Arizona Dream |
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Directed by Emir Kusturica
Written by David Atkins
| Starring: | Johnny Depp (Axel Blackmar) |
| Jerry Lewis (Leo Sweetie) | |
| Faye Dunaway (Elaine Stalker) | |
| Lili Taylor (Grace Stalker) | |
| Paulina Porizkova (Millie) | |
| Vincent Gallo (Paul Leger) |
Comment:
At the end of the 'cinematographic year' there aren't usually many good choices because most of the movie shown in this period are simply the 'rubbish' left after the best ones filled the theatres during winter. In the case of Arizona Dream we have a very fine movie, which is not actually a left off from the current season but is a movie filmed in 1991, released in the US in 1993 but never distributed in Italy till now.
The story is about an eskimo who tries to go home through a snow tempest after he went fishing... no, the story is about the marriage between an ageing car vendor and a pretty young woman... ehm... not really, the story is about the strange love between an ageing woman and a young man who tries to build her some weird flying machines... Well, the story is simply impossible to explain and, moreover, it is just the surface of the movie which has many inner and metaphorical meanings that goes beyond the plain narration of the events!
The main peculiarity of the movie is its weirdness. I like bizarre movies but this one really wins over all the other weird movies I've seen before! There are a lot of unexpected and surprising details, for example the ambulance that suddenly takes off and flies to the moon, and a lot of 'impossible' scenes, such as various flying chairs or the same people appearing on both sides of a tree as the camera pans from left to right and back. There are a few other strange shots that I really enjoyed, such at the view from the window on the upper floor that slowly goes down to a view from the lower floor but with the window frame following the camera in its descending movement!
There are a few funny moments, usually provided by Vincent Gallo and his movie-addicted character who dubs or mimes famous movies in very unlikely ways. There are also some dramatic scenes, although they are not very touching (nor they were intended to be so, I suppose). Finally, sometimes there are 'dead' and boring moments, they are not so frequent but still shows that the run time could have been reduced a bit...
There are various unexplained or unexpanded plot lines, scenes that are not significant to the narration, dream sequences, flying fishes... everything is unconventional, surreal and suggestive, including the peculiar music and soundtrack, exactly in the way I think a movie should be. The inner meaning is not immediately obvious and the final dialogue between the eskimos provides a possible 'explanation' and gives the chance to re-think about what has been shown during the whole movie. In the end, Arizona Dream is not a plain visual narration of a story since the story cannot be actually narrated with words because images plays a fundamental role in it. This is cinema!
Rating: 7.8
