A Walk in the Clouds (1995) Reviews

• Step into the magic!

  Nazi_Fighter_David2003-06-21

  After working as an actor in such films as Sam Peckinpah's controversial Western "The Wild Bunch," and starred in Alejandro Jodorowsky's legendary cult film "El Topo," Alfonso Arau makes his directorial debut in a magical Mexican art film, 'Like Water for Chocolate,' set during the Mexican Revolution... His success makes him direct his first English-language feature, where he presents the strength and beauty of the bonds that can unite human hearts... The time was right after World War II... The place was more lovely than you ever imagined... Gorgeous scenery dominated by vineyards, the perfect nestle for a romantic fairy tale... Everything comes from the heart in this rich heartwarming film... Arau's vision and dream was to build a tunnel between what we know and don't know about two-spirited people, the roots and blood-ties of a family, its traditional values, and its attachment to the earth... Arau reinforces the borders of tradition in the Mexican aristocratic family who have lived on American soil for generations, describing her fundamental values: family solidarity, religious commitment, and cooperation with the land and nature... His motion picture derives its emotional power not only from the sweet love that blossoms between Paul and Victoria, but from the unconditional familial love that the young GI encounters while at her hacienda... Each type of love is strengthened through the knowledge that one leads to the other... Keanu Reeves plays the quiet expressive dreamer who finds the traditional values in a magical place... He is a genteel seller of chocolate candy who, en route on a train from San Francisco to Sacramento, meets a graduate student in crisis... He learns that she is frightened to return home because she is pregnant and unmarried... To protect Victoria from her father's wrath, and ignoring obviously the outcome, Paul tells Victoria that he believes "there's a perfect someone for everyone - someone who'll love you no matter what." He gallantly insists in posing as her husband just for one night... Making her American film debut, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon plays the strong, exquisite woman 'so easy to love'... Victoria has been seduced and abandoned by a 'free spirit.' She is now on her way to her wine-growing family in Napa Valley to help with the annual grape harvest... While her silken butterfly big wings spread the heated air around the frozen grapes, Victoria's sight was enough to engulf Paul with desire... And when her dark hair tumbled down to him, Paul's face was burnt by the harshness of actually having been able to feel some part of her... This burning has been caused by something as soft and luscious as her beautiful black hair... It is simply Arau's shot of her luminous figure, that discreetly heightened her feminine mystique, and her strong sensuality... The legendary Anthony Quinn, a two-time Academy Award-winner for "Viva Zapata" and "Lust for Life," is the wise patriarch, Don Pedro who tries to intensify the romance between Paul Sutton and Victoria, while her father tries his best to show his displeasure at her choice... While chomping Paul's chocolates, the sagacious old man shows the polite soldier the root from which the entire vineyard has grown, and instructs him the traditions and beliefs of his ultra-conservative family... Screen veteran Giancarlo Giannini (who received an Oscar nomination for his performance in "Seven Beauties"), plays the proud, suspicious, ultra-traditional father, whose beliefs are deeply rooted in tradition: 'My daughter can trace her roots back 400 years to the best families in Mexico,' he affirms... As a strong believer in the importance of family, Don Alberto Aragón reacts violently to the prospect of his beloved daughter already married to someone who has nothing... No family. No past. No future! If you want to be moved by a consummate screen composer, and enjoy a wonderful family dinner... If you want to watch Reeves and Quinn singing and getting drunk... If you want to observe joyous women rolling around in a tub of emerald green grapes, keeping pace with the help of musicians... If you want to admire sensational landscapes sleeping against the sunset sky, or forming like a dream out of the silver dawn... don't miss this breathtaking piece of visual art, and step into the magic!

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• Beautiful, Wonderful, Romantic...but cynics, please stay away

  Enrique-Sanchez-562001-03-16

  It always amazes how many opinions can come from the viewing of the same movie. But this movie should have as many admirers as possible. OK, the ending is predictable. So is eating, sleeping, working and making love. Is that any reason not to watch a movie? What makes CLOUDS wonderful is the ride. It is a beautifully acted ride: Keanu Reeves acting his guts out plus: international sensation Sanchez-Gijon, noted actress Aragon, veteran actress Elizondo, Giannini the legend and the irresistible Anthony Quinn, Beautifully directed: Alfonso Arau, Wonderful cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, the wonderful music of Maurice Jarre and the song by Cuban Guitar composer, pedagogue and legend Leo Brouwer. What is bad about smiling during a movie? I found myself smiling and giggling during the grape stomping scene. Does it hurt when you laugh? I guess only if you are jaded, spoiled and bored with life. There is love, mysticism and joy...This is a movie to savor and breath in and enjoy the wonderful.. Walk in the Clouds....

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• Beautiful...

  BlueOrgy2000-08-27

  This film in one word, "beautiful." Keanu Reeves and the rest of the cast make this film enjoyable. I am not a big fan of romance pictures, but this has to be one of the more enjoyable ones. The acting is superb and the story is excellent. A young woman heading back home meets up with a chocolate salesman. She is pregnant (but not married) and cannot bare to face her father. Keanu's character hides his true identity to play the role as her husband. This picture is worth seeing and I advise anyone to see it. Whether they are into romance films or not. People who bad-mouth this film are too dense to realize you don't need action and bloodshed to have a good movie.

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• Beautiful, magical

  carflo2003-08-03

  This is a magical movie. Even if you turn off the sound and just watch it, it is beautiful. Of course, if you turned off the sound, you would miss the beautiful music. As for the story, it is a fairy tale, totally unrealistic. But it is a very, very romantic fairy tale. I'm an overage, overweight, cynical old lady, but I still cried through half the movie. If you watch this movie, have a big box of tissues, a big box of chocolates, and a large dose of the willing suspension of disbelief. If you have even one romantic bone in your body, you'll love it. If you can't suspend your disbelief, skip it - you will just be irritated.

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• Does anyone remember real virtue?

  occasionsofeleganceforyourlife2004-08-20

  Does anyone recall a time when values, integrity, uprightness and true human compassion were a way of life? A Walk in the Clouds does. The story is sweet, romantic, dramatic, and heartwarming. The 1940's was an era when it was terrible shame to be unwed and pregnant. Daughters were often cast away or sent to some distant relative to bear their child in loneliness and disapproval, then the child was given for adoption. I know because I was one of those children. For my mother there was no Paul Sutton to love her and rescue her and her child. The father, portrayed by Giancarlo Gianni was a typical man of those desperate war torn years who was unable to get in touch with his feelings on any level except work and anger. I am more amazed at his ability to show affection for his wife than I am at the anger which rules his life. The family who eventually adopted me was just like this family. Hard horrible father, heavy drinker, full of anger, yet rapier wit and tongue. The rest of the family are so real because in those days most families who had a disagreeable father figure pulled together to make up for and cover over the hurts and embarrassment generated by that father. Very different from today's dysfunctional families. Anthony Quinn was superb and Keanu Reeves could not have been more believable as a simple man with a good heart and high values. His character is not meant to display anything but goodness, which he does beautifully. We have to remember that men used to be governed more by what was right than by the emotion of the moment as they are today. Aitana as Victoria is very lovely and desirable, but her character is also governed by the morals of the day. While she is sexy and flirtatious and clearly loves Paul, she stops short of using his attraction to her to seduce him because the very things she values and loves about him are his stability and uprightness. Today most women would simply go for it, but this film is not about today. It is about real love and true respect. The musical score is simply beautiful and very moving. The wine country and the shot of the California coast along Big Sur are great. Oh, by the by, for the unbelieving, after the grape harvest in the fall the branches of the vine die and become dry and brittle very quickly. The only part of a grape vine that continues to live is the stock and it's root, but even that seems all gray and dead from just looking at the outside. A fire in a dry, post-harvest vineyard would spread and destroy all, just as it did in the film. Today, there are sprinkler systems, etc. to prevent such loss, but not in the 1940's. What a great movie. I own it and will always enjoy watching it again and again.

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