Historical film “Gloria!” about forgotten female musicians
Published: Thursday, Aug 22nd 2024, 10:20
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The Italian-Swiss film "Gloria!" aims to bring forgotten female musicians from around 1800 to the big screen. The feel-good story about emancipation is partly reminiscent of a pop musical.
Even the carrot preparation is in time. Clothes are washed rhythmically and the yard is swept to match. At least that's how the shy maid Teresa imagines it before she discovers her own talent for making music.
Director Margherita Vicario's lively feature film debut "Gloria!" landed directly in the Berlinale competition in February. Indulging in music, the Italian tells the story of the emancipation of a group of young women around the maid Teresa (Galatéa Bellugi), set around 1800. They live in a music school for orphan girls near Venice run by an authoritarian maestro.
Pop music anticipated
Teresa finds a piano in a storeroom and quickly learns to play it. While everything in the house revolves around the upcoming visit of the newly elected Pope, to whom a concert is to be dedicated, she experiments with melodies with other young women. They anticipate the development of pop music by a few centuries, so to speak.
In places, the film therefore develops the dynamics of a rousing, pop musical. This is hardly surprising given director Vicario's background - she is also known in Italy as a pop singer. With this Italian-Swiss production, she wants to remind us of the many overlooked and suppressed female composers in history.
When she releases a new record, the first question that regularly comes up is what she thinks of women in music today, Vicario said during the Berlinale. This gave her the idea to focus on female composers who were active between the 16th and 20th centuries. The end of the 18th century in particular produced outstanding female musicians, but hardly anyone knows them.
Rebelliousness and kitsch
The young women in the film courageously fight against traditional gender roles, patriarchal structures and for life-affirming music. Gloria!" exposes bigotry and the danger of fanatical Catholicism in a beautifully casual way. In its emotional exuberance, however, the film has some sentimental and kitschy moments and is altogether too over the top.
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