Product Details

• Actors: Kevin Anderson, Bill Pullman, Kim Novak, Pamela Gidley, Graham Beckel
• Directors: Mike Figgis
• Writers: Mike Figgis
• Producers: Eric Fellner, Michael Flynn, Scott Millaney
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Special Edition, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Home Entertainme
• VHS Release Date: October 27, 1993
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302336856
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #454,752 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An ignored masterpiece, February 12, 2000

By 

Francoesque (Manacoa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liebestraum [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I first saw a trailer for this on a now defunct late night TV programme back in 1991. It had me hooked from the start with stylish lighting, great music and sharp editing promising a modern noir thriller with shades of "Dead Again". Due to a limited cinema release the first chance I got to see the film was a couple of years later when I saw the box in a video store. I bought it immediately, figuring might be interesting. I underestimated. This is a fantastic film filled with emotion and beauty. The first time I saw it it blew me away. I expected a cool little thriller and was rewarded with something much more. This is not a murder mystery or a thriller, per se, but a love story shot through a noir lens. The soundtrack (also by Figgis) is astounding and the acting is perfect. Particular kudos to the then-unknown Bill Pullman who puts in a career best performance. Also, if you actually figure out the central twist of the film (listen to the conversation in the car between Jane and Nick) you will wonder how on earth Figgis got this past a studio. Ever since I first saw it I've been trying to convert my friends to it's wonders with much success. See it now and your life may not be better, but two hours of it will have been well spent. Remember: Only you can prevent forest fires

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars strange symbolism, July 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Liebestraum [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have a feeling most people would find this movie stilted and seriously flawed. I am at a loss to explain my fascination with it. It's partly all the cryptic symbolism that I never could decipher, like why is the letter N missing from so many signs? I suspect Mr. Figgis may have been sending some personal messages. The movie has such an ominous, dream like quality and so accurately depicts the loss of control that comes with obsessive and illicit love/lust. But I didn't find it the least bit romantic, as other reviewers did. In fact it's a pretty uncomfortable, disconcertingly raw picture, no soft focus love scenes and happy endings here. I strongly recommend this film to oddballs like myself who insist on digging into every hidden meaning, all you Jungians out there. Others should probably avoid it; it's definitely an aquired taste.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Contorted Love, August 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Liebestraum [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The word Liebestraum has two meanings in German, "Dream of Love" or "Dreaming While Loving." Neither meaning would seem to be a suitable title for this dark film about obsessions and sins, and the ripple effects visited and revisited upon family members --unless it is that true love remains, in the end, out of reach. Liebestraum is also the title of a romantic musical piece by Schumann. A jazzed-up and decidedly unromantic, contorted version of the piece helps open the film. So perhaps the metaphor here is contorted love.

From the start, there is such a creepy and unnatural chill in the relationship between the featured lovers that I could not care about them or their situation. I actually suspected the twisted nature of the ties between them and some other characters halfway through the film, but was not bored after that. There is that much going on, what with the plot twists and trying to understand the meanings (or not) of all the really odd happenings in the film --like a letter falling off of a sign or the crude sherrif taking an unbeliabely long wiz'. Plus, my suspicions weren't confirmed and fully explained until the very end.

I did care about the fate of a frozen-in-time, caste iron building and also, oddly enough, about the man in charge of its demolition. A good man gone bad or a bad man with heartfelt remorse? Or both?? The feelings of this conflicted character are played out in the best five minutes of the film; the bar scene, and is one of the examples of why Bill Pullman is among the very best actors working today. There is a more recent film, The Guilty, in which he again manages to bring out the heart and complexities of a seemingly unsympathetic character. But in that film he was the star, rather than having just a handful of scenes to create that feat, as in Liebestraum.