Bel Canto, which in operatic terms means “beautiful singing,” wouldn’t suggest a film about a hostage-taking, unless you had read the award-winning 2001 novel of the same name by Ann Patchett.
Patchett’s book was based on the real-life Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Peru in 1996, and this movie is adapted from that. The “beautiful singing” alludes to the opera star who becomes a pivotal figure in a hostage drama.
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World-renowned soprano Roxane Coss (Julianne Moore) travels to a military dictatorship in South America to give a private concert at a diplomatic party for wealthy Japanese industrialist and opera enthusiast Katsumi Hosokawa (Ken Watanabe). Coss’ performance is disrupted by an armed guerrilla group who take the attendees hostage and demand the release of all political prisoners. Threats are made, negotiations fail and a standoff ensues (the real events lasted four months, but the movie timeline is more vague).
A stalemate between the government and the rebels means the crisis stretches on. The terrorists and their high-profile captives, although they speak different languages, are forced to find ways to communicate. They gradually connect across cultural and linguistic barriers, with music as the language that bonds them. The beautiful arias performed (lip-synced) by Moore’s character unite the disparate group as they discover their shared humanity. Despite the sometimes tense situation, there are humourous and tender moments, unexpected friendships are formed and the elite captives begin to feel some empathy for the plight of the rebel fighters. As the standoff drags on, two major romantic relationships develop, one between Coss and Hosokawa, and a secret affair between Hosokawa’s translator and a young woman on the rebel side.
We become so involved with the characters and immersed in their feelings for each other that the eventual drastic downturn of the siege is all the more shocking and heartbreaking.
Bel Canto is a fascinating look at how people relate to one another when thrown together by circumstance and forced to coexist. The film has a superb multicultural cast and compelling interwoven story lines. Moore does a fair bit of excellent lip-syncing of opera that’s actually performed spectacularly by soprano Renee Fleming. It’s a passionate, beautiful and bittersweet film about the power of love, music and proximity.
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Bel Canto is co-presented by the Shuswap Film Society and the Salmar Classic Cinema, and will have a week-long run. It shows at 7:30 nightly from Friday, April 12 to Thursday, April 18. Please note: there’s no showing on Wednesday April 17 due to a previous booking at the theatre.
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