The Czech nomination for next year’s Foreign Language Oscar captures the glorious decadence of the 18th Century Italy inhabited by composer Josef Mysliveček (Vojtech Dyk), nicknamed Il Boemo. But decay acts as a counterpoint to Petr Václav’s film. The extreme outcome of it is manifest on Mysliveček’s syphilis-ravaged and mask-shrouded face when we meet him shortly before his death, just shy of his 44th birthday, at the start of the film before time unravels to reveal him in his youthful glory. It would be nigh on impossible to watch Václav’s film without recalling Milos Forman’s Amadeus but although they share some DNA, especially in terms of the old school filmmaking on display, Mysliveček is a very different prospect in terms of personality than Mozart.
Václav shows how the earlier Czech composer, who moved to Italy in search of fame, was much less volatile than the younger composer,...
Václav shows how the earlier Czech composer, who moved to Italy in search of fame, was much less volatile than the younger composer,...
- 9/29/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Czech composer who inspired Mozart is the subject of Il Boemo, a handsome period biopic that premiered in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Written and directed by Petr Vaclav (Marian), it’s an entertaining insight into Josef Mysliveček’s music and his hedonistic lifestyle, with an operatic running time of 140 minutes. While the film is mostly in Italian, it’s the Czech entry for the International Feature race at the Academy Awards and should attract an audience of mature music lovers.
Czech actor and musician Vojtěch Dyk puts in a dashing performance as the musician who became a celebrated composer in 18th century Italy, and was all but forgotten by a history that celebrated the younger Mozart. But there’s no doubting the talent of the man nicknamed “Il Boemo,” as the film’s many musical scenes attest.
Photo Gallery: Past International Feature Film Oscar Winners
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Czech actor and musician Vojtěch Dyk puts in a dashing performance as the musician who became a celebrated composer in 18th century Italy, and was all but forgotten by a history that celebrated the younger Mozart. But there’s no doubting the talent of the man nicknamed “Il Boemo,” as the film’s many musical scenes attest.
Photo Gallery: Past International Feature Film Oscar Winners
We...
- 9/29/2022
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
At the height of his career, Czech-born composer Josef Mysliveček was the most prolific and sought-after figure in Italian opera, bound for immortal celebrity. Nearly three centuries later, his name isn’t forgotten to classical music scholars, but neither does it have anything approaching household status; the facts and records of his personal life, meanwhile, have largely been lost to history. Via a blend of free narrative speculation and exacting musical presentation, Petr Vaclav’s stately, sumptuous biopic “Il Boemo” seeks to restore a degree of iconic status to a talent latterly overshadowed by relative 18th-century contemporaries, albeit not with much swagger or modernity of its own: This is costume drama of a traditional, ornately brocaded stripe, a classical music lesson for classicists.
That’s not likely to do “Il Boemo” any harm as it further travels the festival circuit following its world premiere in San Sebastian’s main competition,...
That’s not likely to do “Il Boemo” any harm as it further travels the festival circuit following its world premiere in San Sebastian’s main competition,...
- 9/21/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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