With a beautiful title like Nuovomondo I think Miramax would have made out better if they'd stuck with the original Italian for Emanuele Crialese's story of a family's journey from Sicily to the U.S. Golden Door was a beautiful film, and deserved a nice round word like "Nuovomondo" to match its sensuality.
From the opening scene where I could almost feel the chalky rock in my moth as father and son climbed a mountain looking for an answer, the movie was filled with vivid pictures so rich I would almost feel them. Whether they were real, like the giant fish being hawked when the family arrived in the port city, or imagined, like the mammoth phallic carrot or the coins falling from the tree. Certain shots stand out too, like the pull out from the barren rocky terrain they call home at the beginning, to the awesome separation of the masses on the ships deck from the masses on shore as the ship departs.
As you know, I'm a big fan of the waif known as Charlotte Gainsbourg. She was an interesting pale contrast to the Italians on the boat, and I'm not completely sure I understand her character, but it was interesting.
One of the most unique features was pairing what I take to be Sicilian peasant music with a couple stellar Nina Simone tunes ("Sinnerman" and "Feelin' Good." The timing was really effective - which doesn't always happen when music from one time is injected into stories from another.
It's hard to imagine a life so hard that you would leave it for dreams of a land where rivers of milk flow for those who work hard. And we think we've heard every type of immigrant story, but this one is different in that it focuses not on the struggle to survive in the new world, but on the decision to leave and the journey itself. If you get a chance to rent this, I hope you like it, but it might be one of those bizarre tales that not everyone will find as beautiful as I do.
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