Arizona Dream

Axel is happy with his life in New York, having long since left what remains of his family behind him in Arizona. When his Uncle Leo is getting married, Axel is forced back home by his friend Paul. He finds his Uncle marrying a much younger woman and, while he wishes to leave as soon as he arrives, he finds himself staying around and selling cars with his Uncle – a job he maintains he has to desire to do. It is on the lot that he meets the dysfunctional mother and stepdaughter Elaine and Grace, the former of which he falls for and begins a relationship that evolves into an obsession with building a flying machine. Meanwhile, in stark contrast to his current desert setting, Axel's dreams continue to centre on an Inuit family and a flat fish with its face all on one side.

Well over a decade ago now I used to make much more of an effort to get to my local cinema. At that time I lived near an independent art-house style cinema that, while it showed all the big releases on its two screens, it did also give over time to smaller independent films. It was here that I saw Arizona Dream – a film that I then never saw or heard of for another ten or so years until for some reason I remembered it and decided to watch it again. I couldn't remember much about it apart from a few scenes, nor if I had liked it or not so to all intents and purposes I was coming to it fresh. I say this but by the end of the film I had certainly remembered why I could recall specific scenes and my enjoyment of them but had no strong memory of the total film – the reason being that the film is at its best in small chunks but fails to work as a whole.

The story is this wonderfully off-the-wall tale of love and dreams that fires out outrageous characters with abandon, allowing for many memorable scenes and quotable lines. It is comic, creative, silly and enjoyable. But it is also a bit tiring. The scenes don't come together as I would have liked and the general air of silliness undermines how much I was able to get emotionally involved and care about where the story was going. That it is almost two and a half hours long only serves to highlight this and it really does feel indulgent and unwilling to give anything up. The fault for this certainly lies with Kusturica as writer and director. He certainly has a creative flair to him, an ear for dialogue and an eye for a shot but his approach fragments the film and he doesn't manage to pull the heart of the viewer along with him. He does get good turns from his cast well, all of whom trusted him and seemed to go wherever he wanted them to go. Depp is wonderful as always, so willing to go with it, so willing to try anything and it pays off by him being good here. Lewis was a surprise to me then and was again on this viewing, he is solid in his character and he has this great presence that holds the attention. Gallo is also good although he is helped by how many of the better scenes he is the focal point in. Dunaway and Taylor both deliver their characters well and it is just a shame that their characters are the more "difficult" ones to like within the film – I think they did well though, I just acknowledge that I struggled with them due to their characters.

As with all cult films there will be those that see great beauty in this film and love it beyond all reason. I salute them and I envy them to a point and, while I disagree with them, this does not make them wrong and me right. However to the majority of casual viewers this film will come over as a total curio piece that provides delight and enjoyment in specific scenes but doesn't work as a total film and certainly doesn't have enough to it to justify the overlong running time.

This is the film of Kusturica that I like less, and still it tells what a fine film maker he is.

Pay attention to the year it was made. 1993 was a year of war in the series of wars that lead to the disappearance of former Yugoslavia. With his country split in pieces that were fighting one another Kusturica traveled to the US, took with him his team of musicians, the genial Bregovic, and tried to do an American film. What resulted is a more a Kusturica film than an American one, despite of the American team of actors and of the landscape where the story happens.

Yet, it is not one of his best. Emir did not really resonate with the American reality. There are many beautiful scenes in this film, from the flying fish to the emergency medical car taking off to the sky with a dead soul inside. The film also enjoys superb acting from Johnny Depp, painfully young and handsome at his first major role after Edward Scissorhands, Faye Dunaway mature and yet so beautiful, and Jerry Lewis probably in his last great role. The problem is that the story is much too thin for a 140 minutes film, and that many of the tricks that work so well in Kustirica's Balkan movies do not pay off too well here. The film is simply too long, the story is not interesting enough, and despite the many beautiful moments the film leaves the impression it is too long and boring at some instances.

Soon after making this film Emir Kusturica return to his tragic and torn up country to make one of his masterpieces, 'Underground' a reflection on the whole history of Yugoslavia in the last half of century. 'Life is a Miracle' was to follow a few years later. There are film makers like Polanski whose move to the West succeeded and they became as big or bigger creators there as they were in their native countries. Some other are destined to make their great movies only in their local ambiance and relating to the stories and history they know too well. Kusturica may be one of these, which does not make him a lesser creator, quite the opposite.

Some movies only work if we let ourselves carry away by them. They present a surrealistic imagination world that comes from the mind of their creators. They are hard to watch, especially when they mix real characters that live their lives sometimes awaken, or inside one big dream or their own dreams.

Axel Blackmar (Johnny Depp) is a dreamer, and an unusual example of personal choices. His parents died and he went to New York, to work with fish. He could have sold cars with his uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis), but he's there, talking with that monotonous voice about what he does. Maybe it was a simple dream, where an Eskimo catches a fish with two eyes on the same side, and tells his kids to go out with their dog so he and his wife can…And the kid with the dog allow to see an orange balloon that seems to go from Alaska to New York, where Alex sleeps in a truck. "Wake up, Columbus", the words of his mother and Axel's hope to find something in the land already discovered by that man.

Alongside fish flying through the air, we join Axel to be the best man of his uncle's wedding. With his friend Paul Leger (Vincent Gallo), the untiring chats go from movies to philosophies about cakes, pies and bananas. Paul is an actor: "I'm having a great performance on Friday", he says. "It's an audition", Axel says to humiliate him. The truth is that it's not even an audition. This stuff lived by Axel is a story for us, but is a personal rediscovering and rethought of decisions in life for the character. When he sees Elaine (Faye Dunaway) he feels something strong, but doesn't know how to call it. Days later he becomes the lover of a woman decades older than him. Elaine's daughter, Grace (Lili Taylor) is also there, and it doesn't goes long until Axel finds himself in a crossroad between the heart of two women, that as he describes them, are "too similar and big to be in the same world".

David Atkin's story and screenplay comes plagued of phrases that could come out of a lunatic's mouth, but they fit in the film's context and twist your head at maximum. "I've got to climb…It's a long way to the moon"; "I'm gonna live forever until I become a turtle…They have infinite lives", besides scenes of well known movies in crucial moments. And what music (Goran Bregovic)! And what editing (Andrija Zafranovic)! And what cinematography (Vilko Filac)! And what director! Known for his originality, recognized director Emir Kusturica puts his own signature to his movie, collaborating in the story he must have dreamed a little to; giving life to the dream with his flying camera, full of unexpected turns and in love of its surroundings. What he achieves is greater words, although not everybody could understand it, and, for that matter, appreciate it.

And his actors…Jerry Lewis in a total comprehension of his character, and so involved in his work that you wouldn't believe it. So incredibly likable in one of those roles we never give much importance to. Faye Dunaway…Wow! She got to work with some of these actors later, but here, as an old woman in character and, with respect, in person, she maintains that virtue of creating uniqueness, with her laughs, smiles and way of saying things. Lili Taylor was the most interesting character here. The silent daughter that could be crazy but no one can really tell. With imagination and freedom, Taylor makes her character believable and not as overacted as it might be. Vincent Gallo, who I respect mostly as a director and as an actor that does what he wants, the ability he has had to choose his roles is visible here again; as he shines without lights to help him. A wonderful performance his fans shouldn't miss.

But Depp…How can I explain? I've said it a lot, surely, but I will repeat it. He's like a magician, but not with the cards and the hat and the tricks. He is with his face, his looks, his way of talking, his perfection of movement…But it's not really something technical: "in the acting world, Johnny Depp is a magician". I'm sure he still has plenty of that for us, but here is where he let us know first.

In one scene, Vincent Gallo's character Paul, an actor, requests that no one touches his face, because it's important. "Do you think they touch Brando's face? Do you think they touch Pacino's, De Niro's? Do you think they touch Johnny Depp's face? I don't know then, but not know; and if they did before, they shouldn't have.

After watching Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and Fredrick Thor Fredrickson's Cold Fever I knew that there was going to be a great pairing of acting abilities. This, of course, being that of Johnny Depp and Lili Taylor I was not disappointed. The film, at first, absorbs the viewer into a translucent though engaging tale of exploration into the mind and soul. This makes the viewer belive momentarily that the film that they are watching is going to be fanciful and mystic. Hence there at first is no bond between the characters and the Viewer. However, reality becomes less and less of a point or actuality in the film as it paces through the lives of the characters centering on Johnny Depp's charecter. An ifinitity is subconsiously drawn with him as we watch. Faye Dunnaway, who, at first, seemed utterly mis-cast is brilliant, her potrayal of the pre-menopausal cradle-snatcher is brilliant. Jerry Lewis also makes the film great as gritty realism exists in wealth. It feels like there is a piece of everyone in it, there is depression, love, life and death and the exploration of time. Although the film seems like a dream on celluloid it also makes the viewer understand and more importantly empathise with the charecters and at the end the sadness is alleviated by the theme of life, that life goes on, almost in circles. To anyone who has not yet been seriously touched by a film, watch this. It might change you're mind. 10/10 p.s. Watch for the balloon scene at the beginning!

"Arizona Dream" is a real UFO but the kind of UFO we want to be taken to whatever universe it would lead us to. That's pure cinematic escapism, in fact, pure cinema.

"Arizona Dream" is strange and that might be the only objective point for critics and praises to converge to. And I've got to speak for myself, the film is so hypnotic and enchanting that I can't imagine how it can ever be criticized, so this is a positive review, yes, because Hollywood is so dry on experiences like "Arizona Dream" that such movies deserve admiration.

What's the story about? It's a tale about fishes, or one fish actually, a fish and a young man named Axel (Johnny Depp) who has strange dreams involving Eskimos and again, fishes ... I could go on and on, but the point is that all the plots and subplots I will enumerate will sound disjointed while they're so connected to the whole reverie that there's a weird feeling of coherency. The film transports us from one state to another (any meaning of state) without finding us questioning the reason. It doesn't make sense yet it does in the sense that it absorbs all your senses, like a real dream would do actually.

And it doesn't come as a surprise that it's Emir Kusturica, perhaps the European heir of Fellini, who could translate a dream-like vision into a quite-easy-to-follow movie. Any other director would have added some black and white photography, some hallucinatory moments, some non-sequitur elements to better highlight the pointlessness of a plot. Kusturica's directing is not only confident about our attention but attentive about our degree of involvement. It knows when it needs to focus on something tangible and meaningful, and it knows when to throw all the conventions out and float above them, when to act and when to improvise. Even dreams can be codified, even reality needs to loosen up.

Again, what's the film about? Well, this is a film about relationships, some dramatic as the song says, it's about encounters that suddenly gives a total meaning to someone's life or seals the fates of others. Axel's uncle (Jerry Lewis) feels guilty for the loss of his nephew's parents and want him to work for him in his Cadillac-selling business, Elaine (Faye Dunaway) is a woman who dreams of flying, Paul (Vincent Gallo) wants to be an actor, Elaine's daughter Grace (Lily Taylor) a turtle. Realistic or crazy, we're all defined by a quest, a secret will. And these quests always find a root in the past or some dream, whether the past defines the dream or the dream shapes the future might paint the essence of the present.

I don't think it goes further than that, trying to find other meanings would mean entrapping this film in a rational box while there is more to enjoy besides depth. Like a Kusturica movie, this film has a lot of music going on, a lot of accordion, a lot of dancing and loving, of passion and pathos, even jealousy and envy are powerfully conveyed by the performance of the two peripheral characters played by Taylor and Gallo, while Depp and Dunaway can abandon themselves in an ocean of lust and fully enjoy their romance until they learn to deal with the consequences. How weird that you could feel the word "deep" in Depp and Faye Dunaway almost rhymes with "fly" and "runaway".

And as a leitmotif, we have this flying fish caught earlier by an Eskimo who belongs to either a dream or a reality, to say that it makes the connection between the opening scene and the rest of the film or the rest of the film with the ending scene is beside the point, if there's any, yet, there's a feeling of completeness, the idea that sometimes, we all have a vision of what we should do and what shall become of us. If the Eskimo metaphor is right, so maybe whatever the protagonists wish to happen to them after they die, will indeed happen... because maybe that's what Heaven is about.

Why would Uncle Leo be so sure he'd meet Axel's parent if he died? It doesn't really matter because at that moment, we've embraced the film's magic and we believe he does. Later, Axel says to Grace that he used to love her mother but then she became a cloud he could see through and realized he loved her. Axel is crazy in the way he sticks to his vision but so does everyone. In another scene meant for laughs, Paul impersonates Cary Grant in the famous plane scene of "North by Northwest", from our perspective, with the images of the original film, it's a masterstroke of impersonation, for the audience, his motionlessness is ridiculous. Does it matter again? No. Paul believes in his talent. And Kusturica opens our eyes about it.

And that might be the 'point' after all. The most remembered part from the film is the flying sequence and the unforgettable "Death Car" song from Iggy Pop and Goran Bergovic, the score contains many more haunting musical gems saying in musical language that heaven isn't in our visions, but in their fulfillments. That might be what film-making is about, it starts with a vision and the rest is just poetry in motion. Kusturica is aware than he's privileged for making such movies, which would be impossible today.

But he had this luck to come at Hollywood at the right time, the right moment, to have Johnny Depp before he became a supreme movie star, Faye Dunaway who was always "in" for ambitious projects ("Mommie Dearest" was a blessing in disguise as it allowed her to work in weird but fascinating movies like this or "Barfly") and Lewis, Gallo, Taylor complete the gallery of eccentric but appealing protagonists, I mentioned Fellini but there's something weirdly Hustonian in that bunch of dreaming misfits.

And something unique about Kusturica, as usual...