Sunshine, directed by Istvan Szabo, is an award winning co-production between Austria, Germany, Canada and Hungary. An historical film, the story weaves through 3 generations of a Jewish family in Hungary from the turn of the 20th century to the communist regime post 1956 examining issues of ... Read review
This sprawling family saga follows a Hungarian-Jewish family across three generations, and ... more
stars Ralph Fiennes as the father, the son, and the grandson in three distinctly different roles. As a Europudding vehicle for Fiennes and a top-drawer cast (inc...
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This sprawling family saga follows a Hungarian-Jewish family across three generations, and ... more
stars Ralph Fiennes as the father, the son, and the grandson in three distinctly different roles. As a Europudding vehicle for Fiennes and a top-drawer cast (inc...
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Ralph Fiennes (The End Of The Affair, The English Patient) stars in this epic story of a ... more
family that rise above their humble origins to positions of wealth and power only to fall victim to the events which defined Europe during the 20th century
Sunshine is a three-part drama co-written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey the team behind ... more
the BBC's hit comedy Early Doors and co-writers of the BAFTA award-winning The Royle Family. Starring Steve Coogan (I'm Alan Partridge Saxondale) Bernard Hill (Lord Of The Rings) and Lisa Millett (Drop Dead Gorgeous Blackpool) Sunshine is the bittersweet story of three generations of the Crosby family. Bing has been fascinated with gambling since he was a child. Bernadette was his childhood sweetheart and in spite of his addiction they have become a couple. The family is completed by their eight-year-old son Joe and Bing's father George. The relationship between grandson and grandad is a golden one - based on absolute trust and mutual affection. But Bing's gambling spirals out of control his losses reach unsustainable levels and the only thing left to lose is his wife and son.
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Starting at the beginning of the twentieth century and continuing to the present day ... more
'Sunshine' is an emotive drama tracing three generations of a wealthy Hungarian Jewish family. Ralph Fiennes plays three challenging roles in this beautifully filmed study of the rise and fall of a prosperous family of winemakers in the face of Imperial Fascist and Communist oppression. Mother and daughter Rosemary Harris and Jennifer Ehle provide outstanding support and Istvan Szabo received a Golden Globe nomination for his subtle and skillful direction.
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Production Year: 1999 - Drama - Director: Dick Maas - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis, Francesca Brown
Production Year: 1945 - Drama - Director: David Lean - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: History of Hungary come to life Disadvantages: Long, occasionally unconvincing
...detract from the story. Also Sunshine is around 3 hours long which is necessary to cover the 3 mens' lives in any detail but I felt fidgety for the last half hour or so-yet I still felt that I was only getting to know one character when it moved onto the next generation thus a difficult issue to resolve. Some parts of the film dragged and then others felt like they were rushed through and should have been far more in depth giving a sense of unevenness ... ...Ralph Fiennes as all three Sonnenschein/Sors men was a good move as it provides a feeling of continuity through the generations and backs up the idea that the actions of your family and effect of your heritage have a powerful influence on your life. Fiennes himself manages to play the three men without making the film more about himself than the characters.
Overall I did find parts of this film interesting and it demonstrates the fiery ... more
Sunshine, directed by Istvan Szabo, is an award winning co-production between Austria, Germany, Canada and Hungary. An historical film, the story weaves through 3 generations of a Jewish family in Hungary from the turn of the 20th century to the communist regime post 1956 examining issues of family, torn loyalty and the effects of our personal and national history upon our lives.
The film follows the lives of 3 generations of the Sonnenshein family, all played by Ralph Fiennes, through the intense upheavals of the period. Ignatz Sonnenshein is a political conservative loyal to the Emperor even changing his name from the too Jewish Sonnenshein from which the film takes it's name-being the German for sunshine-to the more Hungarian Sors in order to forward his career. He falls in love with and eventually marries his cousin Valerie who has been raised as his sister. Valerie provides a constant throughout the film as a lover, mother and then grandmother.
Their son Adam grows up to become a famous fencer who wins an olympic gold despite difficulties surrounding his Jewish roots-he converts to Roman Catholicism to join the fencing club thus losing more of his family roots. These events take place in the 30s and demonstrate the situation many Jewish families found themselves in during this time-listening to the radio all the family (want to) believe that they are exempt from being sent to the concentration camps on a list of exceptions given by the Nazis giving a look at the complexities of assimilation and multiple loyalties. Eventually Adam and his son are sent to Auschwitz, where Adam is killed for refusing to call himself a dirty Jew,whilst other members of the family go into hiding.
The third and final section of the film follows the life of Adam's son Ivan who survives the concentration camp and arrives home tofind his grandmother Valerie and great-uncle are also still alive. Enticed to join the rising communists by the promise that he can revenge the injustice done tohimself an others by the Nazis, Ivan becomes embroiled in a regime that is also abusive and anti-semitic.
The film ends with Ivan managing to extract himself from the communist party and both him and his grandmother take back the original family name of Sonnenschein symbolically reclaiming their heritage from all the attempts to destroy it over the previous century.
The film gives a broad overview of the history of Hungary in the 20th century and also incorporates some real historical specifics such as that of a famous Jewish fencer winning at the olympics. I think that Szabo had an ambitious aim for one film to cover such a changing history and society and ultimately I found it lacking a certain something. Parts of the story seemed too contrived to be real and detract from the story. Also Sunshine is around 3 hours long which is necessary to cover the 3 mens' lives in any detail but I felt fidgety for the last half hour or so-yet I still felt that I was only getting to know one character when it moved onto the next generation thus a difficult issue to resolve. Some parts of the film dragged and then others felt like they were rushed through and should have been far more in depth giving a sense of unevenness to the movie as a whole.
Casting Ralph Fiennes as all three Sonnenschein/Sors men was a good move as it provides a feeling of continuity through the generations and backs up the idea that the actions of your family and effect of your heritage have a powerful influence on your life. Fiennes himself manages to play the three men without making the film more about himself than the characters.
Overall I did find parts of this film interesting and it demonstrates the fiery and problematic history of Hungary over the past century as well as the broader difficulty of heritage and family history in a changing and hostile world. There are powerful and moving scenes and beautiful shots of Budapest but the film failed to fully keep my attention as it progressed and had parts where it was quite dry. At the end I was left feeling a little underwhelmed and felt that whilst the idea was good the actual film could have been better.
Advantages: Visually stunning - potentially a great film Disadvantages: Just not quite as good as it should have been
As is usually the case, I see a film advertised and think "that looks good - must go and see that" and then for one reason or another I find that I end up putting it on our DVD rental list because it's no longer being shown at our local cinema. And this was the case with Sunshine (2007) directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. I'd been really impressed by clips that I had seen of the film and as a self confessed sci-fi aficionado I could see elements of various sci-fi films, such as 2001 - A Space Odyssey, 2010, Alien/Aliens, Event Horizon even from those clips and to be honest as films that I (and many others) have and continue to enjoy felt that Sunshine had the potential, if it was as good as the clips led me to believe, to be placed in the same league. But there in lay the problem - it had to be as good as the clips ...
Advantages: Hilarious, touching and well-acted Disadvantages: Maybe a bit of a predictable message
ask for?!
Combined with a perfectly-fitting soundtrack and good, simple direction from the two directors, husband and wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine really is a brilliant film. It?s joyful and uplifting without being unrealistic or saccharine, and most importantly, it?s laugh-out-loud practically the whole way through.
It had received a lot of hype and praise, and I?d been looking forward to watching it ever since its release, but it definitely lived up to my expectations and more!
You can buy Little Miss Sunshine on DVD for £6.98 from www.amazon.co.uk.
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Starring:
Greg Kinnear ? Richard Hoover
Toni Collette ? Sheryl
Abigail Breslin ? Olive
Alan Arkin ? Granddad
Paul Dano ? Dwayne
Steve ...
presence is insignificant.
The most disappointing part of the movie is that you have to ask what Bowie's doing mixed up in it. The guy is great at music, and has turned out to fantastic acting performances yet here is involved in some tin pot low budget wanna be gangster movie. He does however live it marginally from the mire and does make for enjoyable viewing while he is on screen.
Everybody Loves Sunshine is by far one of the worst British movies I have ever seen in my life; and to offer the DVD at the fee of £5.99 (play.com price) is honestly a rip off. Better British movies that tackle homosexuality and crime have been made on numerous occasions the need for this piece of garbage just taints the hard work of others. AVOID!!!
Not suprisingly there are no special features.
Cast
Rachel Shelley .... Clare
Clint Dyer ...
A study over three generations of a Hungarian-Jewish family called Sonnenschein which starts at the beginning of the twentieth century leading up to the present day...
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
MOMENTUM PICTURES; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
"...[SUNSHINE has] substance and intelligence..." (Box Office, p.155, 01/11/1999)
"...Never less than engrossing....Ehle glows..." -- Rating: B+ (Entertainment Weekly, p.107, 30/06/2000)
"...It is a superb period re-creation and boasts a formidable international cast....Absorbing and illuminating in regard to the eras it spans..." (Los Angeles Times, p.C12, 09/06/2000)
"...[The film] follows in the footsteps of movies like Visconti's LEOPARD and Bertolucci's 1900, epics that aspired to match the sprawl and capaciousness of classic novels..." (New York Times, p.E12, 12/06/2000)
"...SUNSHINE opens with thunder: an impressively staged explosion that says we just dare you to snooze through this three-hour story..." (USA Today, p.10E, 09/06/2000)
"...[There is] care and emotion in every frame of SUNSHINE..." (Variety, p.83-5, 20/09/1999)
DVD Description
Director Istvan Szabo's SUNSHINE is an epic tale that follows the Hungarian Jewish family the Sonnenscheins through five generations spanning more than 100 years, from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, exploring the history, politics, world wars, social diaspora, and economic shifts that influence and change them during that period. Beginning with Emmanuel Sonnenschein, who builds a business around the family product (a Taste of Sunshine tonic), the film follows the lineage from his son Ignaz (Ralph Fiennes), a political conservative loyal to the Hungarian Republic, to Ignaz's son Adam (also played by Fiennes), an olympic fencer who is victimized by the Nazi genocide, to Adam's son Ivan (Fiennes again), a member of the Hungarian communist regime who manages to divorce himself from it and be free. Through these transitions, it is Valerie (played by both Jennifer Ehle and her real-life mother, Rosemary Harris), the cousin and wife of Ignaz, who becomes mother to Adam and grandmother to Ivan, supplying moral support, a family backbone, and photographs: a signature snapshot technique is used in the film to round out each major chapter or event. A beautiful film with easy transitions, dramatic scenery and costumes, and admirable performances, SUNSHINE's themes of family, history, and Hungarian pride resonate far beyond the big screen.
![Sunshine [DVD] [2000]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78537319.jpg)
