The Death of Maria Malibran

Schröter constructs the film as an opera for the eyes, where visual tableaux and musical snippets replace traditional narrative. He relies on the power of static, painterly frames and the hysterical expressiveness of his performers to explore the very nature of performance and existential yearning.

Those who tire of conventional storytelling will find a hypnotic, dreamlike world where beauty arises from deliberate chaos and excess. What lingers after the final image is the memory of a bizarre and beautiful ritual. — MovieFinder Editorial