Le Couronnement

Jonathan Littell transposes Monteverdi's decadent baroque opera L'incoronazione di Poppea into a setting that is both contemporary and fantastical, juggling references to the Roman era, the Renaissance and the modern age, and cheerfully torturing Monteverdi's music to serve as both dialogue and background music. The Coronation shatters the idea of the opera film, then reassembles it with the patience and precision of a small clockwork.