blanche-2
I guess "Heaven" is what is called an "art film." Released in 2002, it stars the incomparable Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi. Directed by Tom Tykwer, it is written by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, who intended to make a trilogy, "Heaven, Hell and Purgatory." There was one other film made, supposedly as part of this trilogy, called Nadzieja, which is Polish for Hope - so perhaps this movie is "Purgatory."A British teacher who lives in Turin, Italy, Philippa, loses her husband to a drug overdose. Destroyed by this, she works hard to have the drug dealer, the biggest in Turin, arrested and punished.Her efforts are completely ignored by the local police. In desperation, she makes a bomb and sets it off in the location of his office. It's a disaster, as four people - a cleaning lady, a father, and two children - are killed when an elevator snaps due to the bomb.She is arrested and is horrified when given this information. She insists upon speaking English instead of Italian when questioned, so a young police officer Filipo (Ribisi) offers to interpret. He falls in love with her and helps her escape.It's no coincidence that the two have the same name -- this is a story of soulmates. For Philippa, there is no thought of escape. She knows she is responsible for the death of four people and intends to pay the price. But the drug dealer is still alive, and she intends to finish what she began. For Filipo, as he tells her, he doesn't know what will happen, but it will "be something beautiful."The photography in this film is magical in its beauty -- the camera sweeps over the Italian landscape, and the aerial shots are breathtaking.This is not an action film, or one in which much happens -- it's a story of love, connection, resolve, and acceptance. The ending is ambiguous, in a way, and in another way, symbolic and ties back to the first scene in the film. When you first see the movie, the first scene will seem extraneous. It isn't. Nothing extraneous here.You can't really label this film. It's not a conventional love story, it's not an action film, it's not really a suspense film, and people even question if it's a foreign film, though most of the dialogue is Italian. It's simply a beautiful film, with a brilliant, spare performance by Cate Blanchett. She fits herself into the tapestry of the film, adding to it, but not distracting us from it.Beautiful and well worth seeing unless you like CGI effects, blood, violence, and profanity.
nsymms
I love movies that can succeed with little dialog, and Heaven does exactly that. To me, this is where cinema shines. It's something you can't do in a theater play, a radio play, or even a book. Vast sweeping landscapes, street scenes with events that move the story along, scenes where Philippa and Filippo just stare at each other, or sit and eat ice cream. All without saying a word. Just the visuals and you know what's going on in the story and in their hearts and minds. Most writers & directors need all sorts of chatty dialog to do that. If you're a step above you can do it without so much talk.Krzysztof was a genius.
Sean Victor
I want to say you will never watch another film like this! This incredible, loving, sublime, poetic drama film has a strange beauty and its gonna take your emotion higher than you ever felt! The direction is just perfect, may be the best Tykwer work, the actors should was nominated for an Oscar... Cate Blanchet took this film on her shoulder, and she did a really good job! Congratulations Tom Tykwer for have created a masterpiece of emotion. An Poetic sense of human behavior and their feelings after all.And if you never saw this film before, believe me, don't miss it! I mean It!
