Product Description
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Written, directed and produced by RenA FAret, MOZARTaS SISTER is
a re-imagined account of the early life of Maria Anna aNannerla
Mozart (played by Marie FAret, the directoras daughter), five
years older than Wolfgang (David Moreau) and a musical prodigy in
her own right. Originally the featured performer, Nannerl has
given way to Wolfgang as the main attraction, as their strict but
loving her Leopold (Marc Barbe) tours his talented offspring
in front of the royal courts of pre-French revolution Europe.
Approaching marriageable age and now forbidden to play the violin
or compose, Nannerl chafes at the limitations imposed on her
gender. But a friendship with the son and daughter of Louis XV
offers her ways to challenge the established sexual and social
order.
Review
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BY ROGER EBERT The image that springs to mind is of the young
Mozart touring the royal courts of Europe and being feted by
crowned heads. He was a prodigy, a celebrity, a star. The reality
was not so splendid, and even less so for his sister, Nannerl,
who was older by 4½ years and also highly gifted. The family
Mozart, headed by the ambitious impresario Leopold and cared for
by his wife, traveled the frozen roads of the continent in
carriages that jounced and rattled through long nights of broken
. Some royalty were happy to keep the Mozarts waiting
impatiently for small payments. There was competition from other
traveling prodigies none remotely as gifted as Mozart, but how
much did some audiences know about music? Toilet facilities were
found in the shrubbery along the roads. Still, theirs was largely
a happy life, as shown in Rene Feret's Mozart's Sister, a
lavishly photographed period biopic that contrasts the family's
struggle with the luxuries of its patrons. Papa Mozart (Marc
Barbe) was a taskmaster but a doting her. Frau Mozart
(Delphine Chuillot) was warm and stable. And this is crucial:
Nannerl (Marie Feret) and Wolfgang (David Moreau) loved music.
They lived and breathed it. They performed with delight. The
great mystery of Mozart's life (and now we must add his sister)
is how such great music apparently came so easily. For them,
music was not labor but play. One understandably hesitates to say
Nannerl was as gifted as her brother. We will never know. She
played the violin beautifully, but was discouraged by her her
because it was not a woman's instrument. She composed, but was
discouraged because that was not woman's work. She found her
family role at the harpsichord, as Wolfgang's accompanist. The
feminist point is clear to see, but Leopold was not punishing his
daughter so much as adapting his family business to the solidly
entrenched gender ideas of the time. There's a trenchant
conversation late in the film between Nannerl and Princess Louise
de France (Lisa Feret), the youngest child of Louis XV. From such
different walks of life, they formed almost at first meeting a
close, lifelong friendship, and shared a keen awareness of the
way their choices were limited by being female. A royal princess
who was not close in line to the throne (she was the 10th child),
Louise had two career choices: She could marry into royalty or
give herself to the church. She entered a cloistered order, and
it was her good fortune to accept its restrictions joyfully. But
think if we had been males! she says to Nannerl. Each could have
ruled in their different spheres of life. Nannerl also has a
close relationship with Louise's brother, the Dauphin prince
(Clovis Fouin), a young widower. It seems to have been chaste but
caring. Nannerl was always required in the wings of her brother's
career, and after his death at only 35, she became the guardian
of the music and the keeper of the flame. She found contentment
in this role, but never self-realization. The movie is an
uncommonly knowledgeable portrait of the way musical gifts could
lift people of ordinary backgrounds into high circles. We hear
Papa in a letter complaining about the humiliations his family
experienced by tight-fisted royals (they were kept waiting two
weeks as one prince went out hunting). Leopold was a publicist, a
promoter, a coach, a producer. It is possible that without him,
Mozart's genius might never have become known. The film focuses
most closely on Nannerl, a grave-eyed beauty, whose face speaks
volumes. She aspires, she dreams, she hopes, but for the most
part, she is obedient to the role society has assigned her. Marie
Feret, the director's daughter, is luminous in the role. --Roger
Ebert RogerEbert.com