Fiction
Farinelli
Film informations
Gérard Corbiau
Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Elsa Zylberstein, Jeroen Krabbe, Jacques Boudet, Caroline Cellier, Oméro Antonutti, Marianne Basler
This is the story of Carlo Broschi, alias Farinelli, the greatest castrato of the eighteenth century. Farinelli is castrated at the command of his elder brother, Ricardo, who makes the young eunuch the mouthpiece for his music. Mutilated at the age of 10, Farinelli will not rest until he has regained his dignity as a man - through his singing. In his quest for this fundamental recognition, Farinelli finds himself locked in remorseless conflict with Haendel, in a battle fought on the opera stage.Having pushed Haendel to the brink of death, Farinelli takes up exile in Spain. There his voice becomes the healing breath of life for the half-mad Philip V. But the eunuch's pain remains. It is then that Ricardo returns to pay his due. Through Alexandra Keene, the young woman Farinelli is in love with, he offers his brother something that no castrato, even in his wildest dreams, could ever dare to hope for : fatherhood.