“John La Bouchardière’s adaptation… had a poignancy that only those who have married their childhood sweetheart and lived happily ever after would fail to recognise…  Shot in a series of unremarkable flats and streets, at restaurant tables and in toilet cubicles, with mascara, snot, baby bellies, wrinkles, receding hairlines and all the accoutrements of experience exposed, this was an exceptionally well-crafted, thoughtful film, beautifully sung and very bravely acted.”

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

“After an hour, the pun in the title was vindicated: this was a raw, emotional striptease… the camera can follow the acrimonious lovers into bedrooms and bathrooms and there is a terrible truthfulness to its documentation of their misery.”

THE OBSERVER

“This brilliant film… is superbly acted, beautifully sung …almost unbearably moving. Bravos all round”

GRAMOPHONE

“…like most simple ideas it takes a special imagination to come up with it in the first place, and full credit to director John La Bouchardière for that moment of genius… the six voices of I Fagiolini sing the Monteverdi (wonderfully) as six actors mime the disintegration of their love affairs to their partners, flashbacks later revealing how they came to be there in the first place. What La Bouchardière has done is to add a further layer of meaning to the music: already painfully beautiful, it now takes on a searing intensity – I watched it with tears running down my cheeks”

KLASSISK

“The eye cannot tear itself away from these admirably constructed images and subtle glances… The tour de force of this film is to have given a dramatic coherence and dramatic tension to twenty madrigals, surely the most unlikely cinematic material. The universal theme of separation is ripe for a contemporary reading but it takes La Bouchardière’s talent, leaning towards cinéma vérité, the typically British standard of I Fagiolini’s acting and the musicianship of the whole team to convince and captivate.”

LE MONDE DE LA MUSIQUE

“This film makes explicit the drama that is inherent in the music and poetry and can, therefore, do a great deal to promote appreciation of Monteverdi’s madrigals… members of I Fagiolini sing with tremendous expressivity, flawless intonation, and amazing vocal technique.”

OPERA TODAY