A WALK IN THE CLOUDS
US, 1995, 102 minutes, Colour.
Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez Gijon, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Giannini, Debra Messing.
Directed by Alfonso Arau.
Tries to appeal to the audience for romances. However, despite being directed by Alfonso Arau, best known for his complex `magical realism' in Like Water for Chocolate. There are some lyrical sequences here, especially with the vine harvest, and some nightmares, but the screenplay is a touch too obvious and too stolid. So is Keanu Reeves as the hero. However, Aitana Sanchez Guion is vivacious as the daughter of a Mexican winegrowing family (with Giancarlo Giannini as her father and a scene-stealing Anthony Quinn as grandfather). The film is nice and its heart is in the right place but it opts to stay with a fairly surface niceness. Like chocolate for chocolate boxes.
1. A romantic film? Traditional? Straightforward and emotional? Not ironic? This kind of film in the 1990s – in an age of critique and cynicism? The popularity of this kind of romance?
2. The period, post-World War Two? San Francisco? Soldiers being demobbed? The Californian countryside, the vineyards, the haciendas, the small towns? An authentic atmosphere for the story?
3. The title, the reference to Paul, after the war, hopes, ambitions? Fulfilment?
4. The plausibility of the plot: the focus on Paul and his military experience, his relationship with his wife, the gap between the two? His job, salesman for chocolates? His travels, the encounter with Victoria? Her pregnancy, his deciding to pretend to be her husband? The reception in the family, suspicions, his support of her, falling in love? The resolution of his own marriage? The fire in the vineyard? Despair, the hopes for the future? The musical score?
5. Paul, his military service, his nightmares about the bombed orphanage? His being disturbed? The return, Betty and her wariness? On the road, his job and prospects? In the bus, with Victoria, sensing her plight, helping her? The impact on the family, suspicions, his ability to keep up the pretence? The gift of the chocolates? The relationship with Don Pedro? The other members of the family, Don Pedro Junior? The mother, the brothers and sisters and the extended family? Life in the house, his respecting Victoria? Helping her? The grapes, the crushing of the grapes, his participation? The build-up to his decision, his having to leave, going to Betty, finding her with another man? The break? The return, the reconciliation, his love for Victoria, wanting to marry her? The fire, the desperation, his help? The root, giving it to Don Pedro, hope for the future?
6. Victoria, her condition, her disillusionment with the baby’s father? Her studies, her return home, the possible shame? Her response to Paul, to the pretence, going about the ordinary things at home? Her attitude towards her father? Paul and his fitting in, life, work? His departure, her being left on her own, her gratitude towards him? The return, the wedding, a future?
7. The Aragon family, Don Pedro as the patriarch, the Anthony Quinn style? At home, ruling the family, decisions? His wife? The other children? Victoria and her having gone to study? The family property, the grapes, the crushing, production? His suspicions of Paul? The chocolates? Gradually accepting him? Paul’s going, the return, the fire, despair and hope? The sketches of the other members of the family, the Hispanic background, style, patriarchy?
8. Betty, the war marriage, the breakdown, another man, her sadness in breaking with Paul, the divorce?
9. The presentation of people in the town, their way of life, in the house, communal, the extended family, meals? The codes of honour, pregnancies, marriage? The pressures on Paul and Victoria? The experience of the fire, the extent of its devastation? The build-up to the future?
