The first thing to say about this brilliant film is that it is extremely well sung. It became the fashion, a few years ago, to praise a group like Concerto Italiano at the expense of English rivals on account of the former's supposedly superior dramatic gifts. It wasn't fair on ensembles like The Consort of Musicke; so, to redress the balance, let's be clear that the soundtrack here is as stirring and passionate as anything from Italy or Spain.

The second thing is that you need to be in pretty good emotional shape in order to enjoy, or perhaps I should say survive, the experience of watching it. For what John La Bouchardière has done is to use Monteverdi's Fourth Book of Madrigals as the vehicle for tracing the break-up in the relationships of six couples. The setting is a brick-walled restaurant where the couples meet, argue and suffer. Not much eating takes place, it must be said. The action opens out from time to time - to a kitchen, a bedroom, a park - but it ends as it began, in the restaurant.

Each couple consists of a singer and an actor. The singers are miming to a recording, the synchronisation absolutely spot-on. The actors are silent, of course, but the camera lovingly - if that is the word - focuses on their reactions. It also records the expressions of the singers; and not the least impressive feature of the film is the quality of the acting that La Bouchardière has elicited from the members of I Fagiolini. In particular, the desolation on the face of Anna Brookes and the torment undergone by Matthew Brook are almost unbearably moving. Bravos all round.