El sueño de Arizona

Yugoslavian director Emir Kusterica is most well known for his critically acclaimed international films like "Time of the Gypsies" and "Underground"(1995). He did one English language film in Ameica. The film "Arizona Dream" is a highly underrated film that people have seem to forgotten. Which is a shame, since it has an amazing cast of well known actors like Johnny Depp, Vincent Gallo, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis and Lili Taylor. Jonny Depp plays Axel a young twenty something dreamer. In the beginning of the film he has a dream about an Eskimo family. He works at a dock cleaning fish and often drifts away from reality to dreams. Him and his friend Paul (Vincent Gallo) drive to Arizona to visit Axel's uncle Mr. Sweetie (Jerry Lewis)who's a car salesman. I must say Depp and Lewis make a great comic duo. Axel and Paul end up staying with the wealthy Elaine Stalker and her suicidal daughter Grace (Lili Taylor). Axel starts dating Mrs. Stalker, but at the same time has strange feelings for her daughter. The film is very surreal and dreamlike. Mrs. Stalker obsessively dreams of flying, so her and Axel build a flying machine that resembles a Right Brothers style airplane. It's hilarious when the plain repeatedly malfunctions. There's also a floating fish throughout the movie, turtles, an attempted pantie hose suicide and a weird sex scene where Jonny Depp crows like a rooster (must be seen to be believed). Warner Bros. felt that the film was too European. So the film collected dust on their shelf and had a poor limited release. The film does have a magic-realist tragi-comedy style like Emir Kusterica's other Eastern European films. Co writer David Atkins later went on to write the screenplay for Novacaine. Also producer Claudie Ossard has also helped produce other bizarre films like "City of Lost Children". "Arizona Dream" is a quirky and strange masterpiece. Track down a VHS copy, or better yet the 20 minute longer international version. It's quite a cult sensation in Europe.

They say that "Arizona Dream" is Kusturica's best work because it is American, well, it's not that American despite it was filmed there and probably is about the American dream, it is just a story of people's lives, like in all Kusturica's films, and it's just a great work of a great film director, not depending on geographical factors. The characters aren't sexy lady journalists or successful businessmen , they are those who we call usual people - but no one in the world is usual for we aren't made at a factory, and daily routine is much more interesting, and much more humane then any sci-fi-hi-tech-futuristic stuff. all the characters are a bit crazy and so is everything around. There's some magic in there , and something tragic, and everyone's little private dreams, useless and sweet , and relations between people which seem to be one thing but are absolutely another, though the people tied by them may never notice them or never admit, and love all the way through.

This is the film of Kusturica that I like less, and still it tells what a fine film maker he is.

Pay attention to the year it was made. 1993 was a year of war in the series of wars that lead to the disappearance of former Yugoslavia. With his country split in pieces that were fighting one another Kusturica traveled to the US, took with him his team of musicians, the genial Bregovic, and tried to do an American film. What resulted is a more a Kusturica film than an American one, despite of the American team of actors and of the landscape where the story happens.

Yet, it is not one of his best. Emir did not really resonate with the American reality. There are many beautiful scenes in this film, from the flying fish to the emergency medical car taking off to the sky with a dead soul inside. The film also enjoys superb acting from Johnny Depp, painfully young and handsome at his first major role after Edward Scissorhands, Faye Dunaway mature and yet so beautiful, and Jerry Lewis probably in his last great role. The problem is that the story is much too thin for a 140 minutes film, and that many of the tricks that work so well in Kustirica's Balkan movies do not pay off too well here. The film is simply too long, the story is not interesting enough, and despite the many beautiful moments the film leaves the impression it is too long and boring at some instances.

Soon after making this film Emir Kusturica return to his tragic and torn up country to make one of his masterpieces, 'Underground' a reflection on the whole history of Yugoslavia in the last half of century. 'Life is a Miracle' was to follow a few years later. There are film makers like Polanski whose move to the West succeeded and they became as big or bigger creators there as they were in their native countries. Some other are destined to make their great movies only in their local ambiance and relating to the stories and history they know too well. Kusturica may be one of these, which does not make him a lesser creator, quite the opposite.

After watching Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and Fredrick Thor Fredrickson's Cold Fever I knew that there was going to be a great pairing of acting abilities. This, of course, being that of Johnny Depp and Lili Taylor I was not disappointed. The film, at first, absorbs the viewer into a translucent though engaging tale of exploration into the mind and soul. This makes the viewer belive momentarily that the film that they are watching is going to be fanciful and mystic. Hence there at first is no bond between the characters and the Viewer. However, reality becomes less and less of a point or actuality in the film as it paces through the lives of the characters centering on Johnny Depp's charecter. An ifinitity is subconsiously drawn with him as we watch. Faye Dunnaway, who, at first, seemed utterly mis-cast is brilliant, her potrayal of the pre-menopausal cradle-snatcher is brilliant. Jerry Lewis also makes the film great as gritty realism exists in wealth. It feels like there is a piece of everyone in it, there is depression, love, life and death and the exploration of time. Although the film seems like a dream on celluloid it also makes the viewer understand and more importantly empathise with the charecters and at the end the sadness is alleviated by the theme of life, that life goes on, almost in circles. To anyone who has not yet been seriously touched by a film, watch this. It might change you're mind. 10/10 p.s. Watch for the balloon scene at the beginning!

It's very rare that I see a movie that is truly, in all aspects, perfect.

For example, while The Princess Bride ranks pretty high on my list of movies I'd want to spend the rest of my life watching, I fully realize that the camera angles and special effects of that movie are just plain bad. And while Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas gets a perfect 10 from me, it still completely lacks plot. And so on.

Arizona Dream, however, is different.

The last movie I saw that was truly, in all aspects, perfect was Dog Day Afternoon, a 1975 true story starring Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon. For the longest time, it's been my obsession, my movified bible, everything other movies should aspire to be. And as of today, Dog Day Afternoon finally has competition in my personal top ten: Emir Kusturica's masterpiece very near surpasses Lumet's vision of captivating dialogue, insane details, and dodgy man-groping.

Let's change the subject for a bit. Do you know the scene in Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys, where Bruce Willis is in his cage, and a hamster is running inside a wheel in the corner? Don't say yes, because you don't. It's inaudible. It's impossible to see. But it's there. Kusturica, much like Gilliam, is willing to make his world more detailed than your wildest dreams. His backgrounds are filled with symbolism and surrealism, his dark corners filled with soft puppies. And like Gilliam, he can make you cry with laughter, your only worry in the world being, 'how will I remember all these great quotes in the morning?'

But unlike Gilliam, Kusturica has the power to, barely a scene after the happy happy joy, make you sit there in stunned silence, your number one worry in the world being, 'how will I get my brain to understand the sheer tragedy that is unfolding here?'. Your will find yourself thinking, 'how do I get my mind to comprehend how perfectly this music fits the dialogue?'. Your eyes will follow the camera angles, the expressions of the insanely lovable characters, the many things happening in foreground and background-and you know, you just KNOW, that you will have to watch the movie again, and again, and again.

If you're a fan of movies such as Big Fish and Amélie, movies about people finding happiness and warmth in a world of surreal ambition, Arizona Dream will be your next obsession. But even if you think massive explosions and a grunting Bruce Willis are the only thing that can make a movie worth watching, you will still want to give this movie a chance- for the 'explosions' it causes will far, far surpass anything you've EVER experienced before.

10/10.