ROLL OVER, BEETHOVEN
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“Aria,” that highbrow co-production between RCA Video Productions and Virgin Vision Ltd. (“Carmen,” “Absolute Beginners”), moves to Vegas this weekend as Franc Roddam directs “Liebestod,” an aria from Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.”
The unusual project has been filming since July in locations ranging from Paris to Czechoslovakia, with directors such as Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Nicolas Roeg and Jean-Luc Godard interpreting 10 classic arias by Verdi, Puccini and others.
“It’s like a live-action version of ‘Fantasia,’ ” said producer Don Boyd, “but the visuals are not entirely related to the music.” The attraction for the directors? It’s “one of the few opportunities when someone is saying to you ‘do what you like.’ ” Godard, for example, has body builders working out to a tune from Lully’s “Armide.”
Purists may be shocked, Boyd admitted, when the film’s released theatrically next year. RCA Records, natch, will put out a sound track.
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