Rating: 
Summary: A hauntingly beautiful, serious tragedy
Review: This film stayed with me long after the credits rolled. Other reviewers have already summarized the basic plot, so I'll focus on what I see as some of the underlying themes. The date is 1972, the place is Antwerp, Belgium. In other words, we are in Central Europe in the middle of the Vietnam era, which is also the post-Holocaust generation. On the surface, the film is about personal encounters between several different types of Jews. On a deeper level, it explores the various ways in which the Jewish people of that generation were attempting to cope with the cultural and emotional devastation of the Holocaust. Each character in the film is trying to recover their own "left luggage" -- the pieces of their pre-Holocaust past that will make them feel whole again. For Chaya's father, the luggage is literally two suitcases of family memorabilia that he buried during the war, and is now obsessed with finding again. But. as his wife says, the "left luggage" is not really the old suitcases -- he is looking for himself. Chaya's mother, in turn, is dealing (or not dealing) with her memories of the Holocaust through denial. She attempts to live a "normal" life of going to the hairdresser, baking cakes, watering her houseplants -- but it comes across as tense and strained. Neither of Chaya's parents understands why their daughter does not come to visit more often. On her part, Chaya feels totally disconnected from her parents' Jewishness. She is more concerned with the anti-war movement on campus. Mr. Kalman (the Hasidic father) also lost his family during the Holocaust. They were shot for refusing to spit on the Torah. Now, he holds to the religious traditions of Hasidism as his lifeline to the past. He expects his three sons to be Torah scholars who will carry on the family tradition, and is having difficulty accepting the fact that his four-year-old son, Simchah, is a slow learner who has not yet begun to talk . When Simchah finally does say something ("Quack! Quack!"), Mrs. Kalman is delighted, but Mr. Kalman can only say, "My son is saying quack-quack when he should be reciting the Four Questions at the seder?" The father does not know how to love a son who is not a Torah scholar. It is Chaya, the secularized nanny, who finally brings little Simcha out of his shell and gets him to start talking. Meanwhile, she has to come to grips with her own Jewish self-hate and the issue of antisemitism. Up to this point, being Jewish has seemed irrelevant to her life, and she has been "passing" among her gentile friends. Now she is confronted daily with an anti-semitic (if pathetic) elevator operator who goes out of his way to be nasty, Nazi graffiti on the park benches, and a "best friend" from college who turns out to be prejudiced against Jews and makes tactless remarks when she finds out that Chaya is Jewish. I won't tell you any more, because that would spoil the film. I will say is that that this is a serious dramatic tragedy, not a comedy or an action film. Come to it with an open, feeling heart, and you cannot help but be moved.
Rating:
Summary: A hauntingly beautiful, serious tragedy
Review: This film stayed with me long after the credits rolled. Other reviewers have already summarized the basic plot, so I'll focus on what I see as some of the underlying themes. The date is 1972, the place is Antwerp, Belgium. In other words, we are in Central Europe in the middle of the Vietnam era, which is also the post-Holocaust generation. On the surface, the film is about personal encounters between several different types of Jews. On a deeper level, it explores the various ways in which the Jewish people of that generation were attempting to cope with the cultural and emotional devastation of the Holocaust. Each character in the film is trying to recover their own "left luggage" -- the pieces of their pre-Holocaust past that will make them feel whole again. For Chaya's father, the luggage is literally two suitcases of family memorabilia that he buried during the war, and is now obsessed with finding again. But. as his wife says, the "left luggage" is not really the old suitcases -- he is looking for himself. Chaya's mother, in turn, is dealing (or not dealing) with her memories of the Holocaust through denial. She attempts to live a "normal" life of going to the hairdresser, baking cakes, watering her houseplants -- but it comes across as tense and strained. Neither of Chaya's parents understands why their daughter does not come to visit more often. On her part, Chaya feels totally disconnected from her parents' Jewishness. She is more concerned with the anti-war movement on campus. Mr. Kalman (the Hasidic father) also lost his family during the Holocaust. They were shot for refusing to spit on the Torah. Now, he holds to the religious traditions of Hasidism as his lifeline to the past. He expects his three sons to be Torah scholars who will carry on the family tradition, and is having difficulty accepting the fact that his four-year-old son, Simchah, is a slow learner who has not yet begun to talk . When Simchah finally does say something ("Quack! Quack!"), Mrs. Kalman is delighted, but Mr. Kalman can only say, "My son is saying quack-quack when he should be reciting the Four Questions at the seder?" The father does not know how to love a son who is not a Torah scholar. It is Chaya, the secularized nanny, who finally brings little Simcha out of his shell and gets him to start talking. Meanwhile, she has to come to grips with her own Jewish self-hate and the issue of antisemitism. Up to this point, being Jewish has seemed irrelevant to her life, and she has been "passing" among her gentile friends. Now she is confronted daily with an anti-semitic (if pathetic) elevator operator who goes out of his way to be nasty, Nazi graffiti on the park benches, and a "best friend" from college who turns out to be prejudiced against Jews and makes tactless remarks when she finds out that Chaya is Jewish. I won't tell you any more, because that would spoil the film. I will say is that that this is a serious dramatic tragedy, not a comedy or an action film. Come to it with an open, feeling heart, and you cannot help but be moved.
Rating:
Summary: Serious, Moving Film
Review: This is a lovely film, filled with nuances, based on a book of the same name. I could write a very long review if I had the time. This just a crude summary.
Chaya is a 20 year-old philosophy student, in 1972, in Antwerp, Belgium. Her parents are both holocaust survivors. Chaya�s father is obsessed with finding a suitcase that he buried, for safekeeping, over thirty years ago, just before he was interred by the Germans. He had taken his most prized possessions and buried it in a friend�s backyard. Now, he cannot find the location of the house.
Chaya herself is not religious. If anything she finds her Jewishness an annoyance. Nevertheless, she takes a job working as a nanny for an Hassidic family. She does not fit in at all, but Chaya bonds with one of the children in the family who happens to be slightly handicapped or learning disabled.
The father of the Hassidic family is also a holocaust survivor. In a very dramatic moment he shows Chaya the picture of the baby brother he lost in the holocaust. The photo looks exactly like Chaya.
Over time, Chaya develops an appreciation for her Jewishness and becomes sensitive to anti-semitism. She does not become religious and is never accepted by the Hassidim. I felt the doorman at the apartment building where Chaya worked and one of Chaya�s girlfriends were designed to illustrate different extremes of anti-semitism.
The ending of the film is very literary/symbolic. On a higher level, the film is about identity and acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Serious, Moving Film
Review: This is a lovely film, filled with nuances, based on a book of the same name. I could write a very long review if I had the time. This just a crude summary.
Chaya is a 20 year-old philosophy student, in 1972, in Antwerp, Belgium. Her parents are both holocaust survivors. Chaya's father is obsessed with finding a suitcase that he buried, for safekeeping, over thirty years ago, just before he was interred by the Germans. He had taken his most prized possessions and buried it in a friend's backyard. Now, he cannot find the location of the house.
Chaya herself is not religious. If anything she finds her Jewishness an annoyance. Nevertheless, she takes a job working as a nanny for an Hassidic family. She does not fit in at all, but Chaya bonds with one of the children in the family who happens to be slightly handicapped or learning disabled.
The father of the Hassidic family is also a holocaust survivor. In a very dramatic moment he shows Chaya the picture of the baby brother he lost in the holocaust. The photo looks exactly like Chaya.
Over time, Chaya develops an appreciation for her Jewishness and becomes sensitive to anti-semitism. She does not become religious and is never accepted by the Hassidim. I felt the doorman at the apartment building where Chaya worked and one of Chaya's girlfriends were designed to illustrate different extremes of anti-semitism.
The ending of the film is very literary/symbolic. On a higher level, the film is about identity and acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely touching
Review: This movie has grown on me even since I saw it. It was rented somewhat spontaneously from the local independent video rental store and it was a quietly moving film, but one that I still think about often. The character of Simcha was striking for anyone who has known (or been) a shy child, but all of the characters were well written and well acted. I've seen descriptions of this film in which Simcha is referred to as being mentally retarded, but that's misleading because I think it's clear he's just very shy. I would also really recommend this film for the real deliberateness and care with which it was crafted.
Rating:
Summary: A FILM NOT TO BE MISSED...
Review: Under the deft direction of Jeroen Krabbe, this is a stunning, moving film with wonderful, finely wrought performances by the entire cast. This film gem certainly deserves a wider audience. It is a coming of age film that also pulls back the curtain on jewish self hate and anti-Semitism. It is also about the power of love to transform and transcend. The film centers around a beautiful, free spirited, young woman in Antwerp, Belgium during the early nineteen seventies. A philosophy student and daughter of holocaust survivors (Maximilian Schell and Marianne Sagebrecht), Chaja (Laura Fraser) is in denial of her jewish heritage and is totally secular in her approach to life. Her relationship with her parents, for whom she has little understanding, is strained. Struggling on her own, she is in need of a job. A friend of the family (Chaim Topol) hooks her up with a job lead, that of nanny for a Hassidic family, the Kalmans. Desperate for help with her household, Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rossellini), who is at first hesitant upon meeting the nubile, pants clad Chaja, hires her as nanny for her three boys. Chaja, when confronted with the lifestyle of these ultra orthodox Jews, filled with rules so alien to her own life, hesitates in accepting the position. Her heart is stolen, however, by adorable four year old red head, Simcha Kalman (Adam Monty), whose heartbreaking smile causes her to accept the position. It marks the beginning of changes for both the Kalmans and Chaja. Through her developing affection for the shy Simcha and her relationship with Mrs. Kalman, she becomes accepting of her own jewish identity and more understanding of her own parents ideosyncracies, born as a result of being holocaust survivors. Chaja also learns how painful love can be, when tragedy touches her life in a way that she never envisioned. Trust me, when I say that the viewer will feel her pain, so poignant and profoundly moving is the pivotal, tragic event. This is simply a beautiful film. Isabella Rosellini gives a an exquisite and sensitive performance as the ultra orthodox wife and mother, Mrs. Kalman, who is trying to achieve harmony in a household steeped in traditions at odds with the outside world. It is no wonder that she won the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for her portrayal. Laura Fraser is a sensational and delightful breath of fresh air, luminous as the gorgeous young woman, Chaja, who is struggling with her jewish identity and her discovery that life is not always a bed of roses. Chaim Topol is engaging as the kindly and wise family friend who quietly leads the way to Chaja's eventual embracement of her jewish identity. Maximilian Schell and Marianne Sagebrecht are affecting as Chaja's parents and holocaust survivors, who live their lives under the torment of memories of long ago. Double kudos to Jeroen Krabbe for his wonderful direction of this film and for his fine portrayal of the uncompromising Mr. Kalman, whose personal tragedy broadens his understanding of lives not bound by the strictures of his own. Last, but not least, is the very adorable Adam Monty, whose portrayal of Simcha will break the viewer's heart. This is a superlative, internationally acclaimed film that should draw all those interested in other cultures and those who simply love a great film experience. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: A FILM NOT TO BE MISSED...
Review: Under the deft direction of Jeroen Krabbe, this is a stunning, moving film with wonderful, finely wrought performances by the entire cast. This film gem certainly deserves a wider audience. It is a coming of age film that also pulls back the curtain on jewish self hate and anti-Semitism. It is also about the power of love to transform and transcend. The film centers around a beautiful, free spirited, young woman in Antwerp, Belgium during the early nineteen seventies. A philosophy student and daughter of holocaust survivors (Maximilian Schell and Marianne Sagebrecht), Chaja (Laura Fraser) is in denial of her jewish heritage and is totally secular in her approach to life. Her relationship with her parents, for whom she has little understanding, is strained. Struggling on her own, she is in need of a job. A friend of the family (Chaim Topol) hooks her up with a job lead, that of nanny for a Hassidic family, the Kalmans. Desperate for help with her household, Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rossellini), who is at first hesitant upon meeting the nubile, pants clad Chaja, hires her as nanny for her three boys. Chaja, when confronted with the lifestyle of these ultra orthodox Jews, filled with rules so alien to her own life, hesitates in accepting the position. Her heart is stolen, however, by adorable four year old red head, Simcha Kalman (Adam Monty), whose heartbreaking smile causes her to accept the position. It marks the beginning of changes for both the Kalmans and Chaja. Through her developing affection for the shy Simcha and her relationship with Mrs. Kalman, she becomes accepting of her own jewish identity and more understanding of her own parents ideosyncracies, born as a result of being holocaust survivors. Chaja also learns how painful love can be, when tragedy touches her life in a way that she never envisioned. Trust me, when I say that the viewer will feel her pain, so poignant and profoundly moving is the pivotal, tragic event. This is simply a beautiful film. Isabella Rosellini gives a an exquisite and sensitive performance as the ultra orthodox wife and mother, Mrs. Kalman, who is trying to achieve harmony in a household steeped in traditions at odds with the outside world. It is no wonder that she won the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for her portrayal. Laura Fraser is a sensational and delightful breath of fresh air, luminous as the gorgeous young woman, Chaja, who is struggling with her jewish identity and her discovery that life is not always a bed of roses. Chaim Topol is engaging as the kindly and wise family friend who quietly leads the way to Chaja's eventual embracement of her jewish identity. Maximilian Schell and Marianne Sagebrecht are affecting as Chaja's parents and holocaust survivors, who live their lives under the torment of memories of long ago. Double kudos to Jeroen Krabbe for his wonderful direction of this film and for his fine portrayal of the uncompromising Mr. Kalman, whose personal tragedy broadens his understanding of lives not bound by the strictures of his own. Last, but not least, is the very adorable Adam Monty, whose portrayal of Simcha will break the viewer's heart. This is a superlative, internationally acclaimed film that should draw all those interested in other cultures and those who simply love a great film experience. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: "I am a donut"
Review: Yes, for me, that was the key line in the film when Maximillian Shell referred to when JFK said those historic words "Ich bin ein Berliner," he was actually saying, "I am a donut" in German. People excused JFK's malaprop rather than mock him, because they knew what was in his heart.
One needs to look deeper into people, before making quick judgments.
This film captures that, using charming Chaya's (Laura Fraser) coming of age journey, as a young Jewish woman living a life with little real meaning or direction, until she happens upon a deeper understanding of who she is, through finding deeper meanings in others. The film shows how people may try to run from who they really are, but sooner or later they must confront it, if they are to mature.
The transformation of Chaya begins when accepting a job as a nanny to a Chassidic family.
Happiness, tragedy, and imperfect people all serve to find that deeper understanding for Chaya. It are dramatic words from the wonderful Isabella Rossellini, as the Chassidic mom, to Chaya, as a "daughter of Israel," which signals the completion of the transformation.
Yes, the film's title, and Chaya's dad's (Maximillian Shell) search for what was left in the past, has symbolic meaning. It, the musical score, and every character in "Left Luggage" contributes, in this heart wrenching mosaic of a film. It left me interested in every character in the film, even the concierge. Though all actors were marvelous, the film just wouldn't have worked, if Laura Fraser hadn't pulled off her role so well.
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