Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

gavin6942 Farinelli is the artistic name of Carlo Broschi, a young singer in Handel's time. He was castrated in his childhood in order to preserve his voice. During his life he comes to be a very famous opera singer, managed by his mediocre brother Riccardo.Although this is the story of a real person, it relies very little on facts. Just a few notes: the ambiguous relationship between the Broschi brothers, the stormy one with rival composer Handel, and Farinelli's own amorous escapades and over-the-top "rockstar" attitude are totally spurious. But I don't think this makes the film bad, because it is not intended to be a true story.It is somewhat hard to believe that this used to be a real practice... the purposeful destruction of a child just to have him sing high notes. Whatever was the point?

thinker1691 In the 18th century, long before modern music could be canned for mass consumption, there existed a life-style which could only be sculpted from the unfortunate lives of prepubescent boys of Europe. This movie called " Farinelli " is the finest example of what was once deemed a most unique form of Opera. The story is based on the true story of two brothers who's father fettered them to a life of music and composition. Stefano Dionisi plays Carlo Broschi, AKA as Farinelli and his brother Riccardo Broschi (Enrico Lo Verso). Together they travel far and wide seeking not only an Opera loving audience, but also a rich patron who could afford their talent. The time of our story is set during the Baroque heyday of Frideric Handel (Jeroen Krabbe) who's great Classical music became the epitome of royalty and high society alike. The elder Broschi believes he did the right thing by suffering his younger brother to the excruciating pain of being castrated. However, he is then haunted by the fact his tortured brother has nightmares from the incident. Travel as the two boys do throughout the film, the story becomes more a testament of conscience, than one dealing with the audience appreciation of the day. Still, for Opera lovers or for those who enjoy good operatic theater, this movie delivers a cornucopia of both, with great period costumes and superior acting. Indeed, Stefano Dionisi and Jeroen Krabbé are superb as their lives play against each another. ****

l-f-s Be prepared for something different, disturbing, and with a history lesson that is completely inaccurate. In fact, it is a blatantly convoluted tale that looks more like a Cinderella story than actual accounts of history. Director Gerard Corbiau's Farinelli is 'all that' but it also is visually stunning and represents castrati singing with richness and clarity. Farinelli is the artistic name of castrato (a male castrated at a young age) Carlo Broschi (Stefano Dionisi), a handsome young choir boy who was accidentally castrated at the age of 10 purportedly due to a riding accident. Ill and under the influence of powerful drugs (opium) at the time, Carlo has no recollection of his unfortunate accident. His brother Riccardo (Enrico Lo Verso), seven years his senior, tells him repeatedly the story of how he was riding a beautiful white horse from which he was thrown, causing an injury that led to his castration. Throughout his life, Carlo has a recurring nightmare about riding the white horse but in his dream he never falls off. The conflict between Carlo's dreams and Riccardo's stories hints at the horrible secret between the brothers that is ultimately revealed near the end of the film. Carlo's astonishing soprano voice (a digitized composition of the voices of Derek Lee Ragin and Ewa Mallas Godlewska) eventually makes him and his brother who composes mediocre operatic scores for Carlo to perform, a phenomenal success. Carlo relinquishes his born name with his professional name Farinelli. Although Carlo suspects that his brother had something to do with his childhood emasculation, he continues to perform his brothers badly written operas. Both brothers are aware that Carlo's superior talent is being undermined by performing Riccardo's operas.An ill-fated meeting with Maestro George Frederick Handel (Jeroen Krabbé), who desired a contract with Carlo, begins a contentious battle between the two for the lion's share of audience. Carlo turns down Maestro Handel's offer is hired to perform in a London theater to draw audiences away from Handel's operas. Farinelli performs wonderfully and eventually takes virtually all of the audience away from Handel. Carlo's looks, fantastic voice, and range make female audience members faint dead away. One woman tells Carlo that he is responsible for her first musical orgasm! A pact between brothers where women are concerned creates titillating ménage a trios scenes which earned the film its R rating. Carlo soon realizes that performing Handel's operas are so desirable to him that he tries to convince Handel to take him in. The rest of the story reveals the tragic secret that Carlo has always known but in the end brings brothers together for one more ménage a trios that would leave Carlo to become a father; the one gift that was taken away from him as a child. I really enjoyed this film and the music that accompanied it. I commend the director for his efforts to take a difficult subject matter and turn it into a story that is both entertaining and titillating at times. However, the early-on innuendo that Riccardo was somehow responsible for Carlo's difficult life took away the endings potential climax that could have left the audience hanging. --Lewis Saettel 2007

periola12 Farinelli is an interesting film, definitely worth seeing. There is a strange fascination with the idea of the castrato, so I found myself watching the movie to learn more about castrati. However, the film romanticized Farinelli like a rock star or something. Some scenes were pretty damn embarrassing. But before I go into all that, here's a grossly brief spiel of "castrato history", drawn from M401 music history class at IU and from various websites found from Google, and NOT FROM THE FILM, in order to give some background info: During the 18th century in Rome and some other Italian areas, women were not permitted to sing in church. For this reason, boys between the ages of 7-9 who showed potential as a singer were castrated to preserve their unbroken voice, with their permission. Although castrati were common throughout Italy, the procedure was illegal even then. Opera was the most popular and extravagant genre of music at this time, and castrati were often cast as the lead male role. Audiences found the unnatural voice of the castrati quite hypnotic, combining the range of a woman with the strength and power of a man. Carlo Broschi, called Farinelli, remains the highest esteemed of the castrati. "Tales" include his 3-octave-plus range, and of numerous occasions at the opera house where he would compete with a trumpeter on who could hold a note longer, with Farinelli winning. Physically, castrati were described to be abnormally tall, with a pear-shaped torso (wide hipped). Their voices sounded like a woman's. They had no facial hair, and no male-pattern baldness. And of course, most (though not all) were celibate. Farinelli was like most, I'm pretty sure (don't quote me on that).Now, the film is a bit different from all this. In the film, Farinelli is an Italian Tom Cruise look-alike with a thin waist (like any thin sexy man). He's constantly having sex, sharing his fans with his leech brother. And, I'm no singer, but Mr. Stefano Dionisi did a pretty poor lip-sync job. His posture suggested no diaphragmatic support. Also, he made goofy facial expressions out of place in opera, and he also bared his teeth excessively. The diction and tone that his face suggested would have sounded really bad, for opera standards. Of course, I'm not expecting a MET performance from an actor, but his impersonation of operatic singing looked almost mocking. Also, the whole blending of male and female voice (see goofs above) lacked power. They should have just used a counter-tenor.Also, I am not aware of the relationship between Farinelli and his brother Riccardo, but I'm pretty sure it was not as dysfunctional and psychotic as it was made out to be. And there is no way that Farinelli's castration was such a big deal and an injustice to Farinelli. I'm sure he wanted to be castrated just like everyone else.The portrayal of Handel is a scream. I always thought Handel was a cosmopolitain man, who served the royalty of England and saw far more success than Bach. The movie portrays him as such, granted, but I didn't think he was a bastard! Maybe he was, I don't know, but the relationship and rivalry between Farinelli and Handel, I don't think that ever occurred. First off, Farinelli never performed any of Handel's operas. I doubt he stole his opera score too.Despite the historical inaccuracies, I found the portrayal of 18th century opera society to be really interesting. Typically, American audiences are used to historical movies with British actors, regardless of the ethnicity portrayed. We are used to seeing British people play Frenchmen, Italianmen. However, in this film, the French are played by Frenchmen, and so on. As a result, there seems to be a more realistic portrayal of European society. Also I love how the opera is just this excuse to socialize. It was not like it is today. In this sense, the film was more historically correct.All in all, I recommend seeing the film. Do a google search for pictures of Farinelli, if you're interested.