Sunshine

Finally, a film that makes going to the movies worthwhile again. Directed by: Istvan Szab6 Written by: Istvan Szab6 and Israel Horovitz Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Molly Parker, Deborah Unger, William Hurt, James Frain, John Neville Where do they come from, these extraordinary films? Films that barely see the light of day in the U. S. yet are made with such sweep and passion that they put most American output to shame. They sneak in, skulk around for a while in "art house" theaters--where a few people lucky enough to live nearby may see them--then vanish without a trace, critical acclaim notwithatanding. Many of them come from overseas, so even people who have the opportunity to see them may stay away because they fear a case of Foreign Film Flu, the symptoms of which include: garbled sound in unintelligible languages made worse by bad subtitles, incomprehensible plots, gray, drab scenery; and--worst of all-- boredom. This is not to say that foreign films are better just because they are foreign. There are plenty of bad foreign films, but a film that makes it to America has already leaped over any number of hurdles, which tends to screen out a lot of the less deserving material.

The irony of all this is, of course, that movies which might actually restore one’s faith in moviegoing as a worthwhile activity ends up being missed by 99 per cent of the population. "Sunshine," (which was actually made in 1999), directed by Hungarian Istvan Szabo, is one of these films, and should lay to rest any preconceived notions about foreign movies. It is an all-English language production as technically accomplished as any American picture. It features a superb script, brilliant direction and cinematography, a great scone by Maurice Jarré, and a four-de-force performance by Ralph Fiennes. It comes complete with sex, violence, and action, and even boasts a few well-known American actors. Given these virtues, it seems troubling that fifty times as many people will see, say, "Gone in 60 Seconds." No doubt the fact that "Sunshine" is about something other than mindless thrills, that it treats the viewer as someone interested in more than two hours of air conditioning, will be its undoing. The movie follows three generations of a family of Hungarian Jews from the end of the 19th Century through the middle of the twentieth. This may sound like a tiresome history lesson, and the film's three-hour length may seem intimidating, but the time goes by effortlessly.

The picture constantly manages to engage and surprise us, taking its stories in unexpected directions. The Sonnenschein (which means sunshine) family lives through the major events of this period in history. Those events are depicted, of course, but the focus of the film is on the human interactions, and the way the characters affect one another. They cope with fear, lust, envy, shame, anger, and loss the way humans have for millennia. While "Sunshine" depicts the panoramic sweep of the first half of the twentieth Century, its focus on the individuals accomplishes the brilliant stroke of making these events resonate in the most personal way. At the center of it all is Fiennes, a superb actor, who takes on the daunting task of playing men in three successive generations of the family. Gimmicky? Perhaps, but it works. Fiennes does a brilliant job (he looks to me like an obvious contender for Best Actor Oscar). Having him play all three men keeps the lineage clear, yet he manages to make each of the three men distinct.

Ignatz Sonnenschein is a prominent lawyer and judge; his son Adam Sors (during the course of the film some family members change name and religion to further their ambitions) is a champion fencer; and Adam's son Ivan is a member of the Communist secret police, who, like all of his family, is eventually betrayed by the regime he serves. The movie takes a fatalistic view of political change; as Hungary moves from imperial monarchy to totalitarian fascism to Communism, and back again, nothing really changes at all. All of these governments subvert their ideals and principles to base power mongering, and what the movie shows with hand eyed clarity is the fact that when the oppressed take power, they rather quickly become oppressors themselves.

What the three generations of Sonnenschein men share is a gift for making poor political choices. Each--with the best of intentions--backs the horse that turns out, in the end, to be the wrong one, and they and their families suffer for it. It takes fifty years, but in the end, Ivan (from whose perspective the story is told), seems to be learning the bitter lesson. He is lost, adrift in the changing world, everything he had held sacred destroyed, his family gone. Yet there is perhaps a ray of hope--of sunshine--as the new world emerges from the rubble of the old, as he learns, finally, to breathe free. I have never seen any of Szabo's films (they are apparently mostly in Hungarian), but he is a director of great gifts. He has a tremendous eye; the picture is gorgeous to look at, and its recreations of the past seem flawless. He can stage a scene that is literally only a few seconds long, yet which tells an entire story. Such economy is in short supply in the movie world, but it enables "Sunshine" to tell an enormous story covering a huge span of time and still maintain a manageable perspective.

It takes a few moments to get into the flow of the film, but once you do, once you feel its rhythms, you are swept up in the current, and the three hours go by in a flash. (It is truly amazing to contrast this with pictures that cover events lasting 12 hours but which put you to sleep before they are half over.) The picture also uses a voiceover narration (by Fiennes), and for once this technique pays off, because it helps us follow the lineage of the family and the political implications of the events that are portrayed. Although it concerns itself with matters of political philosophy, duty, honor, tradition, faith, and ambition, "Sunshine" is anything but a dry historical document. It is first and foremost a human drama of the most personal sort. It is easy to forget, in this age of X-Men and Hollow Men, that it is still possible to make a splendid and involving film about nothing more than real humans and real human experiences. With nary a computer-generated alien or a futuristic costume in sight, "Sunshine" reminds us that the effect that people have on each other is the most special effect of all. (8/6/2000)