Sunshine

Rating:
Summary: Over hyped, over long and over rated.
Review: This movie just left me with the feeling will it ever finish, it just goes on and on. It is not a terrible movie by any means. But nor does it really deserve the hype that surounded it. Fiennes is a very talented actor, but it is almost like he is trying to find his new "The English patient." This movie wanted the comment epic. And it is epic in length. It is just way to long. The pace is so slow it almost feels that you could live through the time periods sooner than finsh this film. It could have been alot better and shorter. The film just tries to hard to be artsy. It has moments of pure brilliance and is worth watching. It just isn't worthy of all the praise.

Rating:
Summary: A Walk With Love And Death
Review: Istvan Szabo's "Sunshine" is a treasure, in the form of an old-fashioned film in the best possible sense of that term: a sweeping epic in the tradition of Marcel Carne's "The Children of Paradise" and David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia". Szabo is clearly the sort of man who sees life itself as a never-ending panorama of light and shadow, to be twice savored (and suffered): once by those who experience it, and again by the spectator, who reaffirms his own humanity by sharing vicariously in the history of others, opening his heart and mind to their reality.(Why else was drama itself ever created?) This portrayal of Jewish life in Hungary from the Franz Josef epoch to the aftermath of the 1956 revolt against Communism highlights the oft-overlooked fact that the condition of the Jews of Europe, while always different in both kind and degree from the situation faced by Gentiles, invariably served as a barometer for the health, or lack of it, in the world at large. The Sonnenschein family, through the four generations of their life that we see, make one sacrifice after another in order to accomodate themselves to what their society demands of them: first their name, and then their faith. They come to learn that, in the uniquely savage world of the last century, no concessions to prejudice, and no attempts to be "good Hungarians" (which they have always been)can appease the monster of totalitarianism, which is either bent on their outright extermination (as with the Nazis)or on the annihilation of all moral reference points that make life worth living (as with the Communists).Having Ralph Fiennes play the narrator, his father, and his grandfather is much more than a stunt; one eventually comes to feel that there is some sort of guardian spirit of "Sonnenscheinness" that accompanies the family through all of their grand,terrible years. (This hits one like a blow in the stomach when the narrator Ivan, played by Fiennes, returns home after the Holocaust -- in which he watched helplessly as his father, also played by Fiennes, was tortured to death in a Nazi camp). There are scenes in "Sunshine" that will linger in one's mind as long as one retains memory of any film. The aforementioned torture-murder (of one man whom we have by then come to know intimately)is a dramatization of barbarity that freezes the blood, even after decades of Holocaust dramas. Equally chilling is the scene in which the family sits listening to the radio announcement of the new anti-Semitic laws, ticking off one after another of their members who will supposedly be protected because of their status as war widows, gold-medal athletes, etc. "Baba is exempt" "Papa is exempt" -- while we the audience, occupying the position of the gods who know all, are hideously aware that, at the last, no one will be exempt. The cast is beyond praise -- but a special note of grace to the incomparable Rosemary Harris as the indomitable Valeria. The sight and sound of her telling her grandson, imprisoned for his role in the 1956 revolution "You may be locked up, but it is they who are in prison", and then winking lovingly at him, is not something I will ever forget.My only reservation about "Sunshine" is that Szabo is a bit too fond of recurrent motifs; there is perhaps one too many New Year's Eve parties, and the use of breaking cups to foreshadow catastrophe is reminiscent of the more obvious silent-film techniques. (Also, the view near the end of the trash-compactor which devours the family's treasures, including its most precious legacy,is a fairly blatant echo of the incinerator at the close of "Citizen Kane").But these are minor blemishes on a glorious visage. If we could forgive Henry James for naming one of his female characters Fanny Assingham, Szabo can be allowed a nod or two. To repeat: a treasure.

Rating:
Summary: Mystified
Review: I am totally mystified by those reviewers who pan the film for trivial issues such as accents, lack of gray hairs etc. I don't believe these people paid attention to a wonderful film that never was promoted in the US.

Having just left Budapest, I feel the nature of the city and Hungarian cultural were accurately displayed. Hungary is atypical of Europe. Its language, history, and culture are derivative from sources other than all the rest of eastern Europe. They are unique and the film is excellent at pointing this out.

The criticism that the communist were portrayed as worse than the Nazi is correct, however, for anyone who has been to Budapest, you know this to be true. The Hungarians were not defeated by the Nazi's, they chose Germany. They've watch their country parceled out to other nations for twice choosing the German side in thr two world wars. The communists allowed the country and most notably Budapest to decay slowly over time. The proud Hungarians are only beginning to restore the their heritage. Sunshine poignantly shows the neglect and the price the Hungarians (all Hungarians) paid.

This was a character piece, not a history lesson, suspense, or mystery. The acting was superb on all levels. Fiennes clearly provdes his best performance since The English Patient. Szabo can't be faulted for injecting a certain amount of passion for Hungary into the film.

Finally, the cinematagraphy keeps perfect tune with the tempo of the film. I didn't realize it was a three hour film. I only regretted that it came to an end, a generation too soon.

Rating:
Summary: My Great Expectations Not Met By This Film
Review: I approach seeing a Ralph Fiennes film with great expectations since he is such a superb actor. I've adored the vast majority of the films he's been in too. "The Avengers" was probably his worst film but this may be his most disappointing. Fiennes plays three characters in an Eastern European Jewish family as the grandfather, father and son, each at the prime moments of their respective adulthoods. Each lives in tumultuous times to be a Jew in Europe and suffers considerably as a result. The film doesn't quite work and by the time we got to that third and final male in this family, I was almost dreading Fiennes' reappearance. The film is also very slow and at 3 hours that is a problem. Usually home DVD viewing makes long movies easier to watch but that wasn't true in this case. Fiennes also is usually wonderful to watch in romantic and love scenes but these were almost embarrassing as they were so similar and perfunctory from generation to generation. Director István Szabó is being compared by many to the late David Lean but I believe that Lean was far more able to sustain a viewer's interest in such long sagas, such as he did in "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Passage To India."

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant and refreshingly creative film
Review: I am an "Americanized Hungarian" living in San Francisco, and Sunshine was the first Hungarian film I ever had the chance to see in theater distribution in the US. It also happened to be one of the best movies I saw in 2000, regardless of the subject matter. It is practically impossible these days to see a good historical movie that addresses the great conflicts (I and II World Wars, revolutions, etc) of this century NOT from the American (or occasionally British) perspective but from another. Kudos for director Istvan Szabo for recognizing that if he uses English speaking actors he can reach a significantly larger audience with his picture!! - so please understand why the actors are almost all English - Further kudos for having made such a beautiful movie. Sunshine is not just an esthetically, but in every way beautiful movie. Please give it a chance and watch it, lend it to your friends, and buy it as a present. If you were not in Eastern Europe during the wars, you will understand what really was going on there, in the lives of people, and not on the battlefields and conference rooms. It will open your mind and your heart.

Rating:
Summary: DISAPPOINTING, POTENTIALLY GREAT FILM
Review: SUNSINE is the story of three generations of Sonnenscheins (which in German means Sunshine) through social and political upheavals of the 19th and mid-20th centuries. Too bad the series of personal portraits is not an effective a piece of filmmaking well deserved by its impressive subject. The film tries to define an entire history by introducing consecutive waves of new family members. The result is a smorgasbord of causative circumstances, slowly producing only a few memorable scenes.

I was prepared to be blown away by a film about an era and place which I have known well, personally. My family came from Hungary and lived through most of what was represented on screen in this epic story. So I was hoping that the much decorated director István Szabo would pull one off as he had with MEPHISTO. But too many clichés, perhaps a political influence by contemporary Hungarian correctness, and a plethora of technical problems amid sentimentality doused my enthusiasm for what should have been a great work.

I found it offensive ... rather than titillating ... that the leading women were portrayed, perhaps stereotyped as Hungarian Jewish tarts. Hot sexy scenes don't offend me. But stereotyping womanhood in any society as the fair sex being constantly in heat ... and for the wrong person .... gets boring and pointless. Similarly, I found it absurd that the same actor Ralph Fiennes (don't get me wrong, he was terrific in SCHINDLER'S LIST and THE ENGLISH PATIENT) would play three different people all descended from the central character .... and never show a single grey hair during all those changing decades and generations. And then there was the portrayal that the Nazis were pretty bad but the communists were worse. This gets into tyrrany relativism. They were both not only bad, but often the same people in Hungary assuming two different brutal roles. [Indeed, there are still Hungarians who as young people during World War II transformed themselves from Nazis (Nylas) into Communists (Avos), and later became hard line, devout capitalists]. There is a little of this explored in SUNSINE with William Hurt in some of his scenes with Fiennes.

Perhaps the more interesting of Fiennes' characters was Adam, the Olympic fencing champion. His Hungarian patriotism (I've known quit a few such characters) blinds him to the deadly reality of the Fascist era. And Ivan is a lawyer who, in his effort to persecute war criminals, becomes as blind and robotic as the Nazis themselves. However, the Valeries form the film's deep center (young Valerie played by Jennifer Ehle and old Valerie played by Rosemary Harris). Valerie's illicit courtship and marriage are perhaps the more interesting aspects of the film. The Valerie scenes are touching, sometimes funny, and finally tragic. Yet although the later scenes deal with heavier themes they are less stirring. Overall, the young and old Valeries do a lot better than Fiennes whose triple performances and distant narration are pretty cold.

Technically, there were plenty of problems. Foremost among them were the wide variety of different English accents by the actors all supposed to be Hungarians; except the one Hungarian fimmaker with an authentically accented English (it was his natural accent). Moreover, the visual style of SUNSHINE, overall, is rather dull. Szabo and his cinematographer present an adequate-looking film. But the beginning scenes are always in the morning with soft lighting. The Sonnenschein's courtyard filled with yellow flowers is indeed a beautiful sight. Also, as war takes over their lives, the film becomes appropriately darker: night time scenes and shadowy interiors. But during three hours, the visual dynamics changed too slowly to match the underlying drama of this family's story.

This is not one of those films that I can sit through twice.

Rating:
Summary: How a movie SHOULD be made!
Review: I'm going to keep this review short. The film was one of the best I have seen. Acting aside, the cinematography and script were what made the story. At three hours I was hoping it would go on for another 2 because I wanted to watch the characters develop even more. If you ever find yourself saying "what ever happened to all the great movies they used to make?" then please see Sunshine. It is nice to see that great epics didn't end with Dr. Zhivago . . .the next generation has hope!

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: Ralph Fiennes puts in a superb performance as well as the rest of the cast.

Rating:
Summary: A grate drama
Review: This is a very lond movie, but it is worth it. This movie is a little hard to follow because of the actors and acctreses playing so many diffrent parts. But other then that this movie is the best I have seen in a while although it dose get a little boring here and there.

Rating:
Summary: Ethical issues, power, corruption, love, lust and history...
Review: This family saga of a Jewish family in Hungary from the 1890s through the 1960s is based on the family history of the Hungarian director Istvan Szabo, who wrote the film along with Israel Horovitz. They did a brilliant job of bringing European history to the screen as well as exploring complex ethical and moral issues dealing with the corruption of power, national and ethnic identity, and love and lust. The film is titled "Sunshine" because that is the translation of the family name, "Sonnenschein", originally distillers of a beverage called "A Taste of Sunshine". As time moves on, the family assimilates and the name changes.

Ralph Fiennes plays three roles and does a magnificent job. We meet him at the turn of the century as he falls in love, becomes a judge, and serves the Emperor in WW1. Later, we see him in the role of an Olympic fencing champion as the Nazi menace comes to his land. Still later still we see him as a Communist. He's a fine actor and these three different characters are all very different and yet the same. Each makes choices that demonstrate human strength as well as frailty with no clear cut lines in between. Jennifer Ehle plays the role of Valerie, the forbidden love of the first generation of the family. Later, the role is taken over by her real-life mother, Rosemary Harris, as the aging matriarch. Other fine performances in smaller, but excellent roles were that of William Hurt and John Neville.

The film took a full three hours, but as far as I was concerned it could have gone on for another hour. Never once did I feel bored or look at my watch. The story itself was captivating, moved quickly and was full of turns and twists and unexpected happenings. All this was set against a background that put its events into historical perspective. The cinematography, which includes archival news footage and views of the natural countryside as well as the city of Budapest add to the sense of time and place. And the nuanced performances of a fine set of high-level actors whose roles demanded complexity as real as life itself, left me with a feeling of knowing each of these people on a personal level. The themes later haunted me. What kind of choices would I have made given the different circumstances? There are no easy answers. Winner of awards in both Europe and Canada, this film is destined to become a classic. I give it my highest recommendation. See it if you can.