Left Luggage
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Movie Reviews of Left Luggage
Movie Review: Little Gem of a Movie!
Summary: 4 Stars
I had never even heard of this movie until this year. I was in the mood to see a Jewish movie...and then did what I always do...I go look for a movie with Maximilian Schell. Interestingly, Max Schell was born Catholic. Yet, he is in every one of my favorite Jewish movies, with the exception of "Fiddler on the Roof".Ah, he once again led me to a wonderful little movie. It is his search that gives the movie its name...he is looking for 2 pieces of luggage he buried in a backyard, before being sent to a concentration camp. His wife was also in a camp. And now in the early 1970's, they deal with their memories in very different ways; he wants to search for his left luggage; she does not want to think about the past at all.
The movie, though, is mainly about their daughter, who wants no part of Judaism, until she gets a job as a nanny in an Hasidic family. She was desperate for rent money. Isabella Rossellini, the Hasidic mother, was desperate for help with 5 children. It's a wonderful mix of humor and sadness. And the end was a complete shock to me. (And one review here at Amazon does reveal the ending, so do be careful of your reading, if you don't want to know.) I think it was great performances all around--Max Schell, Marianne Sagebrecht, Isabella Rossellini, Chaim Topol, Jeroen Krabbe, and Laura Fraser, as Chaja--with her British accent! (Yes, it's a wild mix of accents!)
If your a duck park lover, the movie will seem especially special. And for me, it was also especially haunting when Chaja is staring at the photo of the Hasidic father's own father and little brother...and sees what she sees...because I believe we all have many lifetimes before we return to God. If you are someone who gets frightened or sick by graphic Holocaust memories or by anti-semitism, this movie is safe for you to view; nothing is graphic or truly frightening. It does have two scenes of nudity, however, which keeps it from being a family movie, unless edited. So, I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5.
Movie Review: GRATUITOUSLY PAINFUL
Summary: 4 Stars
A quick glance at all the reviews of this movie clearly shows the repeated mention of two words: "Haunting" and "Sad". It couldn't get any truer than that. It's about a couple of survivors of the camps. The woman is in denial and keeps herself bustling around her kitchen. The man is looking for a suitcase of lost mementos which he buried in the garden but cannot find because, well, things had been ever so meaningfully "changed forever".
Their daughter, Chaja, is an attractive woman in her 20s who wants to forget her bitter Jewish roots by getting involved in student demonstrations, having a romantic interest in a student rebel leader, and living with her gentile friends away from her nagging and eccentric parents. Turmoil happens when she loses her job, and goes to work as a nanny for a "Hassidic" family which claims to be ultra-orthodox (strict dress codes and all). Sad, sad things ensue.
Apart from the wooden supporting cast (Chaja's dazed parents and the janitor villain are staid, one-dimensional characters) the movie is pushingly, gratingly, compellingly tragic. Several jabs at anti-semitism are hammered home continually.
Which is my gripe. I left the movie with a feeling not of having watched a moving drama, but that of having sat through a lecture on Heritage and Angst. In a shot towards the end, when the father and daughter are hopelessly digging for the lost luggage, one has the impression that no one in the film learned anything about themselves or the past. That seems strange, since I thought that that was in fact what this film was supposed to be about.
The prime aim here seems to have been to make the audience cry. And in that, it succeeds, big time. Recommended if you are into melodrama, and have a good stock of Kleenex handy.
Movie Review: Not without its quirks, but a powerful film worth seeing
Summary: 4 Stars
This powerfully emotional film from director/co-star Jeroen Krabbé works and sticks with you, despite some fundamental quirks. You've got to swallow the idea that we're set in Antwerp with the Scottish actress Laura Fraser as the lead, all set in English. We just saw I've Loved You So Long [Blu-ray] and the filmmakers there take the pains to write an explanation for Kristin Scott Thomas' English accent (the film's in French) into the script. Here, we get an inexplicable mixture of people and languages in this environment, yet no reason for it. [I'm reminded of Smilla's Sense of Snow, where Julia Ormond is supposed to be Danish...and Robert Loggia as her father, no less.]
Again, despite those comments, this is a powerful film not to be missed. It has one particular moment of such overwhelming, perfectly staged, unexpected emotion that I defy any viewer to watch it with a dry eye...just as I defy any viewer not to fall head over heels for Laura Fraser in her portrayal as Chaya. Her beauty and winsomeness - she's approx. age 21 - 22 when this was released in 1998 - will bowl you over.
Movie Review: LEFT LUGGAGE
Summary: 4 Stars
VERY GOOD MOVIE,IT'S SAD HOW TRADITIONS SEPERATES PEOPLE FROM ONE ANOTHER EVEN WHEN THERE IS
NO WAR.
Movie Review: Nudity not necessary for the film
Summary: 4 Stars
It was a good film, even if it had a sad ending. BUT, the FULL NUDITY was unnecessary and made it unsuitable for kids/teens and me!