Life is too short to watch films more than once, but make an exception for this Masterpiece.
The threads are thinly woven - the Russian Ballerina, the German Pianist, the American Bandleader, the Parisian musicians. Their stories cross tangentially, and in a film with almost no dialogue the music drives them on through three generations.
This is a movie about love and family and emptiness and death, but also about redemption despite the complete lack of sentimentality in the film. The climax to the thread about the search of the mother for her son is unbearable to watch, despite being held in still-frame longshot. Every action, every nuance, every gesture...
This is a movie of recurrence - the scenes in the Paris station with first the Jews, then the Germans being herded onto the train, then finally the TV special. The way in which the American Bandleader whistles to his father, then his daughter's husband whistles to her in the same way. Even the recurring shots of the blind accordionist.
Possibly the ending is too neat. Perhaps the threads should remain frayed around the edges. But the symmetry of the overall structure reinforces the theme of redemption over many generations and through love. The 20th century has seen many horrors, but this is an optimistic film.
I cannot recommend this movie too highly.
The threads are thinly woven - the Russian Ballerina, the German Pianist, the American Bandleader, the Parisian musicians. Their stories cross tangentially, and in a film with almost no dialogue the music drives them on through three generations.
This is a movie about love and family and emptiness and death, but also about redemption despite the complete lack of sentimentality in the film. The climax to the thread about the search of the mother for her son is unbearable to watch, despite being held in still-frame longshot. Every action, every nuance, every gesture...
This is a movie of recurrence - the scenes in the Paris station with first the Jews, then the Germans being herded onto the train, then finally the TV special. The way in which the American Bandleader whistles to his father, then his daughter's husband whistles to her in the same way. Even the recurring shots of the blind accordionist.
Possibly the ending is too neat. Perhaps the threads should remain frayed around the edges. But the symmetry of the overall structure reinforces the theme of redemption over many generations and through love. The 20th century has seen many horrors, but this is an optimistic film.
I cannot recommend this movie too highly.