Nannerl, la Soeur de Mozart is a French historical drama (based on a true story) which premiered in 2010.
The topic of this drama is the life of Mozart’s sister, whose nickname is Nannerl.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** English title: Mozart’s Sister
** Written and directed by Rene Feret (1945-2015)
** Produced by Rene Feret and Fabienne Camara
** Edited by Fabienne Camara
** Released on DVD in 2012
** Language: French
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 120 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Marie Feret as Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart
(1751-1829)
** David Moreau as her brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
** Marc Barbe as her father Leopold Mozart
(1719-1787)
** Delphine Chuillot as her mother Anna Maria Mozart (1720-1778)
** Clovis Fouin as Louis, le dauphin de France
(1729-1765)
** Lisa Feret as Louise de France
(1737-1787)
** Julien Feret as maitre de musique abbeye
** Rene Feret as le professeur de musique
I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. This is why I am not going to say much about what happens in this drama. But I have to mention a few basic facts in order to explain my rating.
As Chris Chang says in Film Comment Magazine, this is a family affair in more ways than one. It is a drama about the Mozart family who travels all over Europe: the father Leopold, the mother Anna Maria, the son Wolfgang, and the daughter Maria Anna, whose nickname is Nannerl.
The drama is created by another family: Writer and director Rene Feret has cast his two daughters in the drama: Marie is Nannerl, while Lisa is Louise de France. He has also cast himself and his brother Julien in two minor roles. On top of that, his wife Fabienne Camara is co-producer and editor of the drama!
The story begins in 1765 when the Mozart family is on the way to the Palace of Versailles where the gifted children are going to perform in front of the royal family. Wolfgang plays the violin, while his sister plays the piano.
Because of a minor accident with the carriage, a broken axle, they are forced to stay at an abbey where by chance they meet three girls who are the daughters of King Louis XV.
The purpose of this drama is to tell us that Wolfgang had a sister who was also a very talented musician. She could play the piano and the violin. According to the drama, she was also a talented composer.
Unfortunately, no record of her compositions has survived, so this claim cannot be documented.
While Leopold had two gifted children, he did not treat them the same way. From 1769, when she was 18 years old, Nannerl was no longer allowed to go on tours. She was told to stay at home with her mother, while her father went on tours with her brother.
As a young woman, she was no longer allowed to compose or perform in public. Now she was supposed to focus on getting married. Nannerl wanted to please her father, but she also wanted to continue as a musician and a composer.
In order to please her father, she gave up her dreams and in 1784 she married a man who was much older than her and who already had several children from a previous marriage.
While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events.
Not everything happened as shown in this historical drama. The director has changed the true story in several ways in order to get his message out.
I am not happy about this. I do not understand why many directors feel the need to “improve” the real story.
The real story should be interesting enough in itself. This is, after all, the reason why it was chosen in the first place. And it has one great advantage: it is the real story.
If a director has a vivid imagination, if a director wants to create a fictional drama, this is fine by me, but if a director picks a true story, I think he or she should stick to it as much as possible and not change it, unless there is a good reason to do so.
In this case, the director changed the real story in two significant ways for no good reason. At the same time, the chronology was also changed.
# 1. When the Mozart family ends up at the abbey, they meet three girls who are daughters of the French king. One of them is Louise.
When Louise and Nannerl get together, Nannerl says she is 14, while Louise says she is 13. If Nannerl is 14, we are in 1765.
But in that year Louise was not 13, because she was born in 1737. She was 14 years older than Nannerl. In 1765, Louise was 28: twice as old as Nannerl.
While it is true that Louise and some of her sisters were sent to an abbey, they did not stay there forever.
They left the abbey and returned to court in 1750, i.e. before Nannerl was born, and many years before the alleged meeting with Nannerl took place! As you can see, the chronology is hopeless.
# 2. Louise asks Nannerl to bring a letter from her to a person who is at Versailles. When Nannerl delivers the letter, she meets the crown prince Louis, who is known in French as le dauphin.
We are told the royal family is in mourning, because the crown prince has just lost his wife, who is known as la dauphine. But the first wife of Louis - Maria Teresa - died in 1746, and we are supposed to be in 1765. When the first wife died, Nannerl was not even born!
Louis married again in 1747. His second wife was Maria Josepha of Saxony. Louis was the crown prince. He was next in line for the throne, but he never got there, because he died in 1765, while his father (Louis XV) was still alive.
In the drama, Nannerl and le dauphin meet several times. The year is supposed to be 1765 or even later, but this is not possible, because Louis died in 1765. Once again, the chronology is hopeless.
This drama is a fantasy about what could have happened if Nannerl had met Louise, the king’s daughter, and Louis, the king’s son. But there is no evidence to prove that this ever happened. Besides, the chronology is also against it.
When Nannerl stayed at the abbey, Louise had already left it! And when Nannerl came to Versailles, le dauphin was already dead!
There is more to complain about here:
(A) There is a problem with the language. This is a French drama, so all actors speak French. I realise some scenes take place in France, but the Mozart family was from Salzburg, which is located in present-day Austria. When the family members talk to each other, they should speak German, not French!
(B) There is a problem with the music: when a piece of music is played, it sounds like classical music, but as far as I know, not a single piece written by Mozart is used here.
The musical score is composed by a modern composer whose name is Marie-Jeanne Serero.
(C) There is a problem with the music and the actors: when we see musicians in action, it is clear that they are not really playing, they are merely pretending to play.
When Nannerl plays the piano, the camera angle is carefully chosen so we never see her hands, only her face. But when a character plays the violin, we can sometimes see the fingers, and it is obvious that the movement of the fingers does not follow the music.
(D) Finally, there is a problem with the acting and the screenplay. Neither the acting nor the screenplay is good enough. Sometimes the acting is wooden, and the pace of the drama is too slow.
To sum up:
It is interesting to learn that Mozart had a sister who was also a talented musician and perhaps even a talented composer.
It is sad to learn that the sister’s chance for a career in music was denied by her father, because he was bound by the conventions of the times in which he lived.
But this does not justify what the director has done: neither his inventions nor his violations of historical accuracy.
There is a great potential in this story, no doubt about it, but unfortunately, this potential is not developed into a great movie. In short, I am disappointed.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
Here are some results
** 54 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
** 64 percent = IMDb
** 71 percent = Meta
** 74 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
When you look at Rotten Tomatoes, you can see that the professional critics like this drama more than the general audience.
However, some critics feel the same way as I do about this drama. One of them is Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian who says:
“The exchanges between Louise and Nannerl are sometimes laborious, even stilted. Making the casting of these two characters a family affair was probably not the best idea.”
Bradshaw concludes his review of the drama with the following words:
“It’s a decently intended film with intelligence, but sadly it never quite comes to life.”
His offers 2 of 5 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 40 percent.
Jeff Meyers of the Detroit Metro Times makes a similar observation when he writes:
“Buried beneath the glacially slow pacing and inexpressive acting, there's a potentially interesting examination of female talent suppressed by a heartless patriarchy.”
I agree with the general audience and with the professionel critics whose reviews I have quoted here (Peter Bradshaw and Jeff Meyers).
I wanted to like this drama, but it did not happen. I have to remove one star because of the historical violations and one star because of poor acting and a poor screenplay.
This is why I think this historical drama deserves a rating of three stars (60 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
Mozart’s Sister
by A. M. Bauld
(2005)
In Mozart’s Shadow:
His Sister’s Story
by Carolyn Meyer
(2008)
# 2. The following items are available online
Peter Bradshaw,
A review of the movie,
The Guardian
12 April 2012
“Maria Anna Mozart,”
History and Women
10 August 2010
Jonathan Pearlman,
“Mozart’s sister ‘composed works used by younger brother’,”
The Telegraph
7 September 2015
Sylvia Milo,
“The lost genius of Mozart’s sister,”
The Guardian
8 September 2015
# 3. Film and video
Mozart’s Sister
This documentary film was shown on US television (PBS) in 2024. It is an episode of the long-running program Secrets of the Dead.
** Writer and director: Madeleine Hetherton-Miau
** Narrator: Jay O. Sanders
** Run time: 55 minutes
*****
Mozart's Sister
A historical drama
(2010)
This is an English poster
*****
The talented musician and composer
Maria Anna Mozart
(1751-1829)
Her nickname is Nannerl
This portrait of Mozart's sister
is from ca. 1785
*****
The Mozart family:
On the left, sitting at the piano,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and his sister
Maria Anna (Nannerl).
On the right, standing,
their father Leopold Mozart.
On the wall a portrait of their mother
Anna Maria who died in 1778.
This picture shows the
Mozart family around 1780
*****
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