Customer Reviews

Sunshine [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am totally mystified by those reviewers who pan the film for trivial issues such as accents, lack of gray hairs etc. I don't believe these people paid attention to a wonderful film that never was promoted in the US.

Having just left Budapest, I feel the nature of the city and Hungarian cultural were accurately displayed. Hungary is atypical of Europe. Its language, history, and culture are derivative from sources other than all the rest of eastern Europe. They are unique and the film is excellent at pointing this out.

The criticism that the communist were portrayed as worse than the Nazi is correct, however, for anyone who has been to Budapest, you know this to be true. The Hungarians were not defeated by the Nazi's, they chose Germany. They've watch their country parceled out to other nations for twice choosing the German side in thr two world wars. The communists allowed the country and most notably Budapest to decay slowly over time. The proud Hungarians are only beginning to restore the their heritage. Sunshine poignantly shows the neglect and the price the Hungarians (all Hungarians) paid.

This was a character piece, not a history lesson, suspense, or mystery. The acting was superb on all levels. Fiennes clearly provdes his best performance since The English Patient. Szabo can't be faulted for injecting a certain amount of passion for Hungary into the film.

Finally, the cinematagraphy keeps perfect tune with the tempo of the film. I didn't realize it was a three hour film. I only regretted that it came to an end, a generation too soon.

"Sunshine" is a fast-paced choronicle of a Jewish family for three generations, who had to live amid the stormy history of Hungary. Ralph Fiennes (known for his role in "English Patient") plays three roles here: Ignatz, an elite judge under the Hungarian empire; Adam, his son and an Olympic gold medalist for fencing; and Ivan, Adam's son and an officer under Stalinism.

The impressive cast include the following: Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth of "Pride and Prejudice"); Rosemary Harris ("Tom and Viv" "Spider-man" and known as Jennifer's real-life mother); Rachel Weisz ("The Mummy"); Deborah Kara Unger ("Crush"); James Frain ("Count of Monte Cristo"); John Neville (TV's "X-Files"); and always good William Hurt and Molly Parker.

The film starts with the origin of the prospering family Sonnenschein when the great-great grandfather of the narrator Ivan Sonnenschein finds a secret recipe for medicine, which becomes an instant hit, and the family make a fortune. But a terrible accident kills him, leaving behind the money and the recipe. Until here, it takes only about five minutes. Then, you must realize that "Sunshine" does not use an ordinary, traditional storytelling.

Sure, as I said, Ralph Fiennes plays three roles in this three-hour film, which means, you are going to see three one-hour sections that cover three generations; first, our hero under Hungarian monarchy; second, him before and during the Nazi occupation; last, him under the totalitarian government during Stalinism. The film reflects three eras of Hungary, none of which are stable or peaceful. Of course, the film is about the Sonnenscheins, but at the same time it is about the turbulent history of the country.

So, at first sight, "Sunshine" looks overcrowded with characters, and many of them are given too short time to be really rounded and lively. It is also true that "Sunshine" sometimes heavily relies on its melodramatic plot device, which literally flies faster than any TV soap operas. When you see the three heroes played by Fiennes always fall in love with the wrong women, causing conflicts within and without himself, you may think that the script is too repetitious and self-indulgent. Perhaps, it should be so. The film goes intentionally fast, tracing the ups and downs of the family. But the real hero must be the time or history itself, which relentlessly influences the fate of each family member, and even the apparently solid systems of Hungarian governments.

After watching the three-hour chronicle, which actually seems like flying, you may feel something is missing; or the story itself looks too trite and obvious. But, remember, so is the history of any nation, which looks as if repeating itself countless times, never learning anything from the past. But how can we get out of this karma? By the time you come to the touching ending, where you realize that the most stable and level-headed character turns out NOT the hero, but someone else; then you know that the history of Hungary, or any other countries, is ultimately supported by women.

Final verdict. "Sunshine" may scare some people with its running time (nearly 3 hours), but its fast pace and keen eye for history will attract those who love epic-scale stories. Some may complain that it is too fast, but by the time you reach the final segment when Rosemary Harris with her moving performance appears, everything should be forgiven.

This 1999 film directed by Istvan Szabo, although three hours long, has a lot going for it. Set in Hungary the movie covers three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, the Sonnenscheins. In the late 19th Century, Ignatz; his brother Gustave and his adopted sister Hannah; who is his natural cousin and whom he marries, change their names to "Sors" in order to "assimilate" into Hungarian society. Ignatz's son Adam even converts to Roman Catholicism and wins a medal in fencing in the 1936 Olympics. After silently witnessing his father die at the hands of the Nazis, the third generation Sonnenschein/Sors son Ivan attempts to avenge his father's death by joining Stalin's Communist Party.

Ralph Fiennes (lately in "The Constant Gardener") plays all three of the Ignantz/Adam/Ivan characters through three generations and does it admirably. The young Hannah is played by Jennifer Ehle; the older Hannah by Rosemary Harris, the mother of Ehle in real life. William Hurt plays Ivan's friend Knorr. Both the score and filming are beautifully done. Many of the war and concentration camp scenes are shot in black and white.

The sad theme is easily stated. In the eyes of oppressors it matters not if you change your name or not. If you choose to hate a whole nation of people because of who they are, nothing will stop you. Even though the film is all about the awfulness of anti-Semitism, there is sunshine here in the resiliant character Hannah who "breathed freely" and always looked for the beautiful to photograph.

Even through three hours long, this film is well worth your time, both for the all-to-relevant theme and the fine acting.

A brilliant film with exceptional performances by all, this isn't just the story of Hungarian Jews, but of Jews throughout Europe, especially Germany etc. Assimillation and it's dangers provide the core theme of the film for attempting to give up one's identity never provided these Jews with the safety net they had hoped for. Jew, or converted Jew to Christianity, or a Jew married to a Christian gave no safe harbor for anyone with Jewish association or blood when the time came for the barricades to go up. Honor, heroism, deep roots in a country's history, national acclaim etc, none of these things saved the few arrogant and many naive and frightened--all innocents--from the torments of the Holocaust and Communist oppression.
Some of the scenes are not fit for children, not even with an adult with them. (And I mean the scenes of violence, not sex scenes of which there are some and of which some critic here said, "I was absolutely disgusted by the unnecessary, filthy, and disgusting sex scenes, which, to me, seemed like pornography.". None if it is pornographic. Let's face it, even Jews like sex :). I've watched this film twice and just got rid of my VHS version and bought the Letterboxed DVD. Can't wait to watch that one!

I loved this film. It's rather long, but the time is well spent. It's really three stories in one as the film deals with the events of 4 generations of a high middle class family of Jewish Hungarians as they live through the Hapsburg empire, its fall in WW1, the Nazi perios, the Communist period and beyond the 1956 soviet Invasion. fiennes plays the first born heir in each generation. There are plenty of history lessons and even a well built sequence of scenes involving fencing. As the film becomes engrossed in the Nazi era - as well as other parts - the film deals with anti-semitism; however, it's not the Speolberg shove down your throat kind of depoction. It's more subtle and far more effective as it emphasises the common humanity that this family shared with the rest of the world. Underscorimng the beauty of the film and the story is the poignant music of Schubert's Fantasia for 2 pianos which is amsot a family songs as its members all play the piano. I advise it's not a happy film, but it is ultimately optimistic. It is certainly a beautiful film.

By taking a slice of Hungarian history spanning roughly the last century, this movie chooses a historical setting which provides a concentrated message of human frailty and idealism amidst social and political change. In this microcosmic world of a century of Hungarian history, we encounter some broader familiar themes of social mobility (both economically and politically) of a religious minority in a country with its own conflicted sense of national identity through different political regimes. Ralph Fiennes (of the more familiar movie "The English Patient") superbly plays multiple roles, as a male member of three successive generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, spanning the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the two World Wards to (briefly) modern post-communist Hungary. Fiennes' presence throughout this movie in multiple roles lends a curious continuity to several recurrent themes in this tale of political and family loyalty and betrayal. Haunted by the image of his impotence at watching his father being tortured and killed in front of several hundred Jewish prisoners, the leading male character struggles to expiate his guilt and avenge the shadowy forces of anti-Semitism. But his own ideals are dashed as his police interrogator role in communist Hungary leads him to confront the hypocrisy of yet another regime in which ideological purity and political expediency are hard to distinguish. With his own fanatical commitment to pursue the fascist elements in post World War Two communist Hungary, the leading character shares much in common with his grandfather's loyalty, as a high level magistrate, to the monarchy of a crumbling empire of which Hungary was a part, and with his father's blind faith in the willingness of the newly recreated Hungary to assimilate a Jew who converts to Catholicism as he also becomes a national Olympics fencing hero. In the end, all three characters of three generations of the same family become victims of different political regimes, all of which learn to use their willing victims as pawns who become betrayed with their blind loyalty. Oddly, it is the several women characters who invariably become amorously entangled with different male characters, who seem most skeptical of the promises of different regimes. Unfortunately, it is not often we find this kind of epic movie which personalizes large swathes of history through the saga of several generations of a single family - and it is often compared to Dr. Zhivago. Highly recommended.

Can't remember the last time I sat through a movie for a full 3 hours, but Sunshine had me riveted. What a glorious message of love and joy subordinating almost every other pursuit in our lives.

We follow the travails of a Hungarian family through three generations -- and three political/ideological regimes. The first forty minutes are replete with their own elaborate costume sets and gorgeous locales of Budapest. The second and the third generations depicted find themselves smack in the middle of the Holocaust and the follow-up Stalinisque regime. As the Sonnenchiens (the Sunshine family) live through these times with a great loss of life and blood, there're also invaluable lessons to be learnt.

I felt the movie did not sufficiently capitalize on the emotions between men and women except for the first Sonnenchiens. Instead, there's a lot of unnecessary nudity. I'd be stupid to mind seeing Rachel Weisz (The Mummy) and Deborah Kara Unger (Crash) in ecstasy but it got to be almost redundant because the man was the same, Ralph Fiennes playing a different generation. The music for such an epic could have and probably should have been much more memorable, it was just any generic symphony you'd expect from a romanticized epic-mode film.

But these are petty quibbles. Like other movies of its kind, e.g., "House of Spirits" or "American History X", Sunshine certainly has its faults, but its messages about tolerance, humanity, and redemption are absolutely glorious.

For a 3 hour film, the DVD could surely have done a lot better by breaking the movie into Sors I, Sors II and Sors III sections. It is still a very worthy rental especially if you care about period peieces, political ideas, Ralph Fiennes, or Hungary.

"Sunshine" is mainly about four generations of a Jewish family in Hungary who try to assimilate into the Christian world around them in order to find social acceptance. Most of the characters -- except for Valerie (Jennifer Ehle/Rosemary Harris), an "adopted" daughter and thus an outsider -- are deluded into believing that such an assimilation is workable. Each generation finds out the hard way that Anti-Semitism is a core societal belief and whatever political faction is in power -- a liberal aristocracy, Naziism, or Communism -- Jews will continue to be outsiders and outcasts IF the country where they live regards them as scapegoats and pariahs.

As the personal stories unfold in each generation, there is a wonderful progression that holds the tale together, as well as does Ralph Fiennes' three performances as a grandfather, father, and son. The great-grandfather (David De Peyser) is proud of his Jewish heritage, of his family name, Sonnenschein, and of his family business, that produces a wonderful liqueur called "Sunshine," which is what Sonnenschein means.

His son (played by Ralph Fiennes in his first role), is a lawyer and judge, who changes his last name to something less Jewish and more Hungarian. He finds neither love, acceptance, or fullfillment personally or professionally as a result, and his life ends rather lonely and miserably.

His son (Fiennes again) takes the assimilation a step further and becomes a Roman Catholic so that he can join the right club and pursue his career as a fencing master, ultimately winning an Olympic gold medal. The temporary adulation he receives makes him forget his heritage and his original religion completely. He is sadistically murdered at Auschwitz, sadly denying his Jewishness to the bitter end.

It is the grandson, again played by Fiennes, who not only watches helplessly as his father is murdered, but ultimately, after the war is ended, embraces communism as a solution. But as Stalinist-type communism yet again focuses on Jews as a Zionist enemy, the grandson is forced to take part in the interrogation of an innocent Jewish communist, accused of Zionism (played by William Hurt), who is ultimately beaten to death.

With the help and wisdom of his great-aunt Valerie, who nearing death reclaims the original family name, the grandson at last frees himself from the politics around him and willfully becomes an outcast. As a result, he achieves spiritual freedom. He also regains his pride and his Jewishness and legally changes his name back to Sonnenschein. Communism ends, and the sun does indeed shine once more.

In most films, a central character grows and changes as the result of varied experiences. "Sunshine" just presents a wider canvas in which Ralph Fiennes must be reincarnated several times over in order to get his act together. It's no accident that the same actor plays three roles. It's intrinsic to the whole piece as we watch what is initially a spiritual regression -- with the first name change -- become a spiritual progression with the name change back again. Symbolism abounds as the actual recipe for the liqueur gets lost (just as the characters get lost), but by the end, the recipe is no longer needed.

Istvan Szabo's "Sunshine" is a treasure, in the form of an old-fashioned film in the best possible sense of that term: a sweeping epic in the tradition of Marcel Carne's "The Children of Paradise" and David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia". Szabo is clearly the sort of man who sees life itself as a never-ending panorama of light and shadow, to be twice savored (and suffered): once by those who experience it, and again by the spectator, who reaffirms his own humanity by sharing vicariously in the history of others, opening his heart and mind to their reality.(Why else was drama itself ever created?) This portrayal of Jewish life in Hungary from the Franz Josef epoch to the aftermath of the 1956 revolt against Communism highlights the oft-overlooked fact that the condition of the Jews of Europe, while always different in both kind and degree from the situation faced by Gentiles, invariably served as a barometer for the health, or lack of it, in the world at large. The Sonnenschein family, through the four generations of their life that we see, make one sacrifice after another in order to accomodate themselves to what their society demands of them: first their name, and then their faith. They come to learn that, in the uniquely savage world of the last century, no concessions to prejudice, and no attempts to be "good Hungarians" (which they have always been)can appease the monster of totalitarianism, which is either bent on their outright extermination (as with the Nazis)or on the annihilation of all moral reference points that make life worth living (as with the Communists).Having Ralph Fiennes play the narrator, his father, and his grandfather is much more than a stunt; one eventually comes to feel that there is some sort of guardian spirit of "Sonnenscheinness" that accompanies the family through all of their grand,terrible years. (This hits one like a blow in the stomach when the narrator Ivan, played by Fiennes, returns home after the Holocaust -- in which he watched helplessly as his father, also played by Fiennes, was tortured to death in a Nazi camp). There are scenes in "Sunshine" that will linger in one's mind as long as one retains memory of any film. The aforementioned torture-murder (of one man whom we have by then come to know intimately)is a dramatization of barbarity that freezes the blood, even after decades of Holocaust dramas. Equally chilling is the scene in which the family sits listening to the radio announcement of the new anti-Semitic laws, ticking off one after another of their members who will supposedly be protected because of their status as war widows, gold-medal athletes, etc. "Baba is exempt" "Papa is exempt" -- while we the audience, occupying the position of the gods who know all, are hideously aware that, at the last, no one will be exempt. The cast is beyond praise -- but a special note of grace to the incomparable Rosemary Harris as the indomitable Valeria. The sight and sound of her telling her grandson, imprisoned for his role in the 1956 revolution "You may be locked up, but it is they who are in prison", and then winking lovingly at him, is not something I will ever forget.My only reservation about "Sunshine" is that Szabo is a bit too fond of recurrent motifs; there is perhaps one too many New Year's Eve parties, and the use of breaking cups to foreshadow catastrophe is reminiscent of the more obvious silent-film techniques. (Also, the view near the end of the trash-compactor which devours the family's treasures, including its most precious legacy,is a fairly blatant echo of the incinerator at the close of "Citizen Kane").But these are minor blemishes on a glorious visage. If we could forgive Henry James for naming one of his female characters Fanny Assingham, Szabo can be allowed a nod or two. To repeat: a treasure.

"Sunshine" is a three-hour lesson in modern Hungarian history, portraying the country as it goes from Empire to Fascist to Communist rule, all seen from the perspective of the Sonnenschein family ("sunshine" in Hungarian). Granted, some purists may take issue with the historical accuracy, but I am not a purist when it comes to this, so I can comment upon the film's other merits.

Sprawling over three hours, this film is not for the short of attention. But for those more accustomed to films of this genre and length, "Sunshine" offers many golden moments that may pass you by if you aren't prepared to notice.

Ralph Fiennes takes on not two but three roles, playing grandfather, father, and son. Other actors are more noted for their ability to transform themselves physically for a role, but Fiennes' talent in this category should not be underrated. Although his red-haired beauty endures, he manifests the melancholy of Ignatz Sors (the grandfather), the dashing athleticism of fencer Adam Sors (the father), and the awkwardness and conflict of Ivan Sors (the son) masterfully, making each character a physically different person.

However, Fiennes' ability to morph is overshadowed by the subtle, emotionally resonant performance by the fine Rosemary Harris as the elder Valerie (Sors) Sonnenschein. In the midst of political turbulence, religious persecution, and the rise and fall of empires and regimes (as well as Fiennes' role-switching), Valerie remains the only constant, due to her unflinching sense of self. In a country that struggles to find its identity, Valerie always knows who she is, and for this reason, she endures.

Jennifer Ehle (Harris's own daughter) is competent as the younger Valerie. She gets all of the highly emotional outbursts and confrontations with other characters, and gives Valerie an endearing vitality. But it is Harris's quiet dignity and sly confidence that makes her the more memorable. Just as Valerie is the pillar of the Sonnenschein family, Harris is the central pillar of the film itself.