People are voting emotionally.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Omnibus/compilations films are rarely, if ever, consistent and Aria is not an exception. It is a fun and interesting film to watch though, and while there are a few misfires it is to me better than the IMDb rating and some reviews suggest. It is understandable why there'll be people who won't like it, especially for those looking for faithful plots to the operas featured or those who don't like classical music but those who love great music, great visuals, great singing and some interesting ideas will find a lot to enjoy.As expected, Aria is very uneven but actually of the ten segments only three didn't work at all from personal opinion. Those three were Roeg's Un Ballo in Maschera, Godard's Armide and (surprisingly) Altman's Lea Boreades. Un Ballo in Maschera has Verdi's wonderful music and the singing of Robert Merrill, Carlo Bergonzi, Leontyne Price, Reri Grist and Shirley Verrett going for it. Otherwise, it had ideas that weren't nowhere near explored enough; it was convoluted(Verdi's opera may have an implausible story but it was much easier to follow); it is one of the least accomplished looking segments in the film; Theresa Russell with a moustache and as a male fascist ruler was something that was quite distasteful and weird and it was directed in a way that I had no idea what Roeg was trying to do and because of the chaotic feel of the whole segment Roeg probably had no clear idea what he was doing either. Les Boreades is an example of something with an okay if strange idea that has nothing interesting done with it. Altman is a great director but he directs with little imagination or interest here(it feels very music video-like), not much happens and when something does you don't have much of a clue. And it's pretty much the same with Armide, the second-silliest of the segments after Rigoletto(though that was actually funny) but also manages to be duller and more incoherent than Les Boreades and it's very repetitive. Plus it's at odds at with the music and the story of the opera, the opera I consider a tragedie en musique but here Godard does it the opposite, except apart from the odd funny moment it's like a comedy with nowhere near enough laughs.However, there are some very strong high-points. Personal favourites are Roddam's Liebestod and Russell's Nessun Dorma sequences. Liebestod is an absolute wonder visually and matches Wagner's magnificent music brilliantly, of all the segments it's the segment that matches the music the most effectively. The tragic love story is beautiful and moving and Bridget Fonda makes for a highly credible debut. Leontyne Price's rich, powerful voice gives a very haunting quality as well. Nessun Dorma is wonderfully surreal and of the segments is the most imaginative visually. It is a wonderful-looking segment that while having Russell's very marmite style all over it it doesn't feel too over-excessive like some of Russell's films have been prone to. The aria is the most well-known of the ones featured and Jussi Bjorling's rendition with that thrilling top B is one of the best along with Corelli's and Pavarotti's. Sturridge's La Virgine Degli Angeli also looks stunning with a hypnotic dream-like quality, it's not as imaginative as Nessun Dorma but is a very, very close second to Liebestod as the most striking segment. It's also very touchingly done and Price also sings the aria and it's heavenly, one of the best of the aria there is. Wonderful also is Jarman's Depuis Le Jour, the most emotional and reflective of the bunch story-wise. Like Les Boreades there is a music-video feel in places but it's actually in an interesting way.Regarding the other three segments they are neither masterpieces or disasters and on the whole work well. Temple's Rigoletto is highly entertaining, wonderfully filmed and cleverly shot. But it is a very acquired taste, if you dislike vulgar you will dislike this. The farcial comedy shows actor with good comic timing, and the segment is worth it for Beverly D'Angelo who is hot with a capital H. As well as Verdi's music and the singing of Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo and Alfredo Kraus. Bryden's Pagliacci is not convincing lip-synching-wise but has a very moving performance from John Hurt and the segment is both intimate and subtly dramatic. There couldn't have been a more perfect choice of aria, and who better to sing it than one of the most beautiful tenor voices ever Enrico Caruso? Beresford's Die Tote Stadt is beautifully shot, especially the shots of the flying doves, the scenery is magical, Korngold's music is predictably fabulous as is the singing and Elizabeth Hurley is entrancing. It's also charming and touching. It is very slight though and Carol Neblett's voice does not fit Hurley at all, angelic it is but it's too mature.To conclude, very interesting and fun, it mostly looks great and is faultless musically, but is very much variable. It was difficult as to rate it either a 6 or 7 but because although the three misfires really bring Aria down to a considerable degree the music, singing, most of the visuals and four high-points segments were so good that I'll award Aria a 7/10. Bethany Cox

It's interesting to see what different directors will do when they are told, "make a short film based upon a famous opera." It's like looking through someone's garbage...you really get a sense for who they are.Based upon what I've seen here, here's what I think about each director and their segment:Nicolas Roeg - Always an experimental guy, but, by nature, experiments often fail. Such is the case with Roeg's segment, which perplexingly casts his wife Thresa Russell as a (male) fascist ruler about to be assassinated. I have no idea what he was thinking, but the segment doesn't work at all.Charles Sturridge - This guy must have major skeletons in his closet. It's the story of three children, sadly watching a replay of themselves being killed in a car accident on TV, the result of taking their parents' car out for an ill-advised drive. It's a beautiful, intensely sad sequence, one of the best in the movie.Jean-Luc Godard - Never known for being subtle. This is the WORST of the movies. If you can't figure out that it's about sexual frustration, go live in a cave. It takes something truly special to make two gorgeous women parading around naked to be so mind-numbingly boring.Julien Temple - Mainstream director somehow having backed into the arthouse scene. This entertaining bit of absurdity plays like an elaborate Saturday Night Live sketch, with a husband and wife out cheating on each other at the same hotel. It's funny and sexy, and surprisingly at home with the more cerebral segments.Bruce Beresford - Great respect of love, sex and sensuality. Pleasant enough, basically the story of a woman (Elizabeth Hurley) giving herself to her lover for the first time. Nice buns on Elizabeth, but it's a wonderful little sequence regardless. Gorgous photograaphy.Robert Altman - Tell this guy to do whatever he wants, and he'll be at a loss as to what he wants to do. Utterly pointless, boring and irritating short about the inmates of an asylum sitting in a theatre awaiting the night's performance. Nothing but a series of swooping camera shots and people acting crazy. Really bad.Franc Roddam - Pessimistic and cynical, especially when it comes to love. Beautifully shot sequence about two young lovers who travel to Las Vegas to have one last night together before committing suicide. Subtly gives us hints as to why they do what they do (life is a pointless series of tragedies which leads up to old age), which makes the sequence all the more heart-breaking. Bridget Fonda's film debut, and it seems she was pretty enthusiastic about taking off her clothes right off the bat. Nothing wrong with that!Ken Russell - Seems to have known most segments would be deadly serious and pretentious, so decided just to goof off. Russell fans will love this sequence, others will probably just be bewildered. Nothing to read into here, a woman is on the operating table after being in a car accident, and has hallucinations about being adorned with jewels as opposed to being stitched back together. Well shot and genuinely imaginative.Derek Jarman - Simplicity is the key. An old woman thanks happy thoughts of her younger days as an actress. That's it. Simple, charming, moving.Bill Bryden - Let's hear it for the has-been. A dying actor (John Hurt) performs the famous opera from Pagliacci (the sad clown) to an empty theater, after which he drops dead. It's a brutally sad sequence about the devastation a performer feels after they have been forgotten by the public.Overall, it's an interesting movie. The girls' bare bottoms and guys' ripped pecs of Godard's sequence will help both men and women get through it, but Roeg's and Altman's misfires will have you reaching for the fast-forward button.

OK, yes I know I'm a Philistine, and I have no knowledge of, nor love for opera. I readily admit that I might feel differently about this film if I did. But I don't. So, for those of you like me, skip this one unless you want to look at the pretty (sometimes unclothed) girls. For what it's worth, I thought the first segment with Theresa Russell (who I didn't recognize) was the best of the lot.

If you like Opera, all the arias will be familiar. The treatments the ten directors give to one aria each, are totally removed from their original context. Nessun Dorma from Turandot becomes the vision of a girl in a near-fatality - gripping imagery culminates in the final VINCERO! of her survival . . .John Hurt lip-synching Vesti la Giubba from I Pagliacci is perhaps the low-point, but the madly bawdy Robert Altmann scene fails too - the rest is a lavish treat! The tragedy of children dying is captured in gritty black and white to the serene melody of Verdi's La Vergine Dell' Angeli, the remarkable outcome of an assasination attempt at a King's life is done brilliantly to the backing of La Sua Parole from A Masked Ball . . . with totally different ending to the one in the Opera! See this, then view it again; you will be amazed and enriched - if you like Opera, that is. If you do not, and have no desire to, then please: go back to the usual fare - this will have very little to offer you - enjoy your Stallone and van Damme.