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No consensus yet.
All Critics (23) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (9) | DVD (2)
Artistry abounds in every aspect of the film. Feb 13, 2001 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Artistry abounds in every aspect of the film.
Kevin Thomas
Glossy and histrionic, salacious and empty, Farinelli reduces a fascinating story to a series of hissy fits and leering glances. Jan 1, 2000 | Rating: 1/4 | Full Review…
Glossy and histrionic, salacious and empty, Farinelli reduces a fascinating story to a series of hissy fits and leering glances.
Edward Guthmann
There's something too artificial and highfalutin about the movie. Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…
There's something too artificial and highfalutin about the movie.
Desson Thomson
Because Carlo Broschi, the 18th-century castrato singer known as Farinelli, was himself such an exotic and sensationalistic figure, you'd think that creating a dull movie out of his flamboyant life would be next to impossible. Think again. Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…
Because Carlo Broschi, the 18th-century castrato singer known as Farinelli, was himself such an exotic and sensationalistic figure, you'd think that creating a dull movie out of his flamboyant life would be next to impossible. Think again.
Hal Hinson
Farinelli, one of the 1995 Oscar nominees in the foreign film category, is onto an interesting story, all right, but it leaves us feeling, like some of Farinelli's lovers, that something is missing. Jan 1, 2000 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
Farinelli, one of the 1995 Oscar nominees in the foreign film category, is onto an interesting story, all right, but it leaves us feeling, like some of Farinelli's lovers, that something is missing.
Roger Ebert
A fascinating, if occasionally overly melodramatic, recreation of a period when Baroque music ruled Europe. Jan 1, 2000 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
A fascinating, if occasionally overly melodramatic, recreation of a period when Baroque music ruled Europe.
James Berardinelli
While visually vibrant and generally well-acted, Farinelli is strangely not very compelling. Apr 24, 2019 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
While visually vibrant and generally well-acted, Farinelli is strangely not very compelling.
Matt Brunson
This Oscar-nominated Belgian entry about catsration of boys who became phenomenal soprano opera singers is more bizarre than drmatically engaging, but the story is always fascinating and the movie nice to look at and listent to. Aug 4, 2009 | Rating: B- | Full Review…
This Oscar-nominated Belgian entry about catsration of boys who became phenomenal soprano opera singers is more bizarre than drmatically engaging, but the story is always fascinating and the movie nice to look at and listent to.
Emanuel Levy
Romantic, sweeping tale of sex and sibling rivalry that manages to connect despite its overwrought storytelling. Nov 28, 2002 | Rating: 4/5
Romantic, sweeping tale of sex and sibling rivalry that manages to connect despite its overwrought storytelling.
Gabriel Shanks
Stops you in your tracks and transports you to a phantasmagorical world where music, mystery and magic hold sway. Aug 30, 2002 | Full Review…
Stops you in your tracks and transports you to a phantasmagorical world where music, mystery and magic hold sway.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
A lush, engrossing drama. Jan 9, 2002 | Full Review…
A lush, engrossing drama.
Stephen Farber
Farinelli is great fun and sufficiently thoughtful and complex to give food for continuing thought. Feb 13, 2001
Farinelli is great fun and sufficiently thoughtful and complex to give food for continuing thought.
Arthur Lazere
Beautiful, lush, sumptuous...all words that can be used to describe various aspects of this film. My only issue would be that the love between Farinelli and the woman who would later be his wife was barely explored at all - they go from arguing and ignoring each other to later living with each other in Spain, she being ready to have 'his' child. I could've done with a bit more of his childhood as well.
Super Reviewer
The colourful and uninhibited life of "il castrato" Farinelli and his brother Riccardo Broschi, two men who shared their music and their women. An operatic biopic with impressive production values and a dreamy score. Not as big as Milos Forman's Amadeus, but still, a picture with immense beauty and pleasant erotism.
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