In the bonus track of the DVD of "Bel Canto," it is difficult not to admire the tenacity of the filmmakers, who labored for fifteen years on this movie. The producer, writers, director, and performers genuinely believed that they were making a profound statement about "what it is to be human" and how "music transcends cultural barriers." Unfortunately, the film didn't work due primarily to the inability to develop a consistent film style.
It was clear that the filmmakers wanted to realistically evoke the drama of a hostage situation based an actual standoff in Lima, Peru. Approximately a dozen captives are locked into a Latin American compound and held at gunpoint by their captors. But the intensity of the crisis gives way to virtual comedy with the fraternizing of the hostages with their tormentors.
This is not the "Stockholm Syndrome" at work, but rather the phenomenon of the "birds and the bees." Two pairs of hostages and captors fall in love and consummate their relationships during the hostage situation. In other instances, the hostages and the revolutionaries cook and dine together; improvise soccer matches; and teach each other lessons in language. Even a musical tutorial is given by our diva, Roxanne Coss (Julianne Moore) to one of the terrorists.
As the film moved into the home stretch, it could have developed into a full-blown comedy, romantic drama, or even a musical. Instead, the choice made by the filmmakers was to try to turn the film into a tragedy. But the result was really only sappy melodrama. In making the hostages and captors so chummy, the film lost all credibility, and some of clunky dialogue undercut the humanistic objectives of the filmmakers, especially when the opera diva said of the captors, "They're not human."
It was clear that the filmmakers wanted to realistically evoke the drama of a hostage situation based an actual standoff in Lima, Peru. Approximately a dozen captives are locked into a Latin American compound and held at gunpoint by their captors. But the intensity of the crisis gives way to virtual comedy with the fraternizing of the hostages with their tormentors.
This is not the "Stockholm Syndrome" at work, but rather the phenomenon of the "birds and the bees." Two pairs of hostages and captors fall in love and consummate their relationships during the hostage situation. In other instances, the hostages and the revolutionaries cook and dine together; improvise soccer matches; and teach each other lessons in language. Even a musical tutorial is given by our diva, Roxanne Coss (Julianne Moore) to one of the terrorists.
As the film moved into the home stretch, it could have developed into a full-blown comedy, romantic drama, or even a musical. Instead, the choice made by the filmmakers was to try to turn the film into a tragedy. But the result was really only sappy melodrama. In making the hostages and captors so chummy, the film lost all credibility, and some of clunky dialogue undercut the humanistic objectives of the filmmakers, especially when the opera diva said of the captors, "They're not human."