People who are waiting for Disney's inevitable live-action remake of "Cinderella" could get a sneak preview, of sorts, in "Celestial Clockwork."
The film company has already expressed interest in making an English-language version of Fina Torres' second film, a silly, but still magical, comedy-musical that borrows heavily from the aforementioned rags-to-riches fairy tale.
And who could blame them? Despite some questionable lapses in taste (which will obviously be corrected for the remake) and some truly goofy moments, Torres' long-awaited follow-up to 1985's "Oriana" really delivers the goods at times. This foreign-language version isn't for families or for all audiences, though.
Ariadna Gil ("Belle Epoque") stars as Ana, a young Venezuelan who leaves her groom at the altar and goes to Paris - carrying only a handful of clothes and her beloved Maria Callas poster - hoping to pursue her dream of being an opera star. But Ana only has two months left on her visa, giving her little time to find a job or get married - otherwise she'll be shipped back to Caracas and her irate fiance.
Her one hope is to attract the eye of Italian film director Italo Medici, who's making a new version of Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola (Cinderella)." But she's continually thwarted in her attempts to audition for him by Celeste (Arielle Dombasle), a pushy video artist who aspires to be the next Madonna and who keeps throwing up roadblocks for our heroine.
Desperate, Ana turns to Armand (Frederic Longbois) - a gay psychic waiter! - who offers her astrological advice and who offers to marry her, both to solve her residency problem and to get his busybody relatives off his back. Armand "sees" that Ana's big chance is coming, and he's almost never wrong.
Torres does a wonderful job in only her second feature film. Smartly, she treats much of the material very lightly. For example, Celeste's musical numbers are shot in a satirical music-video style (including the hilarious "Sometimes I Eat Spiders"), as are some of fantasy and dream sequences.
She's aided by a really able cast too. Bad lip-synching can kill a musical (or make a kung-fu movie more fun), but Gil is convincing when she mouths the beautiful opera numbers (which are actually sung magnificently by Elsa Maurus). She's is even better in the humorous parts, bringing a wide-eyed innocence to her role.
Dombasle plays her catty "wicked stepsister" role to the hilt. And Longbois is on screen too briefly, showing off his impressive tenor for only one shining moment.
Not everything about the movie is great, however. There's an uncomfortable lesbian subplot that seems awfully out of place for a modern-day "Cinderella" story, which - fortunately - breezes by. Torres also wastes some time in setting things up.
"Celestial Clockwork" is unrated, but would probably receive a PG-13 rating for some mild vulgarity, a few scattered profanities and a brief, discreet sex scene.