The Full Monteverdi

While the film continues to receive acclaim from the critics there’s a great vibe building online about the film too. As the film is released and broadcast around the globe blogs and feedback sites are filling with great audience reviews. Here’s a few recent additions:

The view from a blogger in Australia -  http://www.shelter.nu/blog/2008/04/full-monteverdi.html

Amazon.com buyer reviews from North America - http://www.amazon.com/Full-Monteverdi-Claudio/

Great feedback from UK buyers at Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Full-Monteverdi-NTSC-I-Fagiolini/

Over the next few weeks The Full Monteverdi will broadcast in the very north of the planet and the very south! The Arts Channel in New Zealand begins another run on Thursday 24th April and SVT in Sweden will start broadcasting the three-part version from Monday 28th April in the 9pm arts slot.

We’ve entered The Full Monteverdi into the International Television Festival Golden Prague, the foremost festival for classical on the small screen. The film is entered in the Music-Drama category; fingers crossed. The festival runs from 14th - 18th June 2008 in Prague.

The Full Monteverdi has received another star-studded review in the UK classical music press. The highly respected Gramophone magazine recommends the DVD in April’s edition focusing particlaly on the emotional depth of the film.

“This brilliant film… is superbly acted, beautifully sung

…almost unbearably moving. Bravos all round.”

Recommended, Gramophone April 2008

The Full Monteverdi DVD has received rave reviews in the March editions of two of Europe’s leading classical music titles. Germany’s Fono Forum gave the film a glowing triple 5-star review and the French magazine Le Monde de la Musique awarded the DVD a prestigious Choc du Mois.

This customer review appeared on Amazon.com (the international site) today from a new fan in Australia. There’s also a great comment on Amazon.co.uk too - please do add your own comments!

The March/April issue of Choir & Organ features a first class review of the DVD, including recommending a stiff drink after viewing!

“…the film’s raw impact comes from its unflinching exposure of the effects on flawed, vulnerable human beings of these devastating emotional rifts… I Fagiolini’s performances are peerless.”

Graeme Kay Choir & Organ, March 2008

Classical FM Magazine gives The Full Monteverdi DVD a glowing 5 Star review in its March edition. ” This brilliant film… demands to be seen.” - Richard Lawrence

Producer Greg Browning was back in Cannes this week at the MIDEM music market. There’s a dedicated area for Classical Music and Jazz broadcasting organised by the fantastic IMZ - of which Polyphonic Films in now a member.

The film was part of the Avant Premiere screenings in the Palais and the three minute extract went down well with the audience of buyers from around the globe. The next speaker even commented “wow, such fantastic music, how do I follow that!”

We will hopefully be announcing some more international acquisitions as a result of the market very shortly, and also development of some new projects from Polyphonic Films soon.

January’s BBC Music Magazine features a great 3-page feature on the filming of The Full Monteverdi. Reading it took us straight back to the cold early mornings of January 2007, and filming in those glamorous toilets!

The December/January edition of Muso magazine features a half-page write up on the newly released DVD. “…a fascinating and well-produced lesson in cross-genre art.”

In his piece in The Observer (11/11/07) on using sex to sell opera (”I can’t see any harm in it…“), Peter Conrad added a column which recommends The Full Monteverdi on DVD.

The DVD of The Full Monteverdi, released this week by Naxos, has debuted at number 8 in the HMV.com Classical Music DVD chart. Could it be a Christmas number 1?!

TFM producer Greg Browning has just spent the last few days down in Cannes at the MIPCOM conference and broadcast market. Greg spent hours trailing the “bunker” and spreading the good word about The Full Monteverdi and new projects to the international broadcast makret.

Thanks to PACT, UKTI and SW Screen for their support.

Below is an extract of a review from the preview screening at the Southbank Centre’s Early Music Weekend:

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“This astonishing film, here screened in public for the first time, is based on John La Bouchardière’s collaboration with I Fagiolini, and charts the emotional progress of six failing couples through the deeply moving music of Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals. This remarkable, intricately constructed film is aesthetically beautiful in every aspect: masterfully shot, sensitively arranged images, utterly glorious singing, impressive operatic acting, and a terrifyingly involving narrative flow. This encounter between yesterday’s music and today’s medium can’t help but deliver Monteverdi’s masterpieces to a new and deeply appreciative audience in a thoroughly spectacular fashion.”

Edward Lewis - Classical Source

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Click here for the full review