Innocence

Rating:
Summary: Mature love beautifully realized in Innocence
Review: Two young people are shown kissing on the cover of the jewel case for this fine DVD. However, this story is decidely not about young love, but the genuine passion and mature love people nearing seventy can experience in their lives.

Anreas, played beautifully by Charles Tingwell, unexpectedly calls Claire, just as well performed by Julia Blake, after years spent apart in separate lives with their own respective families. Adreas as a young man was an organist with an inportant future and his father discouraged his love for Claire. The two young people had been intimate and were deeply in love when they were kept apart. Even with more than thirty years separating them from their last meeting, they both remembered each other with love and affection. When Andreas made the unexpected call to Claire, she agreed to meet him.

Not long after their first meeting they become lovers again in one of the most extraordinary stories we are likely to see at the movies. These are mature, thoughtful people who understand what they are doing and confront the expected opposition they know they will receive. They attempt to be open and honest with everyone about their relationship and most importantly, open and honest with themselves.

The story of Claire and Andreas is heartbreaking, particularly for Claire who spent much of her life in a conventional marriage which was comfortable, but not emotionally satisfying. Andreas lost his own wife thirty years ago and now realizes how impoverished his life has been without his love for Claire. They both agree to live fully in the moment for as much time as they have left.

This brief summary covers the first third or so of the movie and prepares the viewer for the joys and sorrows this couple will face as they begin their new life together.

This film is quiet and thoughtful as it shows us the lives of two people we would like to know as they encounter one another after a long separation. Claire and Andreas help us to think more deeply about our own lives and our relationship with the people who matter most to us. Few mature adults will fail to be moved by this heartfelt film.

Rating:
Summary: enjoy life
Review: What a deeply moving, beautiful movie. I enjoyed watching it so much. It sheds light on the death that can occur through routine in relationships, and thus within people. It encourages and inspires us to look for life, no matter how old we are. . . and maybe even before it is so, or too, late.

Rating:
Summary: enjoy life
Review: What a deeply moving, beautiful movie. I enjoyed watching it so much. It sheds light on the death that can occur through routine in relationships, and thus within people. It encourages and inspires us to look for life, no matter how old we are. . . and maybe even before it is so, or too, late.

Rating:
Summary: Finding your first love and falling in love again - at 70!
Review: What happens when you find a first love...and try to make it work the second time around? And what if you're no longer young or even middle-age but in your senior years? These questions forms the foundation for this lovely, whimsical move...and I absolutely loved watching it. Not only was it a nice change of pace to see lovers who remain passionate in spite of their obvious signs of age - receding hairlines, spreading waistlines, dimming vision - but to see them take such absolute delight in rediscovering each other again.
In the years since they parted, both lovers have been married, had children and changed in many ways. So when they take up with each other, friends and family are alarmed and the couple themselves have to wonder if they can make it work - or even if they want to try after all these years. There is a lot at stake, a lot to risk. But underneath it all is a firm and abiding love, a love they may not find with anyone else. If you're as tired as I am of watching movies full of people barely out of adolescence, try this one on for size. Finally, a movie that really IS for Mature Audiences.

Rating:
Summary: Looking at love as a timeless treasure
Review: You wonder sometimes, if there are people who go through their entire lives without discovering the magic and transcendence of true love. The two lovers in this movie, Andreas and Claire, provide a marvelous illustration of how profound and humbling it is to grow and nurture this feeling, creating a pair of true soul mates. You are offered a glimpse of the many wonders and ramifications that must be endured when you are part of this type relationship - both young and old alike.

The movie is about a couple who, in their early adulthood, were passionate and caring lovers, but for some unexplained reason, were separated and married others with whom they established their own families. The story takes place in the present, when Claire and Andreas are in their late 60's and in not-so-good health. They are brought together and realize that they are still desirous of each other, emotionally and physically. Andreas is widowed but Claire is married to a man, with whom she suddenly realizes, has not provided her love and fulfillment, but has provided material and financial support.

As background and transitional scenes of the movie flash back to 40 - 50 years previous in the lives of the two lovers - always without hearing their words, we are privy to all of the mundane and detailed complexities of day-to-day existence in the lives of the re-united, elder lovers as they face the truth of their realization that the bond that they forged in their youth has endured, and indeed, has grown.

Although the movie subtly depicts the emergence and resurgence of the elation in discovering and rediscovering romantic love, it sends a powerful and lasting message about the importance in being true to one's self.

Rating:
Summary: Looking at love as a timeless treasure
Review: You wonder sometimes, if there are people who go through their entire lives without discovering the magic and transcendence of true love. The two lovers in this movie, Andreas and Claire, provide a marvelous illustration of how profound and humbling it is to grow and nurture this feeling, creating a pair of true soul mates. You are offered a glimpse of the many wonders and ramifications that must be endured when you are part of this type relationship - both young and old alike.

The movie is about a couple who, in their early adulthood, were passionate and caring lovers, but for some unexplained reason, were separated and married others with whom they established their own families. The story takes place in the present, when Claire and Andreas are in their late 60's and in not-so-good health. They are brought together and realize that they are still desirous of each other, emotionally and physically. Andreas is widowed but Claire is married to a man, with whom she suddenly realizes, has not provided her love and fulfillment, but has provided material and financial support.

As background and transitional scenes of the movie flash back to 40 - 50 years previous in the lives of the two lovers - always without hearing their words, we are privy to all of the mundane and detailed complexities of day-to-day existence in the lives of the re-united, elder lovers as they face the truth of their realization that the bond that they forged in their youth has endured, and indeed, has grown.

Although the movie subtly depicts the emergence and resurgence of the elation in discovering and rediscovering romantic love, it sends a powerful and lasting message about the importance in being true to one's self.