Reviews

One can see that the director really loves his actors, his work, and his audience. Perfect. The librarian girl subplot is so touching, especially the end! My only complain is "The voice of the father" - I understand, that it's supposed to sound "alienated", but it sounds completely unnatural, like it was just an imagination of Louise, or a tape playing. Anyway, this is a beautiful film. 10 stars.

The size of the script-writer's paycheck must have been dependent on the length of this film. Having no ideas for a substantial plot (something this movie completely lacks), the needed length is achieved by repeating each line in the dialogues from three to eight times and inserting long shots of main characters' expressionless faces. However, it has helped to get to 2 hours only. To make it longer, half an hour of Liza's Minelli singing is added at the end. The only thing that may help you to sit through this movie is the sound-track (except for Liza's Minelli singing), save that you like Jazz.

The only reason to watch this movie is to see one of the greatest Japanese actors ever born (Mifune) in one of the dumbest "spaghetti-jidai-geki" ever made. The poor man must have got the script only after signing the contract. The story is truly imbecile, the direction and camera - very mediocre, and the movie looks like it's somebody's first try in cinema montage. How could anything like this ever get on the screen?

Despite its predictable plot, quite mannered performance by the cast and black-and white image, the movie does not seem to "drag" for a single moment. Actually, some parts of it are even entertaining (e.g. where Orpheus has to avoid looking at Eurydice, or the murder scene of Orpheus). The movie is funny in its mannerism and philosophical pretentiousness, but at the same time there is something very humane in it. For me, the appealing part is not the contents of the film, but rather - the way how the director speaks about artist's place in the human universe (his effort so naive from today's perspective). One would never make a movie like that today, and may be that's why it attracts. I gave it nine points, but I still don't understand if I liked it or not.

I am surprised that this movie is so little known (I must confess I did not know much about it either when I first went to see it). I think it is one of the best movies made in Europe in the first years after the WW2. It is quiet and simple, but very powerful at the same time. Without any killing or death in it, this film shows the absurdness and tragedy of war better than any other I have seen. At the same time, for me this was a very good insight in the spirit of French resistance. But above all, it is about a collapse of dreams, a conflict between one's conscience and ideology, and a realisation of how senseless human feelings, aspirations and the whole existence is made by the war. Very deep and impressive. I felt like crying at the end.

This movie without any verbal dialogue enchants you from the very first moment. About twenty people meet one night at a dance-party... As they begin to dance, they (and the audience with them) live through the modern history of their country. The music naturally plays the central role in this film. The film is grotesque, funny, and moving at the same time, full of nice quotations from the cultural history of the 20th century. Absolutely great performances from the actors (all of them are more than good, but I would give Marc Berman the loudest applause)- they surely had fun doing this movie. This is a film to be purchased on video and watched again and again, with reasonable intervals - you can't really get fed up with it.

One of the best movies I have ever seen. A visually beautiful, modern fairy-tale. This movie can be enjoyed as a comedy with a witty plot and a perfect cast, and, as an essay in the history of culture with archetypical characters and situations. Sulik has a distinctive style of his own, which he continues to develop also in his latest work, "Orbis Pictus", but I think "Garden" is his best movie so far. If you ever get a chance to see it, do so - you will not regret.