Orchestra Rehearsal
| Orchestra Rehearsal | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Federico Fellini |
| Produced by |
Michael Fengler Renzo Rossellini |
| Written by |
Screenplay: Federico Fellini Brunello Rondi Story: Federico Fellini |
| Starring | Balduin Baas |
| Music by | Nino Rota |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| Edited by | Ruggero Mastroianni |
|
Release date
|
4 December 1978 |
|
Running time
|
70 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Orchestra Rehearsal (Italian: Prova d'orchestra) is a 1978 Italian satirical film directed by Federico Fellini. It follows an Italian orchestra as the members go on strike against the conductor. The film was shown out of competition at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.
Considered by some to be underrated,Orchestra Rehearsal was the last collaboration between composer Nino Rota and Fellini, due to Rota's death in 1979.
An off-screen Italian television camera crew (voice enacted by Fellini) conducts documentarian-style 'roving eye' interviews with musicians preparing for a low-budget rehearsal in a run-down auditorium (formerly converted from a 13th-century church — presently slated for demolition, apparently). Speaking candidly and often cynically about their craft, interviewees are seen routinely interrupting one another as their artistic claims are contested or derided by orchestral peers, each self-importantly regarding his own instrument as the most vital to group performance, the most solitary in nature or spiritual in relation — these varied opinions reflecting each listener's intensely personal experience with music, one of the recurring themes of the film.
The conductor arrives (speaking Italian but with an affected German accent), proving theatrically critical of the ensuing performance quality and equally quarrelsome with trade union representatives on site, wearing down the orchestra members as he commands them to play with exceedingly particular nuances bordering on absurd abstraction, leading several musicians to strip away clothing under the strain of this taxing effort.
Protesting the conductor's authoritarian abuses, the union reps intervene, spitefully announcing that all musicians will be taking a 20-minute double break. While one camera follows the players to a local tavern to further catalog their ideological musings, in a backstage interview the defeated conductor expresses his frustrations regarding the impossible contradictions of his leadership role, opining on the subjective power of music just as a power outage in the building prompts his return to the auditorium hall.
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Wikipedia