Orchestra Rehearsal Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Orchestra Rehearsal Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2018

Orchestra Rehearsal perhaps inevitably reminded me of a joke that I unapologetically am very proud to have come up with, and which I in fact told many years ago at an audition I attended where I was being interviewed to be a “baton wielder” myself:

How many conductors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
No one knows, because no one’s watching.

As anyone who has ever played in an orchestra will probably be more than happy to tell you, conductors are perhaps needless addenda who think they’re in charge, but who repeatedly find their assumed “power” may be on the ephemeral side. The punchline to my punchline with regard to Orchestra Rehearsal is that the ostensible musicians in this piece actually do at least look at the harried conductor (Balduin Baas) attempting to get them to run through their music, but they only rarely actually listen to him or follow his direction. Orchestra Rehearsal is kind of an outlier in the Fellini canon, one which came along after one of the more disastrous films in the legendary director's output, Fellini's Casanova. Plagued by ill health and finding it increasingly difficult to get funding and/or distribution deals, Fellini discovered a reprieve of sorts when an increase in Italian television production offered him the chance to pretty much make whatever he wanted to, within the budgetary constraints offered to him. The result is a supposed documentary on an orchestra preparing for a concert, but as with most (all?) things Fellini, the surface elements aren't really adequate to describe what's really going on.

The supposed verité aspects of Orchestra Rehearsal are on display from the get go, with officials announcing to the assembled multitudes that there is a television crew in attendance and that some musicians may be called upon for interviews. Fellini himself is there, at least in voice form, as an interviewer moving amongst the players and asking various questions. But already there are fractures apparent when union organizers start questioning whether these additional “duties” should require additional pay (guess how that one turns out). In fact, it’s pretty clear from this and other elements that Fellini, as was his wont, is developing a rather pointed if perhaps shallow allegory about the sociopolitical climate of Italy in the late seventies, with the aggregation of musicians standing in for the country as a whole.

Even before they start playing, the various orchestra members seem to be looking askance at each other, and in fact several state outright that various sections don’t get along with others. Adding to the whole chaotic aspect is the fact that as the rehearsal continues, what seem to be earthquakes repeatedly shake the historic building the rehearsal is taking place in, and in fact it seems like the entire facade will crumble around the orchestra (which in fact it kinda sorta does in the film’s bizarre climax). To paraphrase William Butler Yeats, Orchestra Rehearsal is a kind of a study in the center not holding, and with a resultant cacophony that is only partially a result of music being performed.

That very chaotic aspect may in fact deprive Orchestra Rehearsal of some of its intended (deadpan) comedy, since things often seem so random. There’s still some wonderfully comic moments scattered throughout the film though, with many stemming from the disconnect between an authoritarian (and possibly German?) conductor and his rowdy charges, not to mention the interruptions from the union reps who otherwise sit in a corner lounging. (Visual essayist John Baxter suggests that this particular plot point is Fellini’s scabrous rebuttal to union types who repeatedly interfered during the filming of Casanova, making the director’s life a living hell.)

In a macro sense, the allegory that Fellini is obviously aiming for works fine, or at least arguably meaningfully enough to sustain interest, though I kind of had to wonder how everything translated on a micro level. The interesting thing about all of this is that visual essayist John Baxter suggests that the whole spark behind this project occurred when Fellini watched Nino Rota conduct and saw a group of disparate people, all from different backgrounds and walks of life and assumedly with differing political outlooks, come together as a unified whole under Rota’s baton to work together as a “solo” voice (so to speak). That is distinctly not what happens in Orchestra Rehearsal, and in fact Fellini almost goes out of his way to skewer the conductor, not only in his professional demeanor but perhaps even more pointedly in a backstage interview he gives when the union leaders insist on an extended break (a break called completely on account of the conductor’s perceived martinet attitude toward his players).

While the underpinning of the storyline may actually not hold water, as a series of vignettes Orchestra Rehearsal often connects in a typically Felliniesque way. While the film is confined to the ancient church that serves as a rehearsal hall, Fellini doesn’t hesitate to at least offer a few of the visual blandishments for which he’s so famously celebrated. Chief among these might be the pretty hilarious “replacement” the orchestra comes up with for the conductor, a device whose “identity” won’t be spoiled here other than saying that a certain Mr. Maelzel might be slightly alarmed.

Orchestra Rehearsal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Orchestra Rehearsal is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

Orchestra Rehearsal was exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio with mono sound.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution by RAI. The film was graded and restored on the Nucoda grading system at R3store Studios, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. Some instance of minor damage remain, in keeping with the condition of the original materials.

The original mono soundtrack was remastered and delivered by RAI. All original film and audio elements for Orchestra Rehearsal were provded by RAI.

There are times in which the film's audio synch will appear loose against the picture, due to the fact that the soundtrack was recorded entirely in post production. This is correct and as per the film's original release.

The most interesting thing to me in the above description is the omission of an "original" before the 1.78:1 aspect ratio comment, since this, as mentioned above, was done for Italian television in the 1980s, where I have to assume it was broadcast at around 1.33:1 (the IMDb lists 1.37:1 as the original aspect ratio). That said, Orchestra Rehearsal screened theatrically when RAI was a bit hesitant about broadcasting it (including at Cannes), and I haven't been able to track down any (what I would term) authoritative data on what aspect ratio it was screened in. All of this said, I noticed no really odd looking framing issues throughout this presentation, and in fact there's typically excellent coverage that gets everything that seems to be the director's intention for what's in the frame, in the frame. Therefore, there are no issues of heads being chopped off or the like. This is not a hugely colorful film, and may in fact kind of be an outlier in that regard as well in terms of Fellini's canon. The interior of the church is mostly beige (until the walls get covered with graffiti by the angry musicians), and there's really no huge pops of color even in elements like the outfits the musicians wear. As such, this perhaps looks a little bland, at least by typical Fellini standards. Detail levels are generally fine, though Fellini and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno tend to offer a lot of midrange and wider shots, both of which tend to keep fine detail levels somewhat tamped down. There are no issues with grain resolution or compression anomalies, though there are occasional slight density variances.

Orchestra Rehearsal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Orchestra Rehearsal's LPCM 2.0 mono track (in the original Italian) isn't especially forceful, but it boasts excellent fidelity which supports the dialogue and/or confessional elements as well as Rota's typically playful score. One kind of interesting thing about the track is the beginning of the film, where Fellini offers what might be thought of as musique concrète, with a bunch of "real life" sounds melded together in a montage that includes things like police sirens and urban cacophony. That brief opening actually sounded just a tad bright and brittle to my ears, but the rest of the track had no similar issues.

Orchestra Rehearsal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Richard Dyer on Nino Rota and Orchestra Rehearsal (1080p; 20:43) is a sweet reminiscence of the legendary composer and his career long collaboration with Fellini. This was Rota's last score before he died.


• Orchestrating Discord (1080p; 23:10) is a really well done visual essay by John Baxter which addresses some of the context surrounding the production as well as some of the perceived subtexts.


• Felliniana Collection (1080p) is a series of Orchestra Rehearsal stills culled from the collection curated by Don Young.

Orchestra Rehearsal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some folks think Orchestra Rehearsal is an overlooked Fellini gem, but I think it's a pretty hard case to make that this is prime Fellini. It's intermittently quite amusing and has the same anarchic feeling that some of Fellini's best (or at least better) material does, but it never quite musters much energy, and in fact often seems to sag under the weight of the metaphor Fellini is attempting to construct. Technical merits are strong and supplements quite enjoyable for those considering a purchase.