. Fellini makes it so obvious that the characters should be, in fact, defined by the name of their instrument.
Violins, first, are arrogant because they're the first and longest-running players; oboes hate them because they play a greater role but they don't get the same recognition. Free-spirited and youthful percussions are naturally bored by their colleagues' pompousness; harp is elegant, sweet and introverted. Tuba has low self-esteem. What else? Piano is classy and very seductive, clarinets are solemn, flute is lively and eccentric. And so on and so forth, listening to each player speaking of his instrument and acting according to it, is of the film's greatest delights.
Yet variety is worthless when not tending toward complementarity. The project of the orchestra is the same of any other society: to make people coexist in harmony, literally this time. Only harmony will allow all these personalities to express themselves as an ensemble, many egos for one expression that will touch our individual hearts. That's what orchestras are for, and this is why they need a conductor, like a society needs a leader to maintain order, not the easiest task in "Orchestra Rehearsal".
The musicians all meet in a dirty and creepy crypt-like place in the middle of the town. Although the sanctuary is dedicated to music and only music, fact is that these musicians brought the town in it, and are far from the devoted or disciplined artists we used to see. The reasons they don't get along with each other exceed their instruments' "rivalry": they're of different generations, men and women, old-fashioned professionals, young long-haired leftists, geeky losers; idealistic dreamers and disillusioned pragmatists who think more in terms of syndicate hours. What a gallery!
What more to ignite their hatred, the place is filthy, a rat can play the uninvited guest, the German conductor is difficult to work with, and there's hardly a place to sit and focus on the partitions without smelling the neighbor's bad breathe or touching his elbow. The film, set in real time, borrows some elements from Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men" through its parallel between a claustrophobic setting and pressure, inevitably leading us to an explosion of emotions, given that they're more than 12, and they're too unfocused to get back to the only thing that puts them on the same wavelength: music.
And to make things worse, there is TV. The film, shot like a TV documentary, highlights TV's effect on people in general. Instead of focusing on music, their ego is suddenly awakened by that camera's eye staring at them and inviting them to express freely while there's no freedom in classical music. And as required discipline progressively fades out, aggravated by the conductor's exuberance, the musicians start to wonder what can of values music should express and decide to rebel against harmony's diktat.
The film was said to be inspired by the anarchist movements in post-60's Italy, but there's more to it in my opinion. Music is depicted as a fascinating paradox. It's a discipline that demands patience and dedication, that can't do without the admiration of a mentor, and long hours of pain, works, mistakes and humiliations, with a divine result as a pay-off. In one of the film's most thrilling moment, the musicians seem to be touched by the divine grace, and play a magnificent piece named "Galop" and the tune celebrated 'freedom', 'anger' and 'excitement' more eloquently that any political slogans.
Music can express freedom but is not a free expression for all that. Cinema is. And maybe this is why Fellini admitted some defiance toward music, too restrictive an art. Yet his "Orchestra Rehearsal" is perhaps the greatest celebration of music ever done in film. And Fellini's owes a lot to his all-time companion Nino Rota, for having musically elevated films like "La Strada" or "8½" to their legendary status. This tribute to music was long overdue for Rota and any other composers, and Fellini and Rota couldn't have a greater last collaboration (one year before Rota's death) and this is why any Fellini fan can have a soft spot for 'Orchestra Rehearsal".
The ending can be regarded as a triumph of music. After the chaos resulting from the rebellion, fueled from a 'urban' thirst for anarchy, the entrance of a bulldozer nearly destroying the crypt reminded the musicians of the city's alienation they all escape from when they play music. The antagonist in the film might not be the conductor, but town and TV, the greatest catalysis of individualism, disorder and resentment, what precisely goes against music's values.
François Truffaut said "I demand that a film express either the joy or the agony of making cinema." Replace 'Cinema' by 'Music' and you have "Orchestra Rehearsal"
For some, music is the perfect embodiment of men's capability for abstraction. Whether for love, ideals or faith, it's the only universal language meant to awaken hearts and souls before intellect. And because of its so high and noble purpose, music can also be a devil's tool and inspire the most aggressive and vindictive reactions. It's a double edged-sword, maybe the most dangerous form of artistic expression precisely because anyone provides his own meaning.
The great achievement of "Orchestra Rehearsal" is to offer us, for the first and only time, the opportunity to understand the value of an instrument from the intimate and privileged perspective of the player. The film has such an immense pedagogical value that I recommend it to any music teacher, for its magnificent illustration of the variety of instruments that enrich the world of music. Each instrument has a personality eagerly embraced by the player, as if man became the obedient tool of a greater instance. Fellini makes it so obvious that the characters should be, in fact, defined by the name of their instrument.
Violins, first, are arrogant because they're the first and longest-running players; oboes hate them because they play a greater role but they don't get the same recognition. Free-spirited and youthful percussions are naturally bored by their colleagues' pompousness; harp is elegant, sweet and introverted. Tuba has low self-esteem. What else? Piano is classy and very seductive, clarinets are solemn, flute is lively and eccentric. And so on and so forth, listening to each player speaking of his instrument and acting according to it, is of the film's greatest delights.
Yet variety is worthless when not tending toward complementarity. The project of the orchestra is the same of any other society: to make people coexist in harmony, literally this time. Only harmony will allow all these personalities to express themselves as an ensemble, many egos for one expression that will touch our individual hearts. That's what orchestras are for, and this is why they need a conductor, like a society needs a leader to maintain order, not the easiest task in "Orchestra Rehearsal".
The musicians all meet in a dirty and creepy crypt-like place in the middle of the town. Although the sanctuary is dedicated to music and only music, fact is that these musicians brought the town in it, and are far from the devoted or disciplined artists we used to see. The reasons they don't get along with each other exceed their instruments' "rivalry": they're of different generations, men and women, old-fashioned professionals, young long-haired leftists, geeky losers; idealistic dreamers and disillusioned pragmatists who think more in terms of syndicate hours. What a gallery!
What more to ignite their hatred, the place is filthy, a rat can play the uninvited guest, the German conductor is difficult to work with, and there's hardly a place to sit and focus on the partitions without smelling the neighbor's bad breathe or touching his elbow. The film, set in real time, borrows some elements from Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men" through its parallel between a claustrophobic setting and pressure, inevitably leading us to an explosion of emotions, given that they're more than 12, and they're too unfocused to get back to the only thing that puts them on the same wavelength: music.
And to make things worse, there is TV. The film, shot like a TV documentary, highlights TV's effect on people in general. Instead of focusing on music, their ego is suddenly awakened by that camera's eye staring at them and inviting them to express freely while there's no freedom in classical music. And as required discipline progressively fades out, aggravated by the conductor's exuberance, the musicians start to wonder what can of values music should express and decide to rebel against harmony's diktat.
The film was said to be inspired by the anarchist movements in post-60's Italy, but there's more to it in my opinion. Music is depicted as a fascinating paradox. It's a discipline that demands patience and dedication, that can't do without the admiration of a mentor, and long hours of pain, works, mistakes and humiliations, with a divine result as a pay-off. In one of the film's most thrilling moment, the musicians seem to be touched by the divine grace, and play a magnificent piece named "Galop" and the tune celebrated 'freedom', 'anger' and 'excitement' more eloquently that any political slogans.
Music can express freedom but is not a free expression for all that. Cinema is. And maybe this is why Fellini admitted some defiance toward music, too restrictive an art. Yet his "Orchestra Rehearsal" is perhaps the greatest celebration of music ever done in film. And Fellini's owes a lot to his all-time companion Nino Rota, for having musically elevated films like "La Strada" or "8½" to their legendary status. This tribute to music was long overdue for Rota and any other composers, and Fellini and Rota couldn't have a greater last collaboration (one year before Rota's death) and this is why any Fellini fan can have a soft spot for 'Orchestra Rehearsal".
The ending can be regarded as a triumph of music. After the chaos resulting from the rebellion, fueled from a 'urban' thirst for anarchy, the entrance of a bulldozer nearly destroying the crypt reminded the musicians of the city's alienation they all escape from when they play music. The antagonist in the film might not be the conductor, but town and TV, the greatest catalysis of individualism, disorder and resentment, what precisely goes against music's values.
François Truffaut said "I demand that a film express either the joy or the agony of making cinema." Replace 'Cinema' by 'Music' and you have "Orchestra Rehearsal"