The film I found from the filmography of my beloved Depp. Besides, this is my first Emir Kusturica film. I expected to be enchanting. At least integrity. So typical of the work of this actor. However, the wait did not justify itself alas. . .
This film should be made in the genre of absurdism, grotesque. And brought to the maximum level. It's all about dreams. And dreams, to put it mildly, are not standard... First, I was waiting for these dreams to be fully visualized, from start to finish. Not just with minimal special effects. The second is the bellwether of disparate scenes filled with perverse and exaggerated meaning. Or totally meaningless. Unfortunately, they didn’t connect to me in a single canvas. Third, the blurred ending. Whether the hero dies, or not, or sleeps, or just thinks. Understand. Fourth, I don't like movies with obscure characters. Here in the flying halibut flounder... what is the deep meaning? I don’t doubt that experts will find it. But not a simple spectator.
In general, I want the absurd to have its own logic, so that the absurd is as much and juicy as possible. It is very difficult to achieve this, but there are masters who succeed. The same classic is Alice in Wonderland. The perfect representative of absurdism.
I like to mention Johnny Depp’s performance, as usual. It is always a pleasure to watch on the screen. And the soundtrack is a legendary song by Iggy Popp. The manner of shooting is unusual very juicy colors. But I personally lacked special effects and juicy colors.
“The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis. A man grows what he can, and he tends it.
(c) Pet Cematary by Stephen King
Axel Blackwood (Johnny Depp) is a eccentric employee of the New York Department of Fisheries. Axel knows and loves his craft: 'Many people think I just count fish, but I don't. I look at her, look into her soul, read her thoughts, and then let her into my dreams. '
Axel has an even more eccentric, but not known Zen cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo) and an eccentric uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis).
Neither Paul's promises nor his joking gun threats during dinner at his favorite diner distract Axel from the sandwich nor waver in his intention to stay in New York. Deliver a stubborn brother to his uncle for a wedding in Arizona Paul helps only good old alcohol.
To leave Axel in the family nest and introduce him to the family trade - the sale of Cadillacs, the old uncle uses everything in his power - the charm of his young bride Millie (played by an actress with an interesting fate - Paulina Porizkova), a sense of family duty to the deceased parents of his nephew - in general, he achieves his.
But the seller of cars Axel was destined to remain for a short time - until the arrival of the fateful customer Helen Stalker (Fay Dunaway) and her stepdaughter Grace (Lily Taylor).
The spontaneous feast quickly turns with Grace's easy filing into a suicidal capito, and here the magic between the characters works, and Axel's turbulent life makes another sharp turn - he becomes Helen's lover and remains in their house with Grace.
Helen seems obsessed with the dream of building a plane and flying to Papua New Guinea - and this captivates her fit as the youngest sons of Axel. He lights up her passion - and spends days in the workshop, collecting a balloon. Hysterical Grace, who dreams of becoming one of her turtles, Jesuitically prevents this endeavor.
A bizarre and very strongly charged love triangle leads to interesting metamorphoses - having received a so-desired balloon as a birthday gift from Grace, Helene from a strong woman who can easily captivate people close to her with her aspirations, turns into a "cloud, mirage" - suddenly it turns out that her dream disappeared like a cloud, and there was an elderly woman who is not reflective and hysterical because of this, not inspiring more than Axel.
Grace, on the other hand, turns out to be self-sufficient and strong, easily plays Russian roulette with Axel, and it turns out that she is in charge of everything at home. Why does she, after Axel’s offer to fly with him to Alaska, release her turtles, put on a wedding dress and shoot? For the pagan dream of reincarnation? Yes, but only partially. Having irrigated the stone heart of Axel with her blood, Grace took possession of it completely, with giblets and forever, becoming his eternal constriction.
It’s a strange movie that uses cacophony instead of harmony. In other parts, harmony is observed. Editing, music, scenery, actors - everything is great, but in the script, somewhere after the start, cacophony begins, absurdity.
The beginning of the film is filled with life, the effect is amplified by details, dramatic twists and turns begin. Then comes the absurd, the effect of life disappears, the details and drama remain, but looking at it becomes somehow unbearably boring. For myself, I explain this by the fact that the absurd fills the plot almost completely, while I am interested only in creating initial conditions, after which logic and cause-and-effect relationships come into play.
Perhaps it is a product for internal consumption by those who are related to film or students of the relevant specialties. I do not belong to these groups and I definitely did not like the film, but it would be interesting to know from what point of view it should be considered.
So if someone just wants to entertain themselves, I wouldn’t recommend this movie, but if they’re interested in movies, it’s probably worth watching.
There is an old Indian myth: a wonderful leader comes to visit a girl and cooks her son alive. Then he goes to the river where he loses his eye. All. Such a wonderful story without much morality and dynamics. Or here's a Russian tale about the terrace. They built a house, built a house, and the bear came and destroyed everything. The end. What was that all about? In such old stories, composed by the people in time immemorial and retaining their significance only for individual ethnic groups, Claude Lévi-Strauss sees the manifestations of differences between mentalities. The manifestation of archetypal plots fixed in the unconscious, whose importance and closeness are not realized, but can still affect our lives and appear in dreams.
That's how I see the movie. It's a fairy tale. Or rather, even a number of fairy tales that reveal the unconscious of the heroes. A huge number of stories were played. There are numerous variations of human relations, and love, and death, and enrichment, and the theme of parents-children, and what else is not - you can list the devil. For all their apparent absurdity, they influence the viewer, create an emotional background. And this means that the director was able to unearth the right moments in the bins of his unconscious experiences and transfer them to the screen in an accessible form. In the depth of self-awareness Kusturica has repeatedly surpassed any Sartre or Camus. The scale of the scope of the topic was leveled with L. Tolstoy.
To achieve a fabulous surreality of what is happening, the Eastern European director uses quite typical techniques. The presence of a large number of animals, in fact, playing their own separate role is one of the main points. And, of course, the postmodern game of intertextuality, quoting classics, reflecting on the relativity of the knowledge of truth, rebellion against the unification of the world through the reflection in the dreams and dreams of the heroes of the deepest, huge layers of cultural accretions and amazing mental turns.
The world appears before Kusturica in the form of abstract and complex (' we know nothing about this world'), but solid and pleasant constructions of fabulous dreams and dreams (' but I love life'). Like a fish whose eyes shift to the same side when they reach maturity, the director has consciously decided to look at the world from the perspective he chose. This is not Tarantinian drive-pop-orientation, not dignity, not sadism, not other postmodern or near-postmodern concepts. It's something new. New, and extremely important for our era of globalization, ' universal values' and the pseudo-need to move towards a progressive and technological future imposed on everyone.
Highly intellectual critics did not understand Leger's play. The audience greeted her with a standing ovation. Does that mean that Kusturica expected such a reaction to his eccentric and unusual creation? Nope. But he felt that way.
" I realized that I know nothing about life and that I like to live.
The famous Yugoslav film director Emir Kusturica took up his first Hollywood project when he was already a recognized master of European cinema and had several prestigious awards. Like the “Golden Lion” of Venice and the “Golden Palm Branch” of Cannes, and also had popularity at home and the respect of colleagues in the world. At that time, he had at least one masterpiece and a couple of outstanding paintings. Shooting the film in the West, designed for an English-speaking audience, would allow the Serbian master to reach a much larger audience. Having thereby given the opportunity to move from the so-called “art house” to the “mainstream”. True, signing a contract with French producers (financed the production of the film by the French studio Channel +, which sold the rental rights to a major Hollywood major), Emir Kusturica did not yet know that soon his homeland will be on fire, and he will have to endure a personal drama in this regard. In civil war-torn Yugoslavia, where different ethnic gangs began to divide the country into parts, soon after the burning of their ancestral home, the director’s father dies of a heart attack. And Kusturica himself, who was unable to return to his homeland because of a bonded contract, will often go on TV and communicate through the media with rebel military groups and politicians, trying to stop the senseless bloodshed. You can see that the master spent a lot of physical and mental energy on the creation of this picture. The depression that piled on him associated with the situation at home and the press from producers demanding to finish the work faster could not but affect the work itself. Kusturritsa himself does not like this picture, because he considers it unfinished. He was not allowed to mount it in the way that the author saw. Considering that 3 hours lasts such a picture can not - in view of the fact that such a large timekeeping will simply scare off viewers. Wanting to quickly stop this protracted bossy, Kusturica gave the tape to the producers and returned to his homeland. At last, removing his name from the credits, appearing in the column of the screenwriters of the picture. Because he decided that the main idea was poorly conveyed, and the plot was spoiled by cut fragments. The author himself once admitted that in the end his “Arizona Dream” did not have a soul.
The plot of the film, as this author usually does, does not play the main role. That is, of course, there is a written story and characters, there are their dialogues and so on. But the whole catch is that trying to someone after retell what they saw on the screen – I have the films Kusturica – it is reasonable to describe the plot still will not work, because you will get some porridge, a hodgepodge of interesting scenes and funny episodes. The story itself can only be glimpsed and it will be a very small part of what happens in the picture. The heroes of his films exist according to some other laws than those we are accustomed to. They live their crazy, incredible dreams, love, jealous, find themselves in difficult situations that overcome humor and good and fun music. And they can sometimes, if they really want to, fly. Again, the favorite techniques of the director are repeated, in particular the combination of reality and sleep - when illusions merge with reality. The main character of the film often has incredible dreams about the life of an Eskimo in Alaska, after telling his friends what he saw. He dreams of traveling to the land of eternal snow, but having met an unusual woman with obvious mental disorders, he temporarily stays at her house. Although he originally intended to stay with his uncle - a trader no longer needed Cadillacs, who wants to introduce an orphan - nephew to his business. The difficult relationship between two lovers – who give in to unrestrained passion, then no less passionately swear – is greatly complicated by the uncle – who does not like this relationship of an adult woman and a young nephew (although he himself, being even more mature, recently married his same age from Europe) and a childhood friend – who helps his uncle in selling cars, and constantly turns before his eyes. But most importantly, their romance is hindered by the adopted daughter of his beloved, who has an obsessive inferiority complex. The formed love triangle inexorably moves to a tragic end. However, even such a very far from the happy ending, Emir Kusturica is able to make his life-affirming. Someone considered it pathos, but I am inclined to believe that pathos is a priori inappropriate in the work of the Balkan master. Just his cinema is saturated through with live life, a thirst for life - no matter what happens around, no matter how much life beats and maims the heroes themselves - they are still alive - will perceive life as a miracle. In the future, he will even name one of his paintings, a plot that will unfold in his homeland under the fire of the Civil War. And even there he will be able to find moments for irony, love and smile.
The composition of the film is “star”, which is not typical for Kusturica – preferring to work with little-known compatriots outside the homeland. However, in his latest film, he already plays love with the dream of many men on the planet - Monica Belluchi. At the same time, he starred in fashionable youth Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Lily Taylor, young Vincent Gallo and the already forgotten comedian Jerry Lewis. Filming was conducted for several years and long lasted editing, as a result, the budget exceeded $ 20 million. For the early 90s, it was a lot of money, essentially the cost of a standard American film. The Arizona Dream was first shown at the Berlin Festival in 1993. Despite the fact that the expected Hollywood work of the European director was enthusiastically welcomed by the members of the jury, who really did not spoil it with the main prize - still handed over a secondary award, and after the film was awarded the Audience Sympathies Award at the Warsaw Festival (where the awards were awarded for best cinematography by Wilko Filach), most critics and viewers considered the film a failure. And at the box office, “Arizona Dream” failed miserably, not collecting a million dollars in the world box office! Today, when this film and the musical compositions of Goran Bregovic sounding in it have become a real classic, this is not even in my head! One can only recall the words of one of Kusturica’s favorite directors, whose work he even quotes in this film (albeit through the lips of the funny character Vincent Gallo) – a real movie always needs a certain time to be recognized by the public. It's hard not to agree...
Once quietly famous Serbian director Emir Kusturica almost disappeared from the cinematic space. No, in physical terms, it is quite real – just recently, for example, he met with Vladimir Putin and was awarded some Russian order. But – his last feature film “the Covenant” Kusturica shot nine years ago. This film, by the way, failed miserably at the box office and was very coldly received by critics.
But there was a time when the name of the furious Emir literally thundered through the cities and villages. Young people sang cheerful songs with such simple words:
"Today and you after the movie Kusturica"
You walk barefoot like a wet chicken.
And here is silence and even some oblivion. This is probably a creative crisis, we hope it will pass soon.
Today we recall one of the most famous films of the brilliant Serb, which, along with “The Underground” and “Black Cat and the White Cat”, is included in the treasury of world cinema.
“Arizona Dream” is a purely arthouse film shot in Hollywood with a magnificent star cast – Johnny Depp, Faye Dunway, Lily Taylor, Jerry Lewis, Vincent Gallo.
What are they all dreaming about?
Depp dreams of joining Eskimo hunters and catching arrow-toothed fish.
Lewis dreams of climbing the moon from Cadillacs.
Gallo dreams of becoming an actor.
Danway dreams of rushing into the sky in an old broken airplane.
Taylor wants to become an immortal turtle and fuck Depp.
In the end, everything happens according to Chekhov - a gun hanging on the wall shoots.
There is another version of the translation of the title of this film – “Dreams of Arizona”.
Indeed, the absurdly monotonous action resembles a hypnotic dream rather than a banal reality. And we begin to believe that the world is our illusion, and we ourselves are the illusion of God.
Great movie.
Independent directors are independent to shoot what they see fit. Author's style, concepts, ideas, ideas, etc. In addition, only they and on hearing – any interesting film, perhaps, can be attributed to the “independence” of the Director. Well, from such directors one can expect something of their own, stylish, characteristic only for them - so the audience of these directors, as well as the community of film critics who like them (or vice versa) is formed.
Actors are more passing. They can shine here and there, give both a strong game and a weak one. Sometimes on the films of such directors, the audience falls for the actors. Sometimes by accident. And, it is often said about any film at all loaded with meaning that this is “a movie not for everyone.”
Everything above is just a short story about film criticism, which, unfortunately, often takes place in this form: “I did not like the film” – and then on the twisted. And the actors are not, and the soundtrack is not, and there is no point. It makes no sense to those who just don’t understand it. To understand the film is, oddly enough, not always a task. You can form an opinion about the film. It can be discussed, disassembled, etc. It's a little better than spitting away. And it makes sense to remember that the director is also a person with his own interpretations, worldview and artistic outlook. And the viewer’s understanding of the film may be at odds with his plan. And sometimes people do something for the sake of the process and shoot something for the sake of making a good and their work - how to paint a picture. So, in the case of the author’s film (this is the conclusion and the end of the wordy introduction), the best way to understand the film as close as possible to the director is to ask the director. That's what authorship is. In the absence of such an opportunity, I cannot say that I understood the film and deeply penetrated it. For me, this is a movie about two idiots. Yes, there are more heroes in it, and kind of central - Axel, the hero of Johnny Depp, a fish lover. But there's enough for everyone. All things in order.
The unknown dreamer, who dreams of Eskimos, and who dreams of going to Alaska, under the pressure of long persuasion agrees to go to his relatives in Arizona - to be the best man at the wedding, and then - at the behest of relatives, sell good old "Cadillacs". Axel himself does not want anything (as stated in the abstract). Especially selling Cadillacs. And he happens to meet two local ladies, with whom he spends most of the time. The choice is rather strange - with their behavior when dating or family dinner, any sane person would understand that this will not lead to anything good. And Kusturica adds elements of absurdity to the film. This is understandable and sometimes funny – in general, it is made skillfully and tastefully. The drama acquires light features of surrealism - here people fly, a balloon and a flounder fly. And everyone dreams.
These two women, who cannot stand each other, still live together and dream. One is to fly. The other is to become a turtle. Two more heroes of the film also dream: one - to become an actor, the other - to build a ladder to the moon from "Cadillacs". Well, dreams are different.
The actor fails, but spends time with the heroes of other films - imitating them, talking to them their lines, copying their gestures. Uncle sells Cadillacs. Axl ... begins to build a flying machine for one of the heroines ... and the heroines throw tantrums one after another. It is this endless and senseless scandal that fills the film for my eye more than even the dreams of the heroes, even though the word “dream” is in the headline. The most epic of these:
- Get out! I don’t want to see you anymore!
The hero thinks, shrugs his shoulders, begins to leave.
- Stop! Where you going?! Stay!
By the way, the dream to get to Alaska is not so impossible. But the main character humbly repairs the aircraft, one of the women regularly breaks it, and the other throws tantrums, and can not decide. Demands to buy train tickets, and then resents: what, so much time to shake? No, serve your plane tickets. And then there's the train again.
Behind these family scenes (okay, diluted with humor), the whole meaning of the film has safely drowned for me. Like I said at the beginning, it’s about two idiots. I'm a spectator, I see it. That doesn’t mean I need chewing, it’s a double-edged sword — I don’t want to make movies more primitive for the viewer to understand. But the scenes are well staged. On the technical side, the film is good. The actors are great, they can’t take that away. Each of them fits perfectly into their role. Special praise for the musical series. The film is long, but it looks easy, there is no excess there. Separately, I can mention the scene of the death of my uncle - the way the light is set in it, that is, just fine. Suicide is fine, too. On the technical side, the film was made quite qualitatively and well. There are no complaints.
On DVD, additional materials contain scenes that, according to the description, completely change the character of the main character and the essence of the film. Maybe they'll help make the film. But this is not the point of such a long text. Evaluating films from the technical side is not too difficult, but its semantic load is already worse. There is always the possibility of falling into one of the categories of film critics mentioned at the beginning. To say that I didn’t like the movie is too dry. Technically, he's good. There are references to other films, there are certain techniques of staging (for example, repeating the same lines several times). There's a great acting (only Johnny Depp is worth watching for). But the ideological content of the film leaves much to be desired - not only because the message is not clear, but a film about two hysterics. The heroes' dreams are absurd - and this is transferred to the script as an element of the genre (hello, flying flounder). Their logic is not clear at all - after all, Alaska is not so far away, sat down and drove. Playing Russian Roulette – What is it? Another whim of hysteria? We can sort out the characters, all as one, dreamers (probably even Mexicans). And everyone does strange things that don’t always match their dreams. Can this movie be called a dream movie? Rather, it is about idleness, nervousness and indiscriminateness in one’s own thoughts. And, of course, the flying fish. A joke if anything.
Many know the director Emir Kusturica for his comedies “Black Cat, White Cat”, “Underground”, perhaps “Life as a Miracle”, and some still remember the old serial masterpiece “Gypsy Time”. I was lucky enough to review his entire filmography - something on the wave of first delight, and something is already more by inertia. In general, there are probably two types of people in any work: the first type – singing in different ways the same song, the second – always finding a variety of new motifs, topics that try to cover as much as possible in a cultural, historical, even geographical sense. Kusturica, in my opinion, belongs to the first type. Which isn't bad at all. Constant repetition over time leads to the birth of new meanings and their shades, with each new film Kusturica strengthens and grows its peculiar "Gypsy-Balkan" mythology. In early work, this world is closed in itself, somewhat gloomy, overly dramatic, already by the time of “Cats” and “Underground”, this world opens, becomes universal, acquires a “commodity appearance”. Too national, or simply naive-angular - smoothed, and the author's self-repeats, a kind of Custurian refrains, like poorly motivated scenes with levitation, telekinesis and other sudden anomalies, turn into anecdotal self-plagiarism. In one of his last feature films, in the Testament, this universal anecdote, perhaps, reached the limit, and at the same time my love for the director Emir Kusturica dried up.
But there is also the Arizona Dream. The thing is extraordinary and for all the creativity of Kusturica is key. Although it is generally believed that this is the most atypical work for Emir Kusturica: the only “American” work of the Balkan director, the main roles are played by famous Hollywood actors, along with the usual Bregovic, the brutal American Iggy Pop now plays; in addition, this is a complete failure at the box office and “failure” on the one hand, but on the other hand, the best film, a golden mean.
The most amazing thing is that in all his filmography, “Arizona Dream” stands exactly in the middle. All that before “Dream” is an early Kusturica, a romantic and tragic, a sad musician and singer of his land; all that after – the late Kusturica, a balagur and a tamad, loud and noisy ... is also a singer, but of his land? More like fiction. The middle combines everything - and lightness and heaviness, and drama and babbling, and your own and someone else's and the same invented - an ideal world, a world of dreams and dreams, with the permission to say "the City of gold". For me, there is also another division: before "Dream" - Kusturica is not fully formed, but steadily going to his "Arizona", then - Kusturica, has already expressed everything that was possible for him.
At first glance and at first glance, it may seem too slow, even implicit, contemplative. There are too many “atmospheric” scenes, comic sketches, bright characters, but all this is so much that, probably, every second person will ask himself: “What, in fact, is this film about?” It is interesting that with repeated viewing, you begin to clearly see not only the general didactic line of the plot, dedicated to the hopeless maturation and transformation into those whose lifestyle was previously unacceptable to us to disgust, but also its entire multi-stage structure, in which there is a truth for any age, for any “state of mind” and mood. This is not to mention the level of citation of the film, in connection with which, for me, it has long replaced the “Irony of Fate” as a “regular New Year’s movie”.
Once upon a time, for a semi-scientific work, I analyzed The Arizona Dream for the presence of Georges Polti’s classic dramatic situations. And although this idea seemed meaningless to me at first, to my surprise I found that yes, from scene to scene, the entire script of Dream moves from one classical situation to another, the invisible dramatic mechanism works clearly and coherently, there is no sagging anywhere. With the seeming complexity and length of the plot, such structure can not but cause admiration. It is noteworthy that there is also the character Paul, who is devoted to a lot of interesting comic episodes that do not affect the plot at all - and this happens!
- Are two eyes on one side comfortable? - More unusual. - What do you lose from that? - My other side. But when you lose, you find at the same time.
I do not want to analyze and dissect the film, analyze its plot, characters, actors, features of shooting or identify the main idea. The movie is beautiful. That's it. But the film is not just beautiful, it is something more, it is like an incredible dream, a utopian dream, a picture of Salvador Dali or Marc Chagall, and the melody “In the deathcar” by Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop. The film is simply created from surreal balloons and arrow-toothed halibut with both eyes on one side, from Bregovic melodies, from a bizarre flying machine, from a blue-eyed husky, full moon, thunderstorm and golden caddillacs. And crazy, hilariously funny, or opposite heartbreakingly tragic scenes, as well as funny, touching and at the same time deep dialogue. And mainly the film is created from his characters, bright and completely far from normal, each of whom has his own dream, even if it is destined to crash into reality. Or is it not meant to? And they have serious passions, which these free from the desire for adequacy people are not afraid to give way. And all the characters of this story cause warm sympathy, there is not a single negative character, although each of them has its own angels and demons.
And the film is created from the search of his way by his main character Axel, who does not want, like his uncle, to sell Caddillacs, but wants to sell them. Yeah, by the way, what does he want? Find your place in life? Go to Alaska with Helen? Or Grace? Perhaps he wants it all at once, which by definition is not possible. He is a great dreamer, there are no limits to his dreams. And he does not dream of fame or wealth, he is a romantic, dreaming of travel and love, of the great and beautiful, devoid of landing. He often cannot understand his feelings, but these feelings are sincere and deep. Paul, on the contrary, dreams of fame, success and considers himself talented and simply irresistible. Uncle Leo tries to bring Axel down to earth, but he is a romantic and dreamer at heart. Helen dreams of flying. Perhaps she dreams of love, but does she believe in it?
Grace is the most unlucky character in history, hating her stepmother and the rest of humanity. And she wants to live forever, turning into a turtle. Does her encounter with Axel change? I don't have an answer to that question, but she's very sorry to see her witnessing Axl and her stepmother's love idyll and openly jealous. And takes revenge on them as best he can. This is something she will eventually succeed in.
Axel is also not envious, he was faced with an insoluble dilemma. Who should I choose, Helen or Grace? “Both were very unhappy and I didn’t know which one to shoot.” I don’t know if Axl is growing up as a result of what happened in the movie. But I think he is no longer afraid of the most difficult and unpredictable woman, in this regard he has gained a truly invaluable experience. Other than that, I think he understood the most important thing: “I realized I didn’t know anything about life, but I like living.” And that work is like a hat on your head. Even if you walk down the street without pants, you have nothing to be ashamed of your ass if you have a hat on your head. Isn't that growing up? It doesn’t matter why you live, it’s great that you live at all.
As for the actors... I would say that Johnny has done his best here and this is one of his best roles. It is. But how wonderful are Fay Dunway and Lily Taylor! Slightly more secondary, but also good Vincent Gallo and Jerry Lewis. I don't want to think about who outplayed who here, let's assume that no one and no one. Because all five are just amazing and vital in this story. Still, Johnny’s character is probably the most complex, ambiguous, multifaceted and brilliantly embodied, although not the most vivid of all. Even though Axel may be considered strange, he seems the most sincere and human, one feels the most sympathy for him.
A little bit about the perception of the film. You don’t have to understand it, you have to feel it. Immerse myself with this freedom to live and dream, this strange and beautiful story. Just enjoy his surreal atmosphere and Axel’s sometimes wise and sometimes funny musings. It does not matter that the meaning of any of them will remain a mystery to you at first. They give the film its special atmosphere, as well as its infinite depth and content.
For me, this is the best film of Emir Kusturica. My favorite. The warmest, liveliest and sincere. Not as iconic as Life as a Miracle or as arthouse as Black Cat, White Cat. I love both of those movies, but Arizona Dream is a state of mind for me. This film resonates with the best in my soul. That's why I love him especially.
A voice whispering to me, “Get up, Columbus,” reminded me that America has long been open.
10 out of 10
In this strange time, when the project of “making man ridiculous” takes on a total scale, it seems that all we have left is to dream. Dream in Arizona or dream in Arzamas, whatever you want. It takes almost nothing, just a good movie and time. As long as profligacy is the main component of our freedom, we are always ready to stand up for it.
The main "dreamer" - Axel - works in New York in the fish inspectorate, and loves his business - "the work of the king of fish." His friend, Paul, is a five minute movie star. - Exactly, they are the most!) and dreams of the resounding glory of Cary Grant, who in one famous film was hunted by a plane - a sprayer.
Using a trick, Paul brings Axel to his uncle Leo, against his will. Uncle since childhood was very close to Axel, and even gave him a movie camera, and Axel loves Leo, does not want him to involve him in the family business. Once Leo's father was the first salesman of Cadillacs, and he had an amazing dream - if you put all the cars sold on each other, you can climb to the moon! Leo also believes that to be successful, you need to sell cars!
Axl is not happy, but still agrees to stay for a day, suddenly falling in love with the first customer, the chic Helen. Helen has a stepdaughter Grace - a ridiculous girl with an accordion - also a dreamer, either a Fellinev circus, or a pretender. She wants to be like big turtles, because “they don’t know sadness.”
Helen and Axl are having an affair. They are happy in doing nothing and in their fictional flights on a hang-glider, which they assembled themselves. The scene under the famous Bregovic, widely recognizable, and has long been inscribed in the visual encyclopedia of film classics. They wonder where to go (typical lovers) - Papua New Guinea? What about Alaska? – there is “solid silence, there is nothing to cling to ...” In the Eskimos, a person after death becomes part of infinity. We will always love each other, because that is infinity. Such a pure illustration of childishness and freedom of spirit.
Kusturica - a great connoisseur of the exact word - likes to twist something like that, filling everything around with colorful poetry - "People consider fish brainless" ... or "Pregnant? Holy shit! "I let you beat me! What else do you want? Out! And buy yourself a Ford!
The world of Kusturica is always inhabited by comical and charming residents, “different” than us, but somehow understandable and relatives. They are all cute, and I even wonder which of them you can fall in love with more, they are like gods from the Olympus of a real big movie, or rather from the Dream, which in this case is the same.
Any talk about the “failure” of this film is meaningless, because I think that there is no distribution for the general public, and therefore there is no failure, after years there is only one criterion – whether you belong to art or not. Emir Kusturica, probably, does not fully realize what a brilliant film he made – about us-other, but real, no matter what time we wake up, and about the search for love and freedom.
Further, it seems as if everything goes to drama, but in fact the film is full of vitality, music and humor, and the characters seem to amaze themselves, already beginning to guess that they are not ordinary heroes, but fell into one of the most iconic films in the history of cinema, consider that they touched eternity: Axel-Axel-Axel... Leo-Leo!
Did the director know that his dream would come true? It is clear that he is the main dreamer. He does not explain, he flirts, and while he was filming it, he became so carried away that he suddenly discovered his own "America" - as the right to be completely free in art. The right to fly.
Once upon a time there was a boy Axel, whom his mother woke up as a child with the words: “Get up, Columbus!” Over the years, Axel understood the meaning of this phrase: & #34; America has long been open, and dreams are far from the truth of life.
Axel turned 23, but he never learned to dream of a dizzying career and other “concomitant factors” in the life of a “normal” person: he dreamed of Eskimos and weighed fish, not forgetting to look into their eyes – this is his job.
Uncle Henry, wishing his nephew well and again good, asks Axel to be the best man at his wedding. But behind the usual request there is something more...
So begins the story of the Great Dream. This theme goes through all the films of Kusturica.
Sea turtles, flying cars, unrequited love, music that gets to goosebumps and ... the desire to rise to the sky. No, not up the ladder. Some of the characters dream about this. Arizona Dream is a film about flying. The desire to fly and try to learn it. And where to fly is another question: every dream has its own course.
10 out of 10
First of all, it is necessary to consider the relationship between the concept of the “American Dream” and whether it is equivalent to the title of this film – “The Arizona Dream”. The concept of the “American Dream” has a very specific meaning: to succeed in material terms, to gain the respect of others, to increase your social status, to make a successful career. However, at the same time in the literature and cinema of the United States are constantly present eccentric characters who believe in a variety of bizarre fictions and religions, in earnest form a variety of curious and amateur organizations and competitions, such as a competition for the largest grown pumpkin or a competition for the longest mustache. Since the motto of the conquerors of the Wild West was “We have a free country”, this same freedom characterizes such a purely individual sphere of life as dreams. It is worth at least mentioning one of the favorite types of American cinema - a mad scientist or a lone genius prodigy in glasses. So the fact that the typical American idea of success is purely practical and material does not exhaust the concept of the American dream. There is a stereotypical American dream material, and another, the dream of a crank from the outback.
In a great country, dreams and dreamers can sometimes be great.
On the other hand, the concept of “dream” is in some ways related to the concept of “miracle”, and if you draw a parallel between the famous phrase of Alexander Greene “miracles performed with your own hands”, then in American culture there is about the same concept of “land of opportunity” and “entrepreneurial acumen”. Thus, it can be concluded that the director of the film depicted not some abstract picture of a fictional state or another variation of the portrait of the “Balkan-Slavic mentality”, the characters depicted are also characteristic of such a pragmatic country as the United States of America.
Dreams can be global, and purely individual, maybe even small. The most interesting thing is that do we realize which dreams are real and which are immediate responses to reality? Do we notice when our dreams begin to come true? The heroine Faye Dunaway dreamed of flying, and it happened to her when on the first night she talked to Axel and took off with the table. Maybe she really dreamed of that feeling of forgetfulness and soaring, felt in the presence of a loved one who understands you and shares your dreams?
The same thing happened to Grace when she finally made peace with her stepmother, Axel, and herself. Having done what she should have done that day, she sighs with relief and closes her eyes, sitting on a chair, and soars.
It is no coincidence that the symbol of dreams becomes the sense of flight. The most unusual manifestation of the so-called “miracle” is the flight of freshly caught fish.
Also important is the fulfillment of someone else’s dreams and the ability to sacrifice their dreams for others.
The protagonist never experienced the sensation of rising above the hustle and bustle of everyday life, at first he tried to follow his uncle’s footsteps and sell cars, but found another man whose dream became for him and his dream – Helen. He is inventing new aircraft for her. Talking to Grace, he tries to help her to fulfill her dream.
When Helen finally realizes her dream, Axel feels a certain devastation, it’s time to take up the implementation of his grandiose plans, but with whom? What man? Maybe he was attracted by the very process of dreaming with someone about something?
Did Grace really dream of becoming a turtle, or is it her veiled form of suicidal tendencies? Or is it another idea, “with death we obtain eternity,” “immortality,” wisdom or peace?
In the alternate ending of the film, our hero fulfills the will of the late Uncle Leo and marries his fiancée, whom his uncle instructed him to "look after." He reopened a car dealership, although he sells other cars.
What is it, fulfilling an uncle’s dream of a prosperous future for his nephew, or giving up fruitless (or unrealistic, read unproductive, unmaterialistic) dreams altogether? Thus, Axel seems to land from heaven to earth, but it may also be that he “finds the ground under his feet”, because small cars are a successful commercial project in an era of economic recession.
Maybe one day he will have a dream again, not typically “American material”, but “weird”?
Amazing movie. The whole thing. Often we remember only individual scenes, moments, actors, music, and this picture is composed of selected, quality materials that form a wonderful, finished project.
A film about dreamers, unusually light, soulful, native.
I really liked the scene by the fireplace, when the heroes sat together after the rain, looked at the fire and sang, beautiful instrumental music played against the background, it rained. It was so great, just, why do we make things difficult in life and can't we? Heroes can succumb to the impulse, fly to Africa or Alaska. Depp's character, Axel builds an airplane out of improvised materials, his friend wants to become an actor. It is wonderful that they have kept a piece of miracle.
Nowhere have I seen such scenes as in this picture. An image of live action is created. As an example, Uncle Lehr talks to Helen, and in the background 2 friends skate on the ground, followed by a dog. Or here's another - Axel and Grace decorate the roof, Helen flies on a plane, Paul runs around the field, guest musicians hide in the house.
In the presence of wonderful humor, a beautiful soundtrack, the main theme of Iggy Pop "In the Death Car" is magnificent, beautiful views and sincere acting.
This film can move you to live, to live without looking back. Such a movie gets better over time, because in the era of one-day, touted “transformers”, films for the soul are infinitely valuable. The film is not for once, I will definitely review it in the future.
Many recognized masterpieces of cinema leave me confused and perplexed, which happened this time with the supposedly best film of Emir Kusturica. I really don’t understand how someone genuinely likes this nonsense of a siv mare and for what merits?! It was hard to see him from the second attempt to the end. But the further into the forest, the more wood. The film is supposedly about a dream. Only the dreams of each hero are so abnormal and irrational that there is not the slightest sympathy or sympathy for the characters of this theater of the absurd. One crazy hysterical girl dreams of flying, the other wants to turn into a turtle. Have you ever dreamed of such stupid things? The subconscious, of course, sometimes can give out not so surreal pictures during sleep, but the characters kind of dreamed about it even in reality!
For me, this film is not perceived as a complete picture with meaning and a conceptual idea. It is rather a compilation of references to other films and a collection of surreal shots. I should have stopped when Grace was hanging out on stockings back and forth. But I persisted in watching how they poured milk on each other, how fish flew through the air, how an abnormal schizophrenic blindfolded looking for a piñata in the rain (and what is this Mexican fun?!), how young Depp portrayed a rooster, how another abnormal actor parodied the heroes of other films, how the daughter of a schizophrenic played the accordion to turtles, etc. Can anyone find a logical explanation for this? What does the viewer have to take out of here? Is there a rational grain of common sense in this absurdity?
I did not even get lazy and then read the laudatory reviews for this film in the hope of looking at it from a different angle and unravel its highlight. But I never saw any clear answer to my question. Almost everyone is inclined to reason that dreams are different, including such delusional ones. But it is clear that the scope of human imagination is limitless. Too many epithets were given to the film, but there is no explanation of what exactly it likes, what exactly it opened. I just realized that taste is like a dream, a subjective thing, a kind of ephemeral substance, which is sometimes difficult to explain through the prism of the material and pragmatic. That's it. Thank you Kusturica for strengthening my dislike of Johnny Depp and absurd pretentious films.
1 out of 10
These days, people know the value of everything, but they know nothing.
The Arizona dream emptied my gut, everything suddenly changed, the look faded, the sky darkened, covered in darkness, coincidence, but still... Viewing this picture was like a dream, slightly blurred, but at the same time, some moments were so detailed that they will remain a light layer of dust on the surface of the memory. After some time, this detail will suddenly come to my consciousness, and I will puzzle myself where I saw it.
From what I happened to see at Kusturica, it was always something special and bright, a clear stroke of the master immediately reflected the belonging of the films of Kusturica. His films, always not the same as everyone, are good, there are bad, but they all have one distinctive feature, they are different, peculiar, “Kusturivsky”, I don’t know what else they can be called, but you can understand whose film this is without credits. In this film, Kusturica revealed a lot, for the general public and for his fans, I think that the film may not like, but at the same time leave some details that will remain with the viewer for a long time. Personally for himself, as a basis taken in this film, how complex the soul of a person, the inner world constantly asks:" What's next? What's life like? What's good and what's bad? A lot of questions, a minimum of answers, in such moments, you want to summon a child in yourself, as in the films of Jaco Van Dormel, so that he, in a sincere, naive, understandable text, explains what life path to choose.
If you approach the description of the film in more detail, then the character of Johnny Depp stands out in the film, who perfectly coped with his work and perfectly conveyed the whole range of feelings and experiences of his hero. This is, comparatively, a young guy who is entangled in landmarks, who rushes from one to the other. On his way there are two very extravagant girls who are in an even more difficult state of mind than the main character of the film. Each of them complements each other, although they are in a state of war between themselves. The storyline does not differ in turns, but they are not necessary, here you need to feel the characters and the situation. You should always remember that this is a film by Emir Kusturica, and everything is different for him!
“I have a dream,” began the famous speech of the human rights activist and publicist Martin Luther King. And these words more accurately than ever fit the title of the film “Arizona Dream” (or “Dreams of Arizona”) – the first Hollywood film by Serbian director Emir Kusturica.
The film belongs to the genre of drama. But it has elements and comedies, and even a bit of fiction. In the story, the main character Axel, played by Johnny Depp, literally pulls out of the usual way of life with his loving uncle. He dreams that his nephew, who works in New York in the Department of Fish Resources, moved to Arizona, where he is destined for a future in a salon selling Cadillacs. There, Axl meets Helen and her stepdaughter Grace. After a while, feelings arise between them and they begin to live together.
Here the second storyline unfolds (about the first one a little later) - love. Everyone in the movie is trying to love and want to be loved. The main thing is the triangle Helen - Axel - Grace. In a moment, the characters are happy, and in a moment they suffer or get angry from misunderstanding. Grace deserves special compassion. She is quite young and not ready for the trials that life has prepared for her. Grace repeatedly attempts suicide, often falls into hysteria. Here I must mention one of the few points that seemed inappropriate to me. These are the moments when Grace plays the accordion. In the desert area of Arizona, completely far from Serbia and other countries that were part of the disintegrated Yugoslavia, he with his Balkan color seems to be from a parallel universe. Although on the other hand, Grace is a stranger here.
But the main storyline tells about something else. Kusturica in his picture tells us about several romantics at once. Someone almost completely immersed in the world of dreams and lives only them, someone has almost ceased to dream. Helen wants to fly freely like a bird to soar above everything on earth, Grace wants to reincarnate as a turtle and hide from the whole world in a shell, Paul wants to become a great actor, Leo wants to build a ladder from the Cadillacs and get to the moon. Axel dreams of catching fish in snowy Alaska with the Eskimos, which have both eyes on one side. This fish performs the functions of semantic detail. It, for example, helps to create a deep image of the character. For Axel, fish is a much wiser creature than man. She's silent because she knows everything. That is why he lets her into his dreams.
But the main symbol of the dream, in my humble opinion, in the film Kusturica is a pink balloon (although the author himself, as he stated in one interview, does not determine for himself the symbolism of this subject). It functions as an allegory detail. The pink ball, I think, will elicit an association with the dream floating in the human mind. There is no other interpretation, perhaps. It is worth noting the very beginning of the film. There, a ball from Axel’s dreamland flies directly to New York, where it explodes over the sleeping protagonist. Instantly, Axel wakes up and finds himself in the world of reality. So the balloon appears several times during the film. For example, in the chronicle, which Leo and his nephew watch, the ball is in the hands of little Axel. This quite directly means that in childhood we coexist with our dreams, live them.
But reality has its own plans for all this. In the film Kusturica, she destroys dream after dream. Unfortunately, they are not destined to be implemented. But I think the author is trying to tell us not to give up on dreams once and for all. As long as we have dreams, we live for real, not just exist on this earth.
Under the original motifs of the music of Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop, which are harmoniously combined with the video, we travel through the Arizona world of dreams of Emir Kusturica. Willy-nilly during and after watching this Hollywood adventure Kusturica, you remember your dreams. And you know, I want to live with a vengeance.
Handsome Axel, instead of dying at work and selling Cadillacs at his uncle's store, prefers to spend time in the company of local crazy Helen and her stepdaughter Grace. Each of them has its own dream, the embodiment of which is possible only in a dream. The phantasmagoric relationship of a funny trinity living somewhere in Arizona outside of time and worldly bustle is a recognition of Kusturica’s love for cinema.
This is an anthology of ironic paraphrases of famous tapes - from Hitchcock's North by Northwest to Coppola's The Godfather, from Lamoris' Red Ball to Tarkovsky's Sacrifice. Kusturica seems to transplant on a new soil his favorite characters and characteristic author's techniques, profusely filling his cinema with quotes from many classic films. As a result, the myth of the American dream appears in its interpretation as a cinematic collage, devoid of an intriguing and elastic plot.
Arizona Dream offers one of the most extraordinary views of the New World. For those who have watched at least one film from Sarajevo, it is not difficult to isolate the originality of his author’s style. Even shooting a movie in the other hemisphere, this brightest representative of the Balkan mentality remains himself and fantasizes more than starts with American realities. But at the same time, the courageous attempt to implant multiple quotes into the original plot is only partially successful.
Along with witty paraphrases, there are dramatic failures here. The same can be said about the general impression of the film: the preserved joy of being is not filled here with the unique poetics characteristic of the native films of Kusturica. She was always found in films about Serbs and Roma, about those whom the author knew firsthand. And if it were not for the touching melodies (and especially the main leitmotif) of composer Goran Bregovic, the film could seem overly artificial and exclusively cinematic.
It is not for nothing that Emir Kusturica is compared to Fellini - he is undoubtedly great, but not available to everyone. His films often combine humor, that is, humor characteristic of the Emir, and tragedy. It is not uncommon for tragedy to outweigh (as in the films “Gypsy Time” and “Underground”), but still his films rarely leave a heavy impression.
“Arizona Dream” is an unusual film for Hollywood, but typical for Kusturica, although it does not have “typical” films. But his style is visible immediately.
I was very impressed with the actors, especially Johnny Depa and Faye Dunaway, and I’ve seen them in other movies, but I never thought I’d see them that way. I didn’t even think they’d be able to play characters like that (especially Faye, the way she was in, say, Chinatown, and the way she was in Arizona Dream is just an extraordinary reincarnation).
The musical accompaniment of Goran Bregovic is also worthy of all praise - his traditional music has remained the same, but a little "Americanized". It turned out just perfect - he was able to simultaneously emphasize the style of the film by Emir Kusturica and create a soundtrack suitable for Hollywood cinema.
What is more striking is the metaphorical nature of the film. There is always someone flying there, either people or halibut. It’s weird, but that’s how he is, the director of this movie. Perhaps he wanted to show the difference between dream and reality, or perhaps to emphasize their unity.
There is much more I would like to say about this picture, but I am afraid that spoilers will already go here, so I am silent.
9 out of 10
And even though my uncle earned everything he had, I’m not sure he had everything he needed.
Axel Blackmore
After the successful and world-famous films “Dad on a business trip” and “Time of the Gypsies”, Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica was offered to make a film in Hollywood. As a result, in 1993, the film Arizona Dream was released - the first, and so far the only, English-language film shot by Emir Kusturica.
Axel Blackmore (Johnny Depp) is 23, lives in New York City and works for the Department of Fisheries. Axel’s work is unknown, but Axel likes it, because in his opinion, it is better to communicate with fish, which, unlike people, do not lie and do not swim in shit.
One day, his cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo) arrives at Axel's house to convey a request from his uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis) to be the best man at his wedding. Axel has no desire to return home to Arizona. However, Paul manages to take Axel away. In Arizona, it becomes clear that an uncle who feels guilty about the death of Axel's parents wants to hand him his business - selling "cadillacs."
There, having met at the auto show with the rich widow Helen (Fay Dunaway) and her stepdaughter Grace (Lily Taylor), Axel suddenly falls in love first with Helen, and then later realizes that she has special feelings for her stepdaughter. Together they form a bizarre love triangle.
Dreams and reality surrounding the heroes of the film Kusturica, touch and live their lives. Axl wants to go to Alaska and catch arrow-toothed halibut there. Helen dreams of flying and of Papua New Guinea. Grace dreams of turning into a big sea turtle, not knowing sorrow, and also about suicide. Paul dreams of acting career, imitating everywhere and everywhere famous movie characters.
Dreams are an integral part of a person. Growing up, dreams change, they can elevate a person, allowing him to move forward, or they can make him hostage to circumstances that can destroy him. It is hard not to cross the line beyond which materiality can replace our dreams, and as a result, we, although we will become different, are unlikely to become better. Axel, which overnight fell so many shocks, stands before this edge, the edge of which there are no boundless and snowy expanses of Alaska, as well as a strange fish, which has both eyes on one side.
“Arizona Dream” failed at the American box office, and even now the film is little known in the United States, as evidenced by the small number of Americans who voted for the film on imdb.com. And I dare say that there is nothing surprising here and it is even symbolic. After all, dreamers, including Kusturica himself, have no place in the pragmatic and consumer world of hated Hollywood.
Kusturica once said, “When I was studying in Prague, a professor said to me, ‘The difference between a good film and a bad one is that in a good one, characters overcome the pull of the earth.’” Then I said to myself, “Why not make them fly straight?”
And the Arizona Dream is no exception, and the theme of human flight is most pronounced here. Helen dreams of building her own airplane and flying it to Papua New Guinea. Break away from the ossified life in provincial Arizona, abandon everything and go to meet your beckoning dreams.
The flight of an ambulance takes Uncle Leo to his dream of the moon, to which he has always wanted to build a ladder of Cadillacs.
Dancing with Helen at her birthday party, Axel doesn't look away from Grace. Sitting in a chair, it suddenly takes off, and hanging a little in the air, falls into place.
Flight as a symbol of dreams, sublime and careless. All this slightly bizarre story shows us life in an unremarkable town, where life stretches sluggish and monotonous, where the only joys for residents are their dreams, because nothing else remains.
The film is significantly different from the Balkan films of the director, but his handwriting is undoubtedly felt. An exciting story of the relationship between the main characters, about their aspirations does not let go for two hours. The thoughts and behavior of the main characters do not always lend themselves to common sense, but this only gives the film even more charm. Do not try to understand the reasons for the actions of the characters, the main thing is to feel the film, get on its wave, and then in return it will leave a pleasant aftertaste and, perhaps, a little change in consciousness for the better.
I think this film will leave a mark on everyone after watching it.
Films about dreams, desires, are always necessary and relevant. People are now growing up cease to dream, cease to go to their dream, cease to believe in it.
I want to point out that this movie is not for everyone. We need to grow up to him. Fans of comedy and action will not like it. He will not like people who are used to watching big-budget movies, movies without meaning. But everyone who understands, he will find in this film a piece of himself. a person, as well as the characters of the film, dreaming, trying to understand themselves.
I'm not going to talk too much about the story. I'll just say that the plot is delightful. And it is the tragic ending that gives the film a better aftertaste.
After watching on the soul, it gets better. This film can even move you to act, to go to your dream.
The acting ... it's amazing. The actors gave everything. There’s so much drama in Johnny Depp’s game that you can’t see. And Faye Dunaway and Lily Taylor are simply inimitable.
And of course, the director, Emir Kusturica always did and does films not for the big screen. These films are for the soul and for true connoisseurs of cinema.
I want to thank the creators not just for 2 hours of good time, but specifically for the film that makes you think, for the film that will remain in memory.
And of course...
Born in Sarajevo back then in the united Yugoslavia, Emir Kusturica has long become a legend. He is considered one of the best European directors, and his paintings become permanent winners of the most prestigious awards in the world of cinema. It has a large army of fans, which consists mainly of those who love deep, socially emphasized, dramatized and philosophical cinema. Paintings Emir Kusturica can not be confused with someone else, Emir Kusturica is Emir Kusturica.
His first success and world fame came after the premiere of The Time of the Gypsies (1988), then little was heard about him, except that he was engaged in the release of the film “The Arizona Dream”. Work on it dragged on for years. This was the first and so far the last work of Kusturica in Hollywood, after angry critics, who are waiting for the picture, either out of resentment or out of envy, began to tear apart the Arizona Dream. But they did not take into account one important factor - the factor of audience sympathy. Until now, many fans of the talent call "The Arizona Dream" the best picture of the cult director.
When I first started watching The Arizona Dream, I was astonished at first: before the credits and during them, a story about an Eskimo goes to great music, and then a red balloon flies across the United States. I couldn’t figure out what to expect from such a creative start. Then I got bored. The story of the hero Johnny Depp while he was driving to his uncle (Jerry Lewis). But, it turns out, in this way Emir Kusturica gave time to feel the whole atmosphere of the film, its slowness and at the same time hot, prudence, bordering on madness. Kusturica again demonstrates its individuality and non-standardity, when it unites the seemingly unifying.
The most interesting thing in the film begins when the hero Deppa gets acquainted with the neighbor's mother (Fay Dunaway) and daughter (Lily Taylor), with whom he has a strange relationship, and in general the family is strange. It is not entirely clear how the hero of Depp, seemingly intelligent and down-to-earth kid, ended up in this pool, but still he did not bring peace, despite his character. The nature of insanity is constantly gaining a degree - when watching, you cease to understand that what is happening a little does not fit into ordinary life, and look at everything as a matter of course.
In addition to the shots with an Eskimo and a flying balloon, from my memory, no wind will blow out the funny games of the heroes Depp and Danaway, when she rolled him on a skate in something like a straitjacket, as Lily Taylor was announced with an accordion in her hands, how Depp Danaway and DanawayDanaway built, and then took off on something like a straitjacket in the film, and gave a huge dream of a flight / b>>
The actors also played their roles brilliantly. It can be seen that Kusturica gave them carte blanche so that the actors could improvise, which gave the picture a naturalness. Such lively, bright, impulsive emotions are not often found, here they are present in their full palette. You can mark everyone: and above mentioned Depp, Danaway and Taylor, Jerry Lewis, and also Vincent Gallo, who played the cousin of the hero Depp. Throughout the picture, you do not remember that these are actors, you grow so much to their characters that you feel them are quite real people.
The film "The Arizona Dream" is not for everyone, there is no reason for fans of multimillion-dollar blockbusters to come here, but those who want to see an unexpected, expressive and at the same time deeply dramatic philosophical film - a direct road to watching "The Arizona Dream", it absorbs all attention.
10 out of 10
P.S.: I take my hat off before the great soundtrack for the film.
You are caught between the dreams of two women, it is the craziest thing that can happen to you. It is not a struggle between good and evil, but between the weak and the strong, where the weak always lack breathing.
Very unusual movie, I mean. You can’t tell at first glance.
In the beginning, I thought it was a silly American comedy, but quite funny. Because in the first part, nothing particularly interesting happened. Here's the second half of the movie... It's different, heaven and earth. In this sense, the film, by the way, is similar to the one I recently watched "Benny and June" with "Johnny Depp", and it also came out in 1993. But here the transition is much more tangible, as if a completely different film had begun. So many emotional experiences, so many strong scenes.
Okay. Who is Axel? Axel is just a funny guy, an absolute dreamer, just a child. It shows this kindness, sincerity and naivety. And, as with children, he is very susceptible to outside influence. It seems that he does not know what he wants from life, from himself, from other people. Axel just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and meets the wrong people. He enters a completely different life, he does not understand the rules of this life, the behavior of these people, but he watches them with interest. He thinks he has found dreamers like himself. But the dreams of these people are too strange.
Throughout the film, Axel is rushing from side to side, trying to figure out what he really needs. He is trying hard to understand himself. He played this role well, Johnny, gave everything he needed. For the sake of his monologues, it is worth watching a movie. At 30, he looks 18 years old, even younger than the age of the main character.
And they had a beautiful tandem with Kusturica. No wonder the film was made, it is clear that a lot of work was done. Also good atmospheric music. I honestly don’t understand why this movie failed. There's a lot to think about. I would even say that this is one of those films that you need to “go away from”, it is far from “light” and “airy” as it might seem. It helps to remember the true value of many things. Look at this.
“I realized that I knew nothing about life and that I liked living.”
9 out of 10
"The Arizona Dream." The shrubs are a little more than just wonderful. Plenty of literary and film quotes, it does not give the impression of a gaggy collage, but on the contrary, is a harmonious multi-layered art canvas.
This is not inactive escapism, but a lively desire of the hero to follow his dream, getting carried away more and more and captivating others, trying to tear them away from mundane pragmatism and commercialism. Very bright images of heroes, multi-valued symbols, slight irony and scratching longing either from the unattainable height of dreams, or from the inability to make everything around better and brighter and avoid losses.
Very soulful and atmospheric film.
I’ve been trying to write a review of this film for a long time, review it and make sure it’s too voluminous, too philosophical, and I’m not smart enough to speak about it with sufficient reason. I will say probably, again banal: that the film is about dreams that accompany a person through life, pushing in the back or slowly putting sticks in the wheel. About dreams and the prosaic reality that makes us feel like madmen, lost in the desert... let Arizona. And more: that almost every moviegoer during the session will voluntarily or unwittingly associate themselves with one of the characters and imbue with his dreams, and when I begin to identify with Axel, I can confidently say that finally grew up and both my eyes shifted to one side of the face.
But for now, my heroine is still a ridiculous, melancholic-suicidal Grace with an eternal cigarette in her teeth and a bayan. And when the conversation at the table comes about how each of those present would like to die, I immediately remember: “And I will live forever.”
10 out of 10
The percentage of positive reviews is quite high, but I just can not resist the temptation to add another spoonful of honey to this barrel, so I loved this dream picture.
I had never been familiar with the work of Emir Kusturica before watching Arizona Dream a few years ago. This film opened up to me another brilliant director of our time.
The film is an excellent example of postmodern cinema: it is film quotes from Hitchcock, Scorsese, Coppola, and subtle irony, playing with images and cultural signs (shot a gun, Russian roulette, etc.), and magical realism – all this creates an incomparable attractive atmosphere. The film's own symbols - a balloon, a fish - also form an ideological subtext and, perhaps, partly help to better understand the content of the film.
In this film, everyone is obsessed with something, every hero has a dream to which he unrestrainedly indulges. Even Uncle Leo’s seemingly simple American dream is not without romanticism. Heroes are weirdos, so funny and funny, a little (or a lot) weird, but so real and sincere. The dinner scene at Hélène and Grace's house is a masterpiece. In general, every frame, every mise-en-scene in this film is filigree and infinitely loved by me. Dialogues, gestures, facial expressions - all give out a hidden passion, a gust of soul, boundless love for life and the desire to live every moment juicily and vividly. And all this happens in heroes very naturally. The actors coped with their roles magnificently: all look so harmonious that you can not imagine anyone else instead of Johnny Depp, Lily Taylor or Vincent Gallo.
Quite often in the film, the motive of the flight is played out: Helen and Axel build an airplane, an ambulance carries Uncle Leo to the sky, and, of course, the levitating Grace on the chair - along with panoramic views of America and a balloon give the film a special weightlessness.
Even death here is not perceived too dramatic, much less tragic. Buddhist motives are revealed.
And of course, music! A unique accordion in the hands of Grace with a Timberton melody, Iggy Pop’s “In the Death Car” is just an anthem, a leitmotif that runs through the entire film, perfectly embodying its atmosphere in sound terms.
The genre of the film is difficult to determine, more precisely, it is not at all determinable. This is a drama, and comedy, and romance, and a philosophical parable.
At first glance, it is difficult to say what this movie is about. It is likely that one view is not enough to understand. But even if you don’t, you’ll never regret watching. Sometimes the movie doesn’t require the viewer to understand it. This film is for everyone and not for everyone.
Result: Crazy, crazy, colorful and magnetic film for the lover of everything unusual, eccentric and romantic.
A film made by a genius – Yugoslav, of gypsy origin – Emir Kusturica. The very essence of Kusturica is a quality film that reflects humanity and simplicity in every moment. At the same time, this astounding director finds beauty in the simplest human routine in a very unique way. Kusturica represents the human attitude, he sees self-sufficiency in our shortcomings, if I may say so. Life is the calling card of Kusturica, at the same time, its life is never banal. It is imbued with mysticism and folklore, folk legends and legends that create a truly deep creative mood. Arizona Dream is his first film to be shot in Hollywood, which in itself can’t help but catch our attention. But the main thing is not even this, much more important is the fact that this is the first film of the author, shot about America itself, presented in his favorite style, smashing the American Dream to dust, thereby radically cutting off the road to any commerce. The plot of the tape, which is characteristic of the author, is quite simple. The protagonist - twenty-two-year-old Alex (Johnny Depp) is forcibly brought by his cousin Paul to his hometown, where his uncle - Leo is waiting for him, to the very core of his heart, worried and blaming himself for the fact that Alex lost his parents early and was left an orphan. The uncle tries to take the blame and atone for it, taking care of his nephew and preparing a place for him in his Cadillac company. Alex does not want to put up with such a fate, and the day he meets two unusual women – thirty-year-old Eileen and her depressed, suicidal stepdaughter – Grace, he runs away with them to the ranch and indulge in love pleasures there in search of his fantasies from his fictional world.
"Dream" is the main theme of the film, as it is not difficult to guess, based on the title. Each of us has a very special dream. What are we dreaming about? What do we want? What prevents us from fulfilling our dreams, and most importantly, do we want them to come true? How can we cope if one day we realize that the dream has come true and has become our present? Or maybe it's an illusion, dangerous, deceptive, like a mirage, that makes us stand still, believing in non-existent happiness.
Each of the characters of the film dreams about something: Alex dreams of getting to Alaska, merge with the indigenous Indians, ride in a dog sled and catch fish from a hole. He dreams of one day catching a flat fish with two eyes on one side, because according to legend, the one who caught one, learns the meaning of his own life. (I personally read an explicit reference to Depp’s roots.) Uncle Leo dreams of selling so many Cadillacs that he can climb to the sky and touch the moon. Eileen dreams of flying, and she dreams of flying in reality, so she tries to build a homemade hang glider to fly beyond the horizon. Grace, who hates her stepmother, dreams of dying and being reborn as a turtle, because turtles are peaceful animals that do not know grief and sadness. Cousin Paul sells cars from his father, at first glance, everything seems to suit him. But even without any talent, deep down he dreams of becoming a real actor and getting on the big stage.
The events of the film take place in literally four sets, taking us with them into the world of dreams and fantasies, reflecting all the problems arising from this madness. Kusturica literally wraps us in the dream of the protagonist, who so desperately does not want to wake up from his oblivion, not recognizing reality. The director reflects family relationships: quarrels and reconciliation, love and hatred, greed and generosity, jealousy and humility, painted in an ironic warm shade. Even Kusturica’s suicide attempt is filmed in such a way that it is impossible not to laugh, watching what is happening on the screen. In general, the picture and style of this film is a special topic for conversation, which you can talk about forever. I will say only one thing - constantly light shades of clothing against the background of blue sky - create a feeling of incredible purity, something childish and not vicious, which itself combines with the full concept of the film, and the lenses that the operator uses, draw a stunning stage effect. To the climax of the film, we feel a sense of incredible calm, comparable to a dream in the parental home, the viewer is enveloped in a sense of security, when we know for sure that nothing bad will happen to us. “Today life if beautiful” – the words spoken by Lily Taylor, creating real comfort and the expression of Joni Depp’s face, reflecting genuine happiness – collectively envelop us, and only the noise of Eileen’s plane resonates in the air, disturbing the calm. But the clear sky is tightened by clouds and thunder - the messenger of trouble leads us to emotional heat, completely introducing us into a state of trance. Kusturica was able to create an incredible entourage, as if hinting that after a long laugh, tears will surely follow, which begin to pour in large drops from the sky and from the eyes of faithful spectators.
The performance of the actors in this picture is absolutely brilliant. Then thirty-year-old Johnny easily reincarnated in his young character, forcing him to watch with an open mouth as he tears up the standards of cinema, stone on stone without leaving the stereotyped image of the American star. It is very difficult to talk about his talent, because he is all-embracing and all-powerful, as well as infinitely poetic and multifaceted, which we do not get tired of seeing more and more new images from the old role to the new. But the real revelation in this film was Lily Taylor. This brilliant actress was able to compose an incredible duet to young talent, sometimes even pulling all the attention to herself. It is she who makes herself hate, she makes herself laugh, she makes herself admire and, finally, it is she who makes her fall in love with herself, after which she squeezes all the tears accumulated in you to the last drop.
For me, “Arizona Dream” is the perfect film, perfect and complete, where everything is done right, and the idea is presented more ideally than is possible. In this film there are no extra lines, extra frames, extra sounds, nothing superfluous at all. Everything in it is perfect, as it should be, I recommend this film to absolutely everyone, no matter what you are in.
I didn’t really love The Arizona Dream right away. No, I generally liked the film after seeing it for the first time, but at the time it seemed rather strange, unsaid and even unfinished. Wow, I was wrong!
It ripped through me on the third screening. The film was held in one breath, very smoothly, it was impossible to come off or even press a pause. Maybe it was the right mood, but most likely I was just ripe for this film.
I was surprised when I found out how much the film was made - from January 1991 to February 1992, but, however, with a 3-month break associated with the depression of Emir Kusturica, who was hard going through the events in Yugoslavia. And the whole crew fully supported him and waited for his return to continue the film.
It is pointless to talk about the plot - it needs to be watched and revised. There are a lot of details, be it a fish that appears at certain stages of the picture, an Eskimo, a dog or a balloon. How could this all fit together? Amazing.
Actors. They're great. No, more than that. Their game is simply delighted and chained to the screen. And Depp, and Jerry Lewis, and Fay Dunaway, and Lily Taylor and the unique Vincent Gallo. Their heroes argue, dream, flirt, swear, have fun - everything is so crazy and at the same time so natural that the state of surprise and delight does not leave for a minute.
How many beautiful scenes, funny dialogue and serious phrases. At first glance, this is a comedy - the film is really quite funny, the scene at the table during the dinner of Paul, Axel, Grace and Helen is generally brilliant and hilariously funny, as well as the tests of Paul Léger, and many other episodes. But Kusturica managed to find a place for real drama in this madness and very subtly put it all together.
And the soundtrack fits perfectly into such an unusual film. Just perfect. There's nothing superfluous, not a single sound.
More than cinema, I agree with many, it’s a real art. I'm glad I loved this movie.
Arizona Dream is the work of Emir Kusturica with the music of Goran Bregovic performed by Iggy Pop with a young Johnny Depp in the title role. In principle, you can already stop reading the description and run to watch the movie.
The film, like all brilliant things, does not have a clear genre affiliation. It’s no doubt a drama, but while watching it, I laughed so many times that you could call it a comedy. It’s about ordinary people who have souls, dreams, a distinct personality, and the story of these people is so personal, intimate, that several times I started to blush and get scared – did anyone else see that? It's about me! I think that this perception of the film is the main criterion of the genius of the author.
The Arizona Dream, a film by Emir Kusturica, was filmed in the United States and France in 1993. American actors are involved in the film: Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Vincent Gallo, Lily Taylor and others. The director of the film, Emir Kusturica, played a small role in it of a man in a bar (he is not listed in the credits). The operator was Vilko Filach, who before the film “Arizona Dream”, and after that more than once became the operator of the Emir Kusturica. For example, he made the films “Underground”, “Café Titanic”, “Do You Remember Dolly Bell?”. By the way, it is interesting that Wilko Filach shot the film Johnny Depp & #39; Brave' in 1997, and before that he shot Depp at Kusturica in “Arizona Dream”.
Emir Kusturica was born on November 24, 1954 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He began his career in 1978 and continues to this day. In addition to directing, he is also an actor. For example, in 2011, the film Pelican was shot, where he plays one of the main roles. In 1978 he directed the short film Guernica. He also became one of his writers. For the first time on the screen appeared in a cameo role in his film “The Brides Come”. But, studying at the Academy of Performing Arts, he shot in 1971 and 1972 short films Part of the Truth and Autumn.
Axel, the main mountain of the picture ' Arizona Dream', works at the Department of Fisheries Resources in New York. His cousin Paul comes to pick him up to take Axel to Arizona to see his uncle Leo, who sells Cadillacs. At first, Axl does not want to go, but then Paul takes Axl to Arizona when he is drunk. Axl wants to leave, but still stays and even begins to sell Cadillacs, however, not for long.
I must say that in the film there are some important characteristic details: always something falls. The lamp fell, Paul fell off the table, the plane fell all the time. And in a conversation with Axel, when Leo persuades him to become a car salesman, Leo says that his father had a dream - to build a huge staircase of Cadillacs, to which Axel immediately objects: ' You will not even have time to climb such a ladder as it will fall ' And of course, falling is not an accident: things fall, dreams fall.
Everyone dreams, everyone has their own Arizona dream. Paul dreams of becoming a great actor and literally repeats dialogues from different films ("Raging Bull", "North by Northwest" - from this film Paul copied a scene with a corner, flew a plane from which a person always evaded) Helen dreams of building an airplane and flying to Papua New Guinea, Grace dreams of becoming a turtle and living forever, Uncle Leo's father dreamed of building a ladder of Cadillacs to the moon. But dreams are just dreams that can fall, and no matter what happens, they are still dreams.
One of the defining scenes at the beginning of the film is Axel’s dream. An Eskimo in the north rides home on a sled, driven by dogs. A blizzard rises, they almost drowned in the water, the Eskimo stops near one single tree in the area, makes a fire there, which quickly extinguishes, the Eskimo freezes, but the dogs hoist him on a sled, take him home, where he is rubbed and brought to normal. Then he gives his son a balloon, the son runs out with the balloon and launches it. The balloon flies from north to New York. Just at this time, when the ball arrived, Axl wakes up. Throughout the film, there is a fish with two eyes on one side flying through the air. And of course, the whole film is looped in this dream of Axel about the Eskimo. Axl later tells Grace and Helen the dream. And in the end, this dream is played out.
The word “Arizona Dream” translates to “Arizona Dream”, and the word “dream” has two meanings: 1)Dream, 2. And as I said, in this movie, those are the key concepts.
The film tells about different dreams that cross paths.
All the characters in the film are in conflict with each other. Leo, Paul with Axel, Helen. Grace with Axel, Helen, etc.
There was a scene in the film where Paul and Axel were watching the movie "Raging Bull." In the film, Paul meets girls who sit in a movie theater lower than himself, and begins to tell them that he is an actor and starred in foreign films. He begins to list famous actors, where he pronounces the name Johnny Depp. At the beginning of the film, there is a similarity with the film Nanook from the North. This is the dream of Eskemos.
The main phrase of the hero I remember very well: “Get up, Columbus!” So Axel spent his whole life waking up his mother, reminding him that America was open. In fact, this phrase and Axel’s dream about the Eskimo carry one of the main thoughts of the film: life is an incomprehensible thing and it is almost impossible to live without a dream.