When talking about Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, what immediately comes to mind are lace, tall wigs, flamboyant clothes and colours, Versailles, or… the guillotine. Here, between these two extremes, exists a middle ground, a period of time seldom explored: the few months when the last king and queen of France were imprisoned, with their two young children, in a black castle on the outskirts of Paris, awaiting their executions. A brief and condensed period where, amidst violence and harassment, all masks fell off: those of two royals, as public and private figures; that of the old regime; that of a History that finally turned the page; and that of God who, from then on, was eclipsed by the shadows, leaving man entirely alone.
Taka, a shiftless young man, sets off on a quest to find his brother Mune. Teaming up with a quirky new friend and an edgy, mysterious young girl along the way, Taka finds himself taking on a pack of vicious monster cats determined to execute unscrupulous pet shop owners.
Synopsis
A sudden gunshot destroys the dream of two lovers. The fate of Orpheus and Eurydice is a cruel one. On their wedding day, her soul is kidnapped and taken down into the Netherworld. Under a metaphysical sky Charon, the taxi driver, waits for the crime to be committed.
COMMENTARY
The movie is an opera-musical with an immersive and transmedial language. The myth is transposed into the contemporary age: Charon is a taxi driver and we go from Paris half under water to the stage of the Teatro Regio in Turin, in a play of musical references that range from Puccini to Händel, from Verdi to Gluck, from Vivaldi to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. And the images fuse words, lyric opera, fashion and the visual arts, between the real and the virtual.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
We created an unexpected encounter between acting and lyric opera, between pop, special effects and images filled with symbolism. Bringing into a cast of extraordinary actors such as Vincent Cassel, Fanny Ardant and Rossy De Palma two young artists selected among hundreds of lyric opera singers: Valentino Buzza and Mariam Battistelli.