I just came back from seeing "Tosca", and I am completely enchanted. Director Jacquot manages to puzzle, perplex and tease us and all the while he presents the opera in a version that will be a tough act to follow. As for the puzzlement, perplexing and teasing, Jacquot cuts in between the studio recording (in black and white) and makes no real attempt to conceal the fact that the grandiose opera scenes are play back: on two occasions, he permits the singers to speak their lines above their own recorded singing.
The most amazing trick, however, is the opening of act III: Mario Cavaradossi, imprisoned in Castel San Angelo, recollects former scenes with Tosca - backwards! They walk backwards, kiss backwards, pray backwards. It has a humorous effect, as if the director wanted to avoid any emotional absorption in the story - and the story is in fact very touching at this point. And then he also completely abandons any cinematic rhythm, visually. In act I, during the duet between Tosca and Scarpia, the cameraman has been sent off to lunch, presumably, for the camera remains absolutely dead still - this however, is juxtaposed with a quadruple arc (is that the right word?) in Scarpia's great aria. The camera swirls in circles around the actor (Ruggiero), as we know it from the opening of Forman's "Hair" - only "Tosca" has FOUR full circles, if I counted right. In this aria, we also see a very daring interpretation, as Scarpia (Ruggiero), thinking of Tosca, has a nice little transport of a very sexual nature. It is a close-up, cutting the singer off above the waistline, thank God - but Ruggiero has some very convincing and suggestive acting in this scene. But the real scoop is the very end (and this is where the spoiler comes!). When the entire drama is played out, when Scarpia has received "The kiss of Tosca" - a knife in the belly - and when Cavaradossi has been shot and Tosca has taken a giant leap into the Tiber, Jacquot takes us back to the black and white studio recording. We see the lovely diva following the last, violent chords of the score, the music stops - and then Angela Gheorghiu makes a gesture as if to say: "Well, that's that. We pulled it off". This must be seen, it can't be explained properly, but it puts the whole grand opera into perspective in quite a wonderful way. And Gheorghiu, by the way, must be the most lovely Tosca imaginable. This film is must for all opera freaks, and everybody else may begin freaking here.
The most amazing trick, however, is the opening of act III: Mario Cavaradossi, imprisoned in Castel San Angelo, recollects former scenes with Tosca - backwards! They walk backwards, kiss backwards, pray backwards. It has a humorous effect, as if the director wanted to avoid any emotional absorption in the story - and the story is in fact very touching at this point. And then he also completely abandons any cinematic rhythm, visually. In act I, during the duet between Tosca and Scarpia, the cameraman has been sent off to lunch, presumably, for the camera remains absolutely dead still - this however, is juxtaposed with a quadruple arc (is that the right word?) in Scarpia's great aria. The camera swirls in circles around the actor (Ruggiero), as we know it from the opening of Forman's "Hair" - only "Tosca" has FOUR full circles, if I counted right. In this aria, we also see a very daring interpretation, as Scarpia (Ruggiero), thinking of Tosca, has a nice little transport of a very sexual nature. It is a close-up, cutting the singer off above the waistline, thank God - but Ruggiero has some very convincing and suggestive acting in this scene. But the real scoop is the very end (and this is where the spoiler comes!). When the entire drama is played out, when Scarpia has received "The kiss of Tosca" - a knife in the belly - and when Cavaradossi has been shot and Tosca has taken a giant leap into the Tiber, Jacquot takes us back to the black and white studio recording. We see the lovely diva following the last, violent chords of the score, the music stops - and then Angela Gheorghiu makes a gesture as if to say: "Well, that's that. We pulled it off". This must be seen, it can't be explained properly, but it puts the whole grand opera into perspective in quite a wonderful way. And Gheorghiu, by the way, must be the most lovely Tosca imaginable. This film is must for all opera freaks, and everybody else may begin freaking here.