Reviews

This is a wonderfully affecting movie I stumbled on by accident. I found the story deeply touching and beautifully told. Not a false step in this movie, the music is perfect. The pain of the hero is rendered so precisely that I found it overwhelming, the hanging scene haunts me still.

This is a strange and wondrous film. It is gorgeously staged, but it does something that no movie has, I think, tried to accomplish before: capture the mystery and power of music. If you believe, as I do, that music surpasses all form of human expression, let yourself be seduced by the magnificent sounds of Marais and St. Colombe which permeate this film.

I consider this one of the very top American movies. It is a many-faceted film the likes of which I have not seen often. It is a wonderful portrait of industrial and ethnic (Russian) small town America, for example. It is also a tragic story of working class men (and the women they left behind - Streep is wonderfully fragile) who went through the ordeal of the Vietnam war, with varying, but ultimately equally poignant outcomes (broken in body and spirit Savage; unreachable, suicidal Walken; seemingly strong yet bereft De Niro). And then it is a story of the powerful yet never articulated love of De Niro for Walken and its tragic conclusion. The term "Russian roulette" should be forever tied to this haunting picture.

This is a wonderfully perceptive movie by Bergman about women. It is a deeply affecting movie about female interactions, ambiguous relationships between and among women and sisters, especially. The movie is physically beautiful - I always think of it as steeped in red. And it unites Bergman's favourite actresses, repressed beautiful fiery-icy Thulin; warm-soft and flighty Ullmann; intense sensitive Andersson.

Relish every moment of this languorous spectacle with music to match (Mahler's 5th is gorgeous, but listen to the vocal portion of the 3rd symphony so beautifully utilised in this film). There are many aspects to this film, but the main subject is the overpowering force of beauty, its spontaneous nature, absence of logic for love and adoration. I am also an ardent fan of Bogarde and believe he was rarely as wonderful (try him in "The Servant" however). Note: I recommmend multiple viewings.

This is a mesmerising film about suicide as a rational way out. Ronet is wonderful in the role, sweetly sad, boyishly charming, tragically self-aware. His loving, well-meaning friends he visits on the way to the final "checking-out" are an interesting study and their inability to connect with Ronet or perceive where he's heading is poignant. For me, the best Louis Malle ever. The choice of music is great as well.

Magnificent film, I never tire of it. Even though I do not otherwise care for Kim Novak (I am not sure Hitchcock cared for her much either), I still succumb to the hypnotic power of this movie and find its argument totally persuasive. Stewart is extremely effective as a man possessed by an illusion that defies reality. And music simply sucks you in - irresistible. Warning: this movie simply cannot be fully savored and comprehended in one viewing - multiple viewings are a must.