The Music Teacher

"Amadeus meets Rocky!" (The movie's marketers came up with that one.) Then why is it so dull? Oh, because the writing is crap. Pretty and tasteful (the cinematography is lovely)...the sort of flick that gives European art films a bad name. Only worthwhile when Van Dam is singing, which, fortunately, is frequently. Contains the most gorgeous performances of Schumann's "Stille Tränen" and Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" I've ever heard, and I've heard (and played) a lot of them.

I watched this movie mainly because those masks where burn into my memory, maybe from a visit to an obscure video club when I was a kid. Anyway, the story is correct, the music and singers are great. It's like a classic competition film, but with lyric singers.