What a strange movie. It's flawed and messy, but I enjoyed it.
The story jumps from 1970 to 1968 to 1939 and back and forth for a couple of times, but this never annoyed me. The problem is that there happens just too much; like the movie doesn't know where to focus on (the music, the romance, brotherhood, mystery?). The beginning is perfect, but it descends into chaos.
The acting is very diverse. Hans Matheson plays the main character. I think he must be about 18 years old most of the time, but he giggles and jumps around like an 8 year old girl. And so do all is friends, who seem to overact in every scene. Other actors, like Mélanie Thierry, Gabriel Byrne, Ricky Tognazzi and Peter Vaughn act just great. (SPOILER)But it seems very strange that many of them are portrayals of each other in different stages of the lives, they don't look like each other at all!(/SPOILER).
The music must be mentioned. The music carries the movie. I do have the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone (and pieces by Bach, Pagiani, Dvorak and a Debussy) and it's excellent. The music, when preformed in the movie, literary brought me to tears. The Canone Inverso is a very moving piece, the concerto too (don't remember the exact name). A faintly distorted Clair De Lune is very beautiful, but is used a little too much (the piece on the CD only appears once and runs about 2 minutes, but appears maybe 10 times in the movie). Without doubt, the music is the best thing about this movie. It's the heart of the movie, and if music plays such a role, which composer is a better choice than Italian maestro Morricone? The production itself is very good. The sets look great and it seems that the put most of the budget for sets to good use. Most of the movie revolves around Prague and seems to be filmed there. It all feels very real, but don't expect Doctor Zhivago.
This movie by Ricky Tognazzi is flawed. But a flawed gem can be great too. It's very romantic and the film breathes romance most of the time. When it doesn't do this, it feels strange and a little weak. Overall: 7/10. Could have been better, but still enjoyable!
The story jumps from 1970 to 1968 to 1939 and back and forth for a couple of times, but this never annoyed me. The problem is that there happens just too much; like the movie doesn't know where to focus on (the music, the romance, brotherhood, mystery?). The beginning is perfect, but it descends into chaos.
The acting is very diverse. Hans Matheson plays the main character. I think he must be about 18 years old most of the time, but he giggles and jumps around like an 8 year old girl. And so do all is friends, who seem to overact in every scene. Other actors, like Mélanie Thierry, Gabriel Byrne, Ricky Tognazzi and Peter Vaughn act just great. (SPOILER)But it seems very strange that many of them are portrayals of each other in different stages of the lives, they don't look like each other at all!(/SPOILER).
The music must be mentioned. The music carries the movie. I do have the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone (and pieces by Bach, Pagiani, Dvorak and a Debussy) and it's excellent. The music, when preformed in the movie, literary brought me to tears. The Canone Inverso is a very moving piece, the concerto too (don't remember the exact name). A faintly distorted Clair De Lune is very beautiful, but is used a little too much (the piece on the CD only appears once and runs about 2 minutes, but appears maybe 10 times in the movie). Without doubt, the music is the best thing about this movie. It's the heart of the movie, and if music plays such a role, which composer is a better choice than Italian maestro Morricone? The production itself is very good. The sets look great and it seems that the put most of the budget for sets to good use. Most of the movie revolves around Prague and seems to be filmed there. It all feels very real, but don't expect Doctor Zhivago.
This movie by Ricky Tognazzi is flawed. But a flawed gem can be great too. It's very romantic and the film breathes romance most of the time. When it doesn't do this, it feels strange and a little weak. Overall: 7/10. Could have been better, but still enjoyable!