Meeting Venus

Germany released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), German (Dolby Digital 2.0), German (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: Meeting Venus is based on a play cowritten by the film's director, Istvan Szabo. Glenn Close plays a celebrated Swedish opera star Karin Anderson who is slated to appear in an internationally-telecast production of Tannhauser. Ms. Anderson balks at the notion of working with obscure Hungarian conductor Zoltan Szanto. The much-anticipated production may never get off the ground, thanks to labor-management difficulties, intramural jealousies, and clashing egos. Admidst all this chaos, the mismatched Anderson and Szanto fall in love. Filmed in Budapest, Meeting Venus was far from a box-office hit thanks in great part to an inadequate advertising campaign; hopefully it will gain the wide audience it deserves on videocassette. (PS: Glenn Close's singing is dubbed by real-life opera luminary Kiri Te Kanawa. We tell you this because the lyp-synching is done so well that you might actually believe that Close is performing those arias herself). SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Commentary, Product Description

I hope this movie goes straight to Blu-ray

I made the mistake of lending my VHS of Meeting Venus to a "friend" who has since lost it. No matter, I'll just get the DVD ...NOT! I agree wholeheartedly with the earlier reviewer, this is a gem of a movie. Brilliant mix of satire, humor, romance and the opera-biz all played out on a world stage somewhat removed from most of us, yet getting more familiar all the time...Eastern Europe. I doubt that my current DVD player will handle this format, so I'll have to wait. But, when you get a chance, if you like movies where the action is driven from the passion and talent in the lives of the characters, don't miss this one, it's lovely, and easily my favorite of Glenn Close's performances!
August 16, 2008

"Meeting Venus" aims high--and hits the bullseye

Until we get a U.S. DVD release of this movie, this foreign version is the best we can do. I'd like to think that at some point in the future, "Meeting Venus" will be known to the wider public (and not just the 10 or so of us that have seen it) as one of the very best movies of the entire 1990s--which it is. I saw this in a movie theater in 1992, and it so blew me away I saw it a second time the next night. It's all here and it all works--an incredibly pointed commentary on the fall of the Iron Curtain and the re-surfacing of European nationalism, a tremendously funny movie about the classical music world that has far more truth about it than anyone would want to acknowledge, a wonderfully warm comedy about human failings and triumphs, and a load of truths about life itself (however uncomfortable they are at time). In the final analysis, "Meeting Venus is a remarkable mix of warm, embracing, life affirming, and yes, even bittersweet. This movie has never left me since I saw it 16 years ago, and I hope it never does. Thank you, Istvan Szabo, for a great, great film. "Meeting Venus" aims very high--and hits the bullseye. April 6, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...