dierregi A widely fictionalized story of the Mozart family, focusing on Nannerl, Amadeus' older sister. The fictional events are supposed to take place during the Mozart's "grand tour" of Europe, from 1762 to 1773. On their way to Paris, the family gets stranded nearby an abbey, where the last three daughters of King Louis XV are staying. Nannerl makes friend with Louise, the youngest sister and she is entrusted with a love letter for Hugues, a guy Louise is in love with, to be delivered in Versailles.The family arrives in Versailles when the Dauphin is in mourning for the death of his wife and Nannerl must wear men clothes to enter the Dauphin's circle, where Hugues is employed. This leads to the Dauphin and Nannerl falling for each other. But politics must prevail, therefore the Dauphin marries a princess and Nannerl goes back to Austria with her family.The main point of the film is the miserable situation of women at the time. Nannerl was an accomplished performer as her brother, but being female she had no rights to pursue her studies or to have a "career" as a musician. - Louise was not even allowed to court and being the younger one, her only "escape" was to become a nun. - The Dauphine we do not even see, died in childbirth, a high risk activity at the time and yet, the only added value of a woman's life. - Her death was useless because she produced a female heir, completely useless for the monarchy, hence pushing the Dauphin to a hasty second marriage; etc....Although the romance is purely fictional, what resonates disturbingly true is the submissive, second-rate quality of a woman's life in Mozart times.The movie is slightly too long, with some unnecessary episodes (the porn book?). The costumes and lights are good and most acting, too. I did not like much Marie Féret as Nannerl, because her delivery was very flat – but maybe it was a way to suggest that women could not even express emotions

richard-1787 This could have been a much better movie than it turned out to be. The premise is obvious from almost the very beginning: Mozart's sister Nannerl had talent as a musician and composer, but it was put under a barrel by her domineering father, who chose to devote all his energies to promoting the career of her younger brother, the unquestioned genius WA Mozart. Boring because obvious - unless something interesting had been done with it.And that is the problem with this movie. Nothing was ever really interesting. The characters were almost all shy and retiring. That may be realistic, but it doesn't make for an interesting movie. Remember the very strong characters created in Amadeus, and contrast them with 1) Nannerl Mozart, 2) Mozart and Nannerl's mother, 3) the daughter of Louis XIV who befriends Nannerl, 4) Louis XV, etc. They were all of the shy, retiring type. That doesn't make for a dynamic movie.There are never any great dramatic scenes between Nannerl and her father where she complains about the attention lavished only on her younger brother. Indeed, there is precious little real drama here. Just a lot of shy, unhappy characters caught in their shyness. It's hard to get involved with that.There was nothing wrong with the acting, and everything wrong with the script. It should have been thrown out and replaced with one that created interesting, dynamic characters that made Nannerl's (perhaps) unfair treatment come alive and engage the audience. That didn't happen.The costumes and sets are nice. But if the sound were turned off, you'd miss nothing of interest.

paul david I found this to be an enjoyable period drama about the Mozart family. Remember it is a French made film, made in French language. Top notch English subtitles are necessary on DVD. I doubt the movie, released in the autumn of 2011, would have got worldwide cinema attraction.Most of us watching would not know the story of Wolfgang Mozarts sister and I have no special interest in classical music, though as a tourist, yes, I did once visit Salzburg.The film centres around the maturity of the young Nanna and her exploitable musical potential while in friendship at least with the French Dauphin.The movie contains too much talking overall and I usually like French movies for that but not this time. I liked the acting and the costume drama and I liked the story itself, though two hours is definitely too long and for a non French speaking audience, not many are going to stay until the end. I nodded off the first time after 30 minutes and gave the film a late afternoon re-viewing earlier this afternoon.Nothing offensive or conspiratorial about the movie. It simply dramatise a story from a book published a few years ago. Enjoy the movie for what it is and do not expect too much.The music does come across as a little false and overdone but 6 from 10 is about right pitch for its rating.

hawktwo I saw this at the FilmFest DC in April 2011.The story was complex on so many levels: the wonderful family relationship of the Mozarts as they travelled around Europe. The strong feminine influences; the strictures of society that allow the older sister's intellect to waste away; the daughters of the king who were locked away in isolation.The costumes were authentic without being overly lush.The relationship between the young Wolfgang and his older sister was quite touching.The growth of the lead actress from barely a teen to a woman accepting her fate was written (all within a year or so) and acted very well.There was an interesting subplot with the king's daughter that showed the two girls/women accepting the same fate albeit at different levels of society.