User Reviews

This was a bit of a wild film about people who are OBSESSED with Mozart. I mean, sure, teens can be obsessed with the acts of the day (that would be, right now, Panic! At the Disco), so why NOT there be people obsessed with a long dead composer? The director REALLY chose some live ones here. A couple of them, like the astronaut guy and the Mozartball chocolate factory were okay, but the composer guy, who creates a 'new' Mozart symphony, and that woman in Oklahoma who thinks she's reincarnated as Mozart has also apparently found Mozart's girlfriend reincarnated! Then they go to Vienna and start WEEPING about you know, where they met, where Mozart died, etc. It's all quite quite silly, and was a fun omnibus of silliness.

It is true that all of the folks featured in this documentary are quirky in one way or another and some are quirkier than others, but what I was most struck by was the love and respect that comes through from those who were behind the scenes. The various people affected by Mozart are all presented without being judgmental. Any negative reactions to them must come from the viewer and not from the filmmaker.

The couple who have the most time in the film are a couple of women who believe they are the reincarnation of Mozart and a woman who may have been his lover. Since they are the largest target, they are the easiest to hit. Who is to say, with 100% certainty, that they aren't the reincarnation of the 18th century couple? And what does it matter? Whether they are or not, is beside the point as far as the film goes. The point of the film is to show how, after two and a half centuries, the music and the person of Mozart still affects people in ways large and small.

Director Larry Weinstein is covering a variety of people related to Mozart one way or another. From the down-to earth Austrian astronaut who loves to play Mozart on the piano, to the creative American composer who has composed a cello concerto in Mozart-style, to the charming Swiss pensioner whose life has been saved "by" Mozart, up to hilarious American freaks in costumes claiming in the most absurd way to be Mozart reincarnated. Weinstein is presenting the characters in a neutral way which makes it an entertaining film with a sometimes highly comical tendency, particularly where the freaks are concerned. Yet not necessarily a must for Mozart fans.