Vivaldi (2008)

Cast | News | Notes | Synopsis - Official | Together Before

Cast

Character	Actor
Carlo Melino	Malcolm McDowell
Antonio Vivaldi	Joseph Fiennes
Gavinot	Gérard Depardieu
Courtesan	Neve Campbell
The Countess	Jacqueline Bisset
Cristina	Elle Fanning
Julietta	Carice van Houten
Gabriella	Gwendolyn Edwards
	Zuleikha Robinson
	Lena Headey

Directed by Boris Damast
Written by Kevin Lund & T.J. Scott

News

3/3/08
Neve Campbell who was in The Company with Malcolm joins the cast as Vivaldi's Courtesan. Carice van Houten may be out because of a play she is doing. Filming is set to being on March 15.

Variety 12/7/06
Gérard Depardieu joins the cast as a wealthy nobleman, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

10/20/06
What's the first step in his training to play 18th century Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi? "I guess it will start with the old fiddle," said Fiennes, admitting that he's not very musically inclined himself. "No, that's my one regret. I wish I could pick up an instrument and be a rock star like Vivaldi. That is something I have got to work on." He compared it to the recent Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" as a movie about Vivaldi's early years. "It's coming along. I'm working with the director and the script. I knew nothing about [Vivaldi] and I read this script and there is this amazing early part of his life where he works in Venice with disenfranchised youths, and that was fascinating to me." The movie, about the man who began studying for the priesthood at age 15 and eventually composed the classic "Four Seasons" concerto, will film in Venice and Vienna next year.

Variety 10/9/06
Joseph Fiennes will portray famed composer Antonio Vivaldi in a project directed by Boris Damast. According to Variety, the film will focus on Vivaldi's life as a young, eccentric priest who teaches music at the school for the cast-off, illegitimate daughters of Venice's high-flying courtesans. When he bonds with the girls, he gains entree into society and even has his music performed for the pope. Vivaldi is best known for "The Four Seasons." The cast includes Malcolm McDowell, Jacqueline Bisset, Zuleikha Robinson and Lena Headey.

Variety 7/27/06
Zuleikha Robinson was added to the cast, she appeared in Hidalgo with Malcolm.

Screen Daily 7/18/06
Jacqueline Bisset joins the cast.

Variety 5/9/06
Malcolm McDowell Hates Vivaldi - Playing his rival in a new biopic
Amadeus had his Salieri, in the form of F Murray Abraham, and now Antonio Vivaldi has a scenery-chewing nemesis in a film about his life. Malcolm McDowell will play Carlo Melino in the biopic Vivaldi, which tracks the composer through his days as a young priest working as a music master at a school for orphaned girls. A location shoot in Italy and Austria is already planned, but first it would be really helpful if the movie had a director. It's the little details that count.

Notes

The film was announced in October 2004.
An article on the film appeared in Variety 6/24/05.
Filming begun 3/15/08 in Venice, Italy.
A trailer put together by the film company before the film began shooting features footage of Malcolm from Hidalgo, Rag Tale and Heroes which doesn't match up to itself, let alone a period piece.
The picture of Malcolm on the official site came from Tank Girl.

Synopsis - Official

Based on a true story. In the early 1700s, Antonio Vivaldi, then a young priest, battled the church and his own personal demons to transform a school of orphaned girls into an orchestra that played Europe's greatest concert halls and, ultimately, for the pope.

Together Before

2003 - Malcolm and Neve Campbell were in The Company.