Product Details

• Actors: Ben Kingsley, Charles Dance, Kevork Malikyan, George Murcell, Helen Mirren
• Directors: James Dearden
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate
• VHS Release Date: January 25, 1990
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301216024
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,543 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the story of a man whose "god" forgot him., December 4, 1998

By 

Gretchen S. Ellis (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pascalis Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In a finely-crafted and beautifully filmed story, three people meet who are engaged in deceptions of differents sorts. Each one is acting in secret, yet all three find themselves thrust into the very center of their deceptions by ironic twists. Each fences with the other romantically, yet the most cynical actually fall in love. Excellent performances by Kingsley, Charles Dance and Helen Mirren, three of England's most talented and versatile actors. Exotic scenery sets the stage for a variety of passions, schemes and deceits. Mirren and Dance are spectacular in the love scenes especially, but Ben Kingsley steals the movie, his dark eyes mirroring his dwindling hope in his sultan's dying world and his hopeless love for an untouchable, unreachable foreigner.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent portrait of a time and place, July 8, 2003

By 

Karen Sampson Hudson "Karen Sampson Hudson" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pascali's Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The year is 1908, the place is a small island in the Aegean sea. Ben Kingsley shines in "Pascali's Island", a subtle tale of fear and betrayal in uncertain, changing times. The violent ending, although hinted at throughout the film, will jar you since the tone till then has been guardedly genteel.

A fine performance is turned in by Helen Mirren, playing the Austrian painter Lydia, a woman in her 30s whom Pascali has loved from a distance for years. He is tormented by her love affair with an English archeologist as events spin toward an inevitable disastrous conclusion.

The clear, bright Aegean ocean reflecting the brilliant blue sky above makes a gorgeous scenic backdrop for the film. The ocean is seen from many interesting camera angles through windows and doorways of buildings, down from stone steps, and straight on as a large sailboat glides across it. The elemental sunshine and the open, calm sea serve as a counterpoint to the scheming people and their sinister secrets.

Highly recommended!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this movie!, March 29, 2001

By 

Patrick Woosley (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pascali's Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I love movies where the location is like another character (characters even) within the story.

This is a wonderful insight into another time and another place. With the preludes of war setting a benignly precarious backdrop intriguing characters deploy their motives in an enchanting dance of ulteriors and schemes.

The psychologies at work in this story are delightful to behold, the viewer is captivated and enthralled from the beginning!