An energetic re-envisioning of Baroque music through the lens of the fiery female composers whose revolutionary work was concealed throughout history.
One would need a tough skin not to be won over by the mischievous musical anachronism at the heart of Gloria! and the chemistry of the young female cast that delivers it.
Screened as part of 2024
Gloria! 2024
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“Gloria! is dedicated to all the female composers who, like flowers left to dry, were hidden in between the pages of History.”
Venice, 1800. A women’s orphanage and a prideful priest. Gloria! has the foundations of a slow-burn period piece. However, the setting proves irrelevant to this energetic and refreshing film about women, power, and freedom.
Appropriate to the period, Gloria! is full of dramatic and flourishing Baroque-style music. These pieces are associated with Perlina (Paolo Rossi), the priest who oversees the main setting: a religious institution for orphan women raised as musicians. Perlina despises many things, including progression. Under his eye is Teresa (Galatéa Bellugi), a mute servant girl who yearns to express herself through music as she watches the orphanage orchestra, yet is punished for any form of transgression.
When Teresa discovers a hidden pianoforte, she and fellow residents Lucia (Carlotta Gamba), Bettina (Veronica Lucchesi), Marietta (Maria Vittoria Dallasta), and Prudenza (Sara Mafodda) visit it under the shield of nightfall. Riveting montages of the women taking turns on the instrument link the excitement of creation with a rivalry marked with an undeniable kinship. Their clandestine meetings become experimental, testing the boundaries and meaning of music.
Much like its rhythmic editing, honest female characterisation, and – of course – music, Gloria! tells the story of a group of women breaking the glass-ceiling made up of traditions that hindered their creativity, freedom, and their voices. The discovery of the pianoforte punctuates a shift in power, and the origination of a silent coup against the powers that be. Gloria! speaks to any creative who has felt restrained or silenced. — Huia Haupapa