Word: darkeness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Dark Eyes...
CULTURE SHOCK comes to the cinema in Dark Eyes, filmed in both the USSR and Italy. Director Nikita Mikhalkov is Russian, while his actors and their dialogue are Italian. Based on several short stories by Anton Chekhov, the film stars that mainstay of Italian cinema, Marcello Mastroianni, as a womanizer (what else?). Russian in outlook but quintessentially Italian in its characterization, Dark Eyes is a unique and almost dizzying blending of the two cultures from which it is drawn...
...Dark Eyes tells the tale of Romano, a Don Juan who has lost both his wife and the only other woman he ever loved. A once promising architect who married well above his rank, Romano is now reduced to being a maitre d' at the restaurant on a QE 2-like boat. Who should walk in but a happily married man in search of a drink? The two get to talking, and the history of Romano's lost loves unfolds. And a rich tale it is indeed...
...Dark Eyes illustrates Romano's saga with colorful acting and superb cinematography. Like Mikhalkov's earlier Oblomov, Dark Eyes is set in an era of decadence. It is fun to see the fancy balls, elaborate spas, mansions and frills that are all part of the scene. Mikhalkov's characters move about in this effusively elegant world with a naturalness which most films about the turn-of-the-century fail to capture. But with its shift from one setting to another, the film almost has the feel of a pictorial travelogue...
...Dark Eyes has its problems, but just to see the scenery and the costumes is worth $5.50. It's a fun tour through an idealized age of extravagance that will leave you breathless and giddy...