Battiato and the sense of excellence
Beethoven, quantum physics, mysticism, hallucinogens, energetic nodes, pioneers, astronomers-composers, sufi dancers, Wittgenstein, Steiner, anti-freudian dreams interpretations. All this can be found in Franco Battiato’s second excentric feature film, one of the most innovating musicians of Italian pop music who brought an esoteric work to Venice. A work shot in three movements as a musical work.
Indeed, Musikanten tells the story of a soap opera actress who meets a shaman for one of her TV programmes. He will put her under regressive hypnosis. This woman, performed by Sonia Bergamasco, will discover that she has perhaps been Lichnowsky prince in a former life, one of Beethoven’s friend and patron. Beethoven is performed by the filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who is making his debut as an actor. This esoterism master has maybe influenced the script written by Battiato and the philosopher Manlio Sgalambro.
Produced by Battiato‘s L'Ottava in co-production with Rai Cinema, the film is shot with four different cameras, from film to mini DV. In the middle of the film, one can see the Carolingian monastery of Sankt Gallen, located near Zurich, with its ancient library full of manuscripts and incunabula. Battiato gathered material on the the great composer’s last years of life but the character of Beethoven, explains the Sicilian musician -filmmaker, "is an excuse to describe the sense of excellence, which tends to disappear. I want to strike the spectator to a superior and deeper level than the story itself".
(Translated from Italian)
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