Un amour à taire

I caught this movie by accident when I was channel surfing one night on cable and happened to land on TV5. Although I don't speak anything other than basic French, the opening scene caught my attention and I ended up sitting through the whole film. It's a tribute to how good it is that even with basic French vocabulary, I was able to follow the story - and what a story it is. An absolute treasure of a film, and I am amazed it hasn't been more widely publicised or shown on mainstream TV over here in the UK. Not an easy film to watch as there are some very brutal scenes, but I recommend it highly. And I would definitely advise a box of tissues to be kept at hand - there are moments that will break your heart.

This film, while historically interesting and politically relevant, goes deeper than most message films. What is so fascinating is that so many things go on in this film besides suffering and Nazi hatred. It is, above all, the story of a family (and the family that is created).

Yes, the Nazis' massacre of Jews and Gays is a huge part of this movie, but what sets it apart is the humanistic story of love, jealousy, acceptance, guilt and tragedy that is set WITHIN the central group of friends and family in the film. There are many small surprises, and the melodrama is really cut to a minimum. Some very wrenching scenes, for example, come and go before you can get a good cry in. To me, the true brilliance of the film lies in its ability to show rather than tell what horrors befell Europe during Hitler's reign.

This is the second time I vote 10 for a film. I couldn't give it 20, but I would. An extremely rare film. Everyone has already went through explanations about its contents. I will go through something different.

The script is just impossible. Maybe one of the best things I've ever seen. It blows your mind away. It's absolutely brilliant. No gaps. No fissures. No dead ends. As thoroughly crafted as any Shakespearian play. More acts than in any Bergman's film. Every character depicted with their innermost desires, thoughts and emptiness.

I'm still crying, and I don't know why I can't stop. Only real episodes of our absurdly grim history in the news have made me cry because they move moral fibres that I try not to touch, but reality does.

The Hamlet-like play evolves with such a tension, that there are moment when your body engages in the same reeling provoked in your mind. Attention to every small detail has been paid so nothing is left to imagination. The crudeness of the story clashes with the subtlety and perfection of the shooting. Transferred to film, the focus on making you fall inside the spiral of the story is completely intended.

There are no limits regarding directorial skills, acting prowess, costumes, camera angles, colour... a perfect brocade that reminds me of nothing I've ever seen. Maybe we could say that Nicholas and Alexandra was one of those films that tell a story with sheer brutality, and where nothing is taken for granted. Maybe there are others.

I've seen more than 1,500 films in my life. I have memories from a very early age of most of them. But I can't say why this film made me re-think what I teach and what I think about cinematography... and about life.

The violence never goes over the top, but it surpasses any violence I've seen in war films. The issue of love surpasses anything I've ever seen in any romance or read in any novel. The cruelty, the passion, but especially the immense tension that grips you from the very start borders the insane. If there is a film that goes all the way to tell a story, this is the one. Maybe Fanny och Alexander would be the other of the 1,500 I've seen.

Epic in proportions. Epic in the perfect period atmosphere. Epic in its story telling. Epic in resources, both human and material. Epic in a cast that can ask no more from each and every one who took even a small role in the film. Epic in the way it takes your mind and spirit in the most dangerous roller-coaster.

If there's something you could try some day -if you dare, and IF you can, is to analise the way this film was photographed. I usually praise Vittorio Stroraro's work. This film takes advantage of all available techniques in cinematography, but it keeps the traditional, organic, unfiltered reality at face value. Not a small achievement these days.

Again, French cinema is leading the world with stories that make you think, live, feel the crude and sad reality. Not a film for someone with any kind of heart condition or queasy stomach. No horror film can make you feel like this one. This is a film that was never intended to be classified as horror. But you'll meet one of the most horrifying experiences ever. A master piece of art.

If, when the credits start to roll, you don't feel like you're alone and miserable, the last captions will do their work. Believe me, its a roller-coaster that ends in a vertical freefall.

I apologise for using so many superlatives. I couldn't refrain myself.

A beautiful and poignant film that encourages you to wait for the arrival of the hero and the redemption of the evil only for neither to happen. Someone commented that the film was like a roller coaster, for me it didn't feel that way, no individual scene was too brutal or heartbreaking for me to reach for the tissues, until, as the end captions appeared the whole reservoir of emotions that had been slowly welling inside overcame my composure. With torrents of tears running down my face for the millions of the brutally murdered I wondered why; why people allowed this to happen and why we still allow it to happen today. If there is a god, surely he is crying too.

This is one of the best films I have ever seen, rarely has a film combined suspense, pathos, intelligence, sadness and humor in such a tight and heart wrenching narrative. I have met the director here at the screening (Columbia college)and he seemed like a perfect embodiment of the film, an interesting man. The standing ovation and the continuation of the applauds that lasted a good five minutes is a small indication of how well received this master piece was. CLASS from the word go, a must see, especially in today's atmosphere where dark clouds that are looming over our horizons. Pack a clean white handkerchief, you'll use it. Toby Ross Hornbill Films