is a beautiful film. I mean it, it is an extremely appealing film, visually. Featuring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert De Niro (a small and totally memorable role), the script is fairly okay. The film is a modern day adaptation of the original Dickens classic set in Florida, Paris, NY. You have got to watch the film for the picturisation and the cinematography. It’s gorgeous! The camera filter seems to capture all the shades of a greenish-yellow light and the experience is akin to basking in warm, golden sunlight. Part of the film is shot in a dilapidated Italian-style mansion which has lofty ceilings in a half-collapsed state, dark dark rooms with an appearance of being under the sea, huge chandeliers, secret bowers, stone fountains, small green alcoves, pristine white gazebos, angels with chipped noses, birds flying in and out of the French windows… the film has to be watched for its cinematic appeal. The soundtrack is fabulous and it weaves in and out of the film so well. Dunca Sheik, Tori Amos, The Grateful Dead, Fisher, Cesaria Evora…. great tracks. The apartment that Hawke lives in in NY is a loft style home with sparse furniture, high ceilings and countless canvases. Gwyneth Paltrow has never looked more ethereal and De Niro has such a charmingly impish role. I couldn’t help falling in love with him.
I’ve seen the film a few dozen times and would like to see it again… if only to bathe in all that sunshine.
hemya says:
i saw the movie a few years back on star movies…….absolutely loved it…..though never got around to seeing it again…thanks for the reminder…….blockbuster…ala re ala..hemya ala:)
October 15, 2004 — 9:40 am
parag says:
I’ve seen the film a few dozen times and would like to see it again
Are you serious or is this number exaggerated? I knew a nutcase girl from a nutcase family. Her family had seen ‘maine pyar kiya’ 72 times or so.
October 15, 2004 — 10:13 am
radhika74 says:
maine pyar kiye..72 times? OH MY GOD!!
October 15, 2004 — 6:58 pm
Lakshmi says:
A definite exaggeration…:-)
October 18, 2004 — 10:03 am
parag says:
Thank God! I am so glad.
October 18, 2004 — 10:07 am
hollowandempty says:
its one of my favorites
October 15, 2004 — 1:16 pm
radhika74 says:
this movie seems right up my street..will try and find it.
October 15, 2004 — 6:59 pm
dannykk says:
There is a scene where Ethan Hawke strides into the restaurant and leads Gwyneth Paltrow and they run out into the street, and all people can do is gape. That scene remains etched in my mind as the perfect ode to the love that they have always felt.
Unrequited love, a broken heart, the coldnes that seeps in with time, and redemption at the end. Beautiful
October 15, 2004 — 9:55 pm
Lakshmi says:
Their love seems to be so compelling and forceful… and almost unbelievably simple from his side and as complex from her point.
October 16, 2004 — 4:38 pm
shivshanker says:
love the soundtrack. ‘siren’ by tori amos is one of the most haunting tunes i’ve ever heard (cowboys and angels by george micheal coming a close second).
there’s another surreal track called ‘life in mono’ (i think) by mono. and one by chris cornell, ‘sunshine’, was it? haven’t seen the movie, but the sounds gell with what you’ve described very well…
October 15, 2004 — 11:38 pm
Lakshmi says:
You bet! I love most of the tracks and ‘Siren’ and ‘Wishful Thinking’ and that song by Fisher… are all favourites.
October 16, 2004 — 4:37 pm
fugney says:
Is it the one where the protanganist’s uncle is a fisherman? Must see that one again…..
October 16, 2004 — 12:22 am
Lakshmi says:
Yes, it is.
October 16, 2004 — 4:37 pm