in the cinema, the musical epic of the orphans of Venice for Pope Pius VII

in the cinema, the musical epic of the orphans of Venice for Pope Pius VII

At the end of the 18th century, in Venice, the Sant'Ignazio institute, directed by the obsequious priest Perlina, provided young orphans with excellent musical training. Among them, Lucia, Prudenza, Bettina and Marietta, who dream of experiencing a French Revolution. For her part, Teresa, a silent servant, does not benefit from this teaching, but orchestrates, in her head, symphonies from everyday noises: trickling wrung sheets, cutting vegetables in the kitchen… The organization's announcement of a concert in honor of Pope Pius VII will set the microcosm in turmoil. For her first feature film, Italian actress Margherita Vicario has unearthed a golden subject: these pioneers of composition that History has forgotten, notably Maddalena Laura Sirmen, the only one whose work has come down to us. The young director delights when she leads several scenes from a very pop musical comedy, like Dancer in the Dark by Lars von Trier, where we feel the emancipatory breath of art. But, relying on a scenario with too many strings, she signs a film lacking in homogeneity, veering awkwardly from a story of removed apprenticeship to romantic tragedy then to anticlerical farce. Far from the masters of Italian cinema like Dino Risi, who knew how to create the perfect alchemy between genres.

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