Tale of Two Sisters

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Tale of Two Sisters" is an experimental feature combining improvised conversations with surreal imagery. Commercial prospects are nil, but a small cult following could be developed.

Filmmaker uses a basic storyline of two adult siblings, Valerie Breiman and Claudia Christian, having a reunion after five years and mulling over their childhood and unresolved mutual resentments.

Upon this he overlays, in the shredded footage manner not used often in American films since Henry Jaglom's 1971 "A Safe Place", memories and nightmarish or surreal images to illustrate the women's feelings. Unfortunately, some of Adam Rifkin's imagery smacks of the usual film student's fondness for Fellini, particularly "8-1/2".

More damaging to the film's overall impact is the frequent appearance of Dee Coppola as the girls' mom. Her huge breasts and grotesque makeup create a silly figure at odds with what the women say about their family life as kids.

Christian does best at improvising anecdotes and her true feelings, while pretty younger sister Breiman comes off as mannered and phony without a script to rely on.

Rifkin delivers some interesting photographic effects, particularly in brief black & white sequences, while voiced-over poetry by Charlie Sheen adds another dimension to the footage and should spur curiosity to see this offbeat film.

Claudia Christian is always awesome, but this movie is more than a little disturbing.

But I expected that...From the images I see on the box and from what I've heard about Adam Rifkin (not to mention Charlie Sheen, upon whose poetry the film was based), I was actually afraid to watch the film!

But I'm glad I did. True...parts of the film are disturbing, frightening, and very, VERY nasty...

However, if you can get past all that, it was very well done.

What's AWESOME is that it was all improvised. They actresses were given a basic idea and maybe a little bit of character profile and they made up the rest! Knowing that, as you watch the film, you'll see it is highly impressive.

And of course, you will see for yourself that Claudia Christian IS AWESOME!!!

This is the kind of movie that gives independent filmmaking a bad name. An amateurish, pretentious mess mixing angsty drama a la Bergman and surrealistic imagery a la Fellini (my apologies to the masters for mentioning them here). We are asked to sit through 90 minutes of two uninteresting, very nasty sisters talking their heads off about their unhappy childhood caused by their very creepy, comic book parents. Every recrimination cliche is thrown in, and the surreal asides do absolutely nothing but bring needless and meaningless visual chaos to the film. The film just sort of expires at the end, having run completely out of gas. A true endurance test.

Wow! This spectacular film was entirely improvised. Adam Rifkin is a creative genius. Multi-talented Charlie Sheen's poetry is wonderfully unique. I listen and marvel. "Blackjack parallel, the city filled with gold. A preacher watches from the cell, no chance to break the mold." "Black and blue lunchbox drools pasta freely. Frozen bacon pie suffering from the heat cries out in a siren of pork." "Division of purity, the absence of dismissal...youthful hearts aware, not soon forgetting the power of twilight on the final day." One of a kind visuals. Facinating movie.

Gorgeous Valerie Breiman plays Phylis ("Rabble rouser. Call me 'Phyl'. Dress so dark; won't take the pill.). She has come to visit her only sister, Elisabeth, whom she was recently out of communication with for 6 years. Elisabeth, or "Lizzy" ("Lovely Lizzy, sign that check. Those diamonds hang from your throttled neck."), played by beautiful Claudia Christian, lives in a mansion with servants, married to a wealthy frenchman whom we do not see and are not told where he is (out of town on business? Away visiting France?). Through the dialogue and flashbacks, we learn that the two sisters grew up in a dysfunctional home with their villianous mother and longsuffering dad that strained their sibling relationship and and is still hurting them as individuals. Both girls, now young women, have grown up to be, in many aspects, too much like "Mom" and out of touch with their own identities.

We listen (and, in between, watch the creative interpretations and listen to Charlie's awesome poetry) to both sisters talk it all through and try to work it all out. Terrific supporting cast. Everybody delivers a memorable performance.

This movie is completely unscripted except for the "poetry" of Charlie Sheen. This movie will also make you thankful for screenwriters as well as kill an hour and a half of your life that you can never get back. Avoid.