Written and directed by Petr Václav, Il Boemo offers a unique look into the life and career of Czech composer Josef Myslivecek, one of the most acclaimed and prolific composers of opera in Italy. Il Boemo can also be considered a portrait of the XVIII century life by reason of how successfully it achieves the ambience of that period. It evokes the sensation of being in the eighteenth century in a beautiful and captivating way where costumes, furniture, makeup, and hairstyling can transport you to a bygone era of grace and luxury. The film's cinematography consists of colors that transmit a sense of calmness, romance, and drama, reinforcing the narrative's dynamics from its pianissimo to its forte. There is a sense of etherealness captured by the lighting, candles, chandeliers, and natural light, a resemblance to Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975). A resemblance that is not accidental, for, according to Václav, Barry Lyndon and Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984) were artistic inspirations for the lighting, camerawork, narrative style, and the way to shoot opera scenes. This is not the first time Petr Václav delves into the life of Josef Myslivecek, in 2015 he made Zpoved' zapomenutého, a documentary about the forgotten maestro. One of the purposes of Il Boemo is to answer the questions of how it was possible that Myslivecek rose so fast to fame, captivating the world of music, and how he consequently vanished so quickly from the collective memory after being considered one of the most popular Czech composers of the XVIII century.

As a story about a composer, it has many scenes with music, Myslivecek rehearsing and conducting his operas, but also beautiful arias that enhance not only his importance as a composer of that time but also communicate the sublime aspects of music and how it can convey what sometimes is difficult or impossible to put into words. The score for the movie, consisting of Myslivecek's compositions that were rediscovered in recent years, was performed by the Czech group Collegium 1704 conducted by Václav Luks and featuring international soloists like Philippe Jaroussky, Emoke Baráth, Raffaella Milanesi, and Simona Saturová. The pieces of music in the movie add an aura of melancholy. Remainders of what no longer exist, echoes of the rise and fall he experienced. They can also add a sense of joy and fascination. For instance, where one of his operas was met with enormous success provoking admiration everywhere. Being considered a mentor to Mozart, there is a scene where we can see a very young Wolfgang Amadeus joining Myslivecek backstage and effortlessly displaying his talent as a child prodigy. This moment successfully captures in a short amount of time the outstanding mastery of the gifted child and what he would become.

However, Il Boemo is not only a movie about music, it is about the ascent and decline of Myslivecek on a professional as well as a personal level. Petr Václav's feature is not interested in mitigating the harsh reality of the late composer as a forgotten figure whose prime was well beyond him. His life as a Bon vivant with conquers here and there would lead to unforeseen consequences, furthering the impact the movie can produce. The depiction of hedonistic experiences also leads to a sense of freedom in being more open and less restrictive, something that the movie successfully transmits. Some of the situations could be interpreted as peculiar, to say the least, while others as liberating. The movie does not attempt to lessen the hypocrisy often found in snobbery and nobility, on the contrary, it might be said that it heightens it. Behaviors defying the assumed speak for themselves. They might or might not be part of the mores of the era, but they certainly elevate the film's search for the impactful by portraying them. What is also impactful are the performances. The cast is one of the strongest aspects of the movie, and they all play characters that suit them well. Besides the great lead by Vojtech Dyk, we have Elena Radonicich as the empowered rich libertine Marchesa, Barbara Ronchi as the world-famous and problematic soprano Caterina Gabrielli, etc.

Il Boemo, in the end, is an invitation to indulge in the beauty of music, a movie for all art lovers that is definitely worth seeing as it will widen your love for classical music as well as your appreciation for the great Czech composer.

I watched this movie in a small cinema theater, and I was amazed with the result.

This is a great story showcasing a composer who made something beautiful and emotional, transitioning from a normal scene to parts of opera where sopranos are singing, making the whole film even better.

Long movie, with a lot of scenes sometimes going fast, but beautiful scenery. The connection between him and his last love, was even more motivating for him, while the ending was touching; he wrote a piece of art where his emotions came out and made others feel similar.

Worth watching if are interested, especially if you like opera.

Josef Myslivecek is a composer from Prag that moved to Venice and Italy to complete his own musical training and particularly to learn how to compose an opera. He was admired by Mozart, they say, but Mozart is still great though he died in and of misery and poverty, in and of being rejected by the good Austrian society, which explains why he was a free-mason. Josef Myslivecek, alias Il Boemo, was tremendously famous and popular in Italy, and even beyond in his time, the 18th century but he ruined his career, in many ways, because he thought, he felt, he practiced this conviction that to make sopranos and other female singers work, invest in the music, you have to love them and of course with your own body, in their own bodies. Debauchery comes along, promiscuity follows then and all along, and looking for always stronger adventures leads the composer to the dregs of society and there he becomes sick with syphilis that will kill him after a rather long period when he is obliged to wear a mask to cover up the damage of the disease.

His death is probably a great loss for music, and we are just rediscovering him, but his approach to opera seems to have been slightly dictated by the genre in the 18th century in Italy before the real revolution Handel and Mozart introduced in the field of opera. Opera then is a sequence of arias more or less connected by some recitatives. Then the show was enriched with costumes, settings, and at times some light dancing, but the dramatic plot was purely abstract. The fight between the castrati and the soprani was perverting the art and did not always bring something. Yet we know with Mozart and Handel that the opera was being born in its more modern form, even if still slightly long. The film shows very well how this opera was for the wealthy audience and the aristocracy a long, at times boring entertainment that could last half a day or more, with meals and intimate private episodes in the boxes that could be closed up by curtains, which did not always prevent all sorts of physical dramas, like falling by intentional accident from a box into the arena or parterre.

This film is trying to bring the man back to the limelight, but brilliant as he might be, he also is in many ways ruined by his unstable and maybe capricious, whimsical, or vindicative behavior. Maybe he did not have much luck in life. The main soprano he worked with achieved phenomenal results under the duress of Josef Myslivecek's emotional intelligence that made her feel she had to do what she had to do in spite of it all, she had to sing in spite of her tremendous depression, suffering because everyone was gross with her, the local king or prince particularly who actually relieved himself in a soup bowl in her dressing room in her absence but with the passive complicity of the composer. This main soprano finally escaped into a convent and was found dead in the Mother Superior's bed sometime later. That's how important people in those days mistreated the artists who were nothing but entertainers, hence clowns, hence who knows what, buffoons or even baboons? The film shows that more than explicitly. Then all the colors, the rich settings, and the luxury in the production embellish what is, in fact, a constant rejection and ordeal to the musicians, composers, and singers who too often have to accept to be the personal toys of the duke or count or marquis, even in the middle of a crowd. The artist is the pet of the local ruler, religious or secular.

This film is maybe not a masterpiece, but it is definitely a paragonic (sic), paragonal (sic), and marvelous feat. Josef Myslivecek must have felt particularly minorized by the young still-a-child Mozart who asked Josef Myslivecek for a small piece of music, which Josef Myslivecek accepted to play on the keyboard of those days, a harpsichord it must have been. And then Mozart improvised a long variation on this piece of music he had only heard once, with, as is well-known, too many notes. The child empowered the maestro's music with the inspiration of the next era, and that in front of Mozart's father who was also very dubitative of his own son and was thus pushed aside by his own son. Both composers will die young or rather young, both in poverty, both sick in the worst possible ways, even if pneumonia was not syphilis. Both were hungry in their last weeks, months, maybe years on this ungrateful earth.

But it is necessary to amplify this film with the two vocal works that are recorded, hence available, an opera, L'Olimpiade, and an oratorio, Adamo Y Eva. Hence to be continued.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

VERSION FRANÇAISE

Josef Myslivecek est un compositeur originaire de Prague qui est parti à Venise et en Italie pour compléter sa propre formation musicale et notamment apprendre à composer un opéra. Il était admiré par Mozart, dit-on, mais Mozart est toujours grand bien qu'il soit mort dans et de misère et pauvreté, dans le et du rejet de la bonne société autrichienne, ce qui explique pourquoi il était franc-maçon. Josef Myslivecek, alias Il Boemo, était extrêmement célèbre et populaire en Italie, et même au-delà, en son temps, au 18ème siècle, mais il a ruiné sa carrière, à bien des égards, parce qu'il pensait, il sentait, et il mettait en pratique cette conviction que pour faire que des sopranos et autres chanteuses performent, s'investissent dans la musique, il faut les aimer et bien sûr avec son propre corps, dans leur propre corps. La débauche arrive alors, la promiscuité s'ensuit aussitôt et tout le temps, et la recherche d'aventures toujours plus fortes conduit le compositeur dans la lie de la société et là il tombe malade de la syphilis qui le tuera au bout d'une période assez longue où il est obligé de porter un masque pour dissimuler les dégâts de la maladie.

Sa mort est probablement une grande perte pour la musique, et nous venons tout juste de le redécouvrir, mais son approche de l'opéra semble avoir été légèrement dictée par le genre au 18ème siècle en Italie avant la véritable révolution introduite par Haendel et Mozart dans le domaine de l'opéra. . L'opéra est alors une séquence d'arias plus ou moins reliés par quelques récitatifs. Ensuite, le spectacle était enrichi de costumes, de décors et parfois de danses légères, mais l'intrigue dramatique était purement abstraite, connue de tous. Le combat entre les castrats et les soprani pervertissait l'art et n'apportait pas toujours grand chose. On sait pourtant qu'avec Mozart et Haendel l'opéra naissait sous sa forme plus moderne, même s'il est encore un peu long. Le film montre très bien combien cet opéra était pour le public aisé et l'aristocratie un divertissement long, parfois ennuyeux, qui pouvait durer une demi-journée ou plus, avec des repas et des épisodes intimes et privés dans des loges fermées par des rideaux, qui n'empêchait pas toujours toutes sortes de drames physiques, comme tomber par accident intentionnel d'une loge dans l'arène ou le parterre.

Ce film tente de ramener l'homme sur le devant de la scène, mais aussi brillant qu'il puisse être, il est également ruiné à bien des égards par son comportement instable et peut-être capricieux, fantaisiste ou vindicatif. Peut-être qu'il n'a pas eu beaucoup de chance dans la vie. La soprano principale avec laquelle il a travaillé a obtenu des résultats phénoménaux sous la contrainte de l'intelligence émotionnelle de Josef Myslivecek qui lui a fait sentir qu'elle devait faire ce qu'elle devait faire malgré tout, qu'elle devait chanter malgré sa terrible dépression, souffrant parce que tout le monde était irrespectueux avec elle, le roi ou le prince local en particulier qui se soulageait dans une soupière dans sa loge en son absence mais avec la complicité passive du compositeur. Cette soprano principale s'est finalement réfugiée dans un couvent et a été retrouvée morte dans le lit de la Mère Supérieure quelques temps plus tard. C'est ainsi que les gens importants de l'époque maltraitaient les artistes qui n'étaient que des amuseurs, donc des clowns, donc on ne sait quoi, des bouffons ou même des babouins ? Le film le montre plus qu'explicitement. Ensuite, toutes les couleurs, les riches décors et le luxe de la mise en scène embellissent ce qui est, en fait, un rejet et une épreuve constante pour les musiciens, compositeurs et chanteurs qui doivent trop souvent accepter d'être les jouets personnels du duc ou du comte ou du marquis, même au milieu de la foule. L'artiste est l'animal de compagnie du dirigeant local, religieux ou laïc.

Ce film n'est peut-être pas un chef-d'oeuvre, mais c'est définitivement un exploit paragonique (sic), paragonal (sic) et merveilleux. Josef Myslivecek a dû se sentir particulièrement minoré par le jeune Mozart encore enfant qui a demandé à Josef Myslivecek un petit morceau de musique, que Josef Myslivecek a accepté de jouer sur le clavier de l'époque, un clavecin sans doute. Et puis Mozart a improvisé une longue variation sur ce morceau de musique qu'il n'avait entendu qu'une seule fois, avec, comme on le sait, trop de notes. L'enfant a donné à la musique du maestro l'inspiration de l'époque suivante, et cela devant le père de Mozart qui était également très dubitatif à l'égard de son propre fils et était donc mis de côté par son propre fils. Les deux compositeurs mourront jeunes ou plutôt jeunes, tous deux dans la pauvreté, tous deux malades des pires maladies, même si la pneumonie n'était pas la syphilis. Tous deux ont eu faim au cours de leurs dernières semaines, mois, voire années sur cette terre ingrate.

Mais il faut amplifier ce film avec les deux oeuvres vocales enregistrées, donc disponibles, un opéra, L'Olimpiade, et un oratorio, Adamo Y Eva. A suivre donc.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU.