Shy People

I agree with the previous poster that Shy People has definitely fallen through the cracks. It is haunting, and sometimes even a bit hard to watch. However the performances by Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey and the supporting cast are awesome. Ever been to the bayou? I spent two years in Lousiana and explored the landscape every chance I got. I have to say that this film probably captures that life better than any I've ever seen. The clash between that isolated world, seemingly cut off from the rest of society, and that of Jill Clayburgh's classy New York existence is fascinating. On the surface, these two families have absolutely nothing in common, and yet, they somehow have a profound affect on one another. Since this film isn't on DVD, it can be hard to find. However if you do, don't miss it. It's one that tends to stay with you for a while afterward which seems to rarely happen these days.

Beautiful photography of the Louisiana bayou and excellent performances by Barbara Hershey and the rest of the cast make for a gripping drama. Criticised by some for being melodramatic, this film is more than a comparison of the city and country life. It is also surely an analogy by director Konchalovsky for the Soviet Union progressing through harsh but effective tyranny to a more uncertain and questionable "freedom".

This movie is for all the people who were enthralled by Runaway Train and wondered what happened to its director. Well, he eventually made Tango and Cash; which has its time and place, but he also made this bonafide work of greatness. It isn't a kinetically fierce work of cinema like Runaway Train, but there is so much else here for the viewer to mull over. A character driven story where none of the characters are wholly endearing, but all of them are vulnerable and forgiveable. While the movie grips you with its stark examination of colliding cultures, it never for a moment lets you forget that everyone involved is a real person.

This is one of my favorite movies. Barbara Hershey is awesome. The portrayal of the bayou is very realistic, claustrophobic, eerie, and downright real. It's kind of a feminine Deliverance. I'm glad I saw this when it came out as it is hard to find now--not on DVD. Definitely worth it. Should have been up for a few Oscars. Why can't it be out on DVD? This is an important film also in that it shows there is more drama to the swamp as landscape that one would think with all the swamp creature movies out there. Yes, there really are creatures in the swamp, but there are also people, just like us. The brothers are also great and the cinematography is stupendous.

The film evoking Bunuel's Tristana for its unconditional love of characters, embracing all their qualities as they are without judgment. It's a film about mystery of love, the heart, mind and soul colluding with the rationalization of the mind, or more precisely the mystery of the spirit vs the rationalization of an ego, represented by two different worlds and people coming together, learning from one another and becoming all the more whole at the end. A mystical lyrical film that is more about the meaningful poetry of images rather than the story, Andrei Konchalovsky's cinema always seemed to me reminiscent particularly of Dostojevsky's work of literature, focusing on the human soul, works like The Idiot can come to mind often, such an exploration in this film is beautiful and marvelous, unique in a way that has no comparison in the history of cinema. As a film it does remind me of his other memorable works (House Of Fools, Nest For The Gentry or The Postman's White Nights). Konchalovsky has once said that "Cinema is ruthless because it's too specific, the task of the director in the cinema is to leave space for imagination."

For me Shy People is perfect example how to do a film that has no clear message, it leaves it up to an audience to find them for themselves, to find connections, to see what their heart, mind and soul guide them to see and feel.