Golden Door

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Golden Door

Released as 'Nuovomundo' in its native Italy - 'The New World' is taken, right? - Golden Door is the second film to reach these shores by Emanuele Crialese, the writer-director of Respiro.

Set at the turn of the twentieth century, it's a film about a family of illiterate Sicilian peasants coming to America, spurred on by doctored photographs of money growing on trees and chickens the size of donkeys.

They find passage on a great steam ship. Men and women are immediately separated, and such is the overcrowding the emigrants are literally sleeping on top of each other. Chief among the characters is Vincenzo Amato (Francesco Casisa) and his two sons, one of whom is a deaf-mute. Along with grandmother and two more villagers, they set off with minimal resources and vast expectations.

There isn't a great deal of plot, per se. Not only illiterate, they're taciturn too. But Amato catches the eye of a mysteriously stranded bourgeois woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and vice versa. She has a surprising proposal for him.

Arriving in Ellis Island the Sicilians find that getting into America is not such plain sailing as they had been led to believe. This is the film's third Act in effect, and the best. Anyone who's had tried to pass into Fortress America recently will certainly sympathise as Amato and his kin are subjected to a battery of physical and psychological tests.

That's all there is to it. Yet despite the familiarity of the journey, the unsentimental dignity the filmmaker accords his superstitious travelers commands our respect, and Crialese's handsome widescreen compositions and poetic imagination keep you rapt. The film was shot by Agnes Godard, whose work with the French director Claire Denis has made her one of the best cinematographers in the world. There's ample evidence to back up that assessment here.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com

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Critics' Reviews

Rating of 4
stars out of 5 Dave Calhoun, Time Out

The poster for this moving and poetic Italian film about Sicilian immigrants coming to America at the turn of the... read more on www.timeout.com

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how did anyone make it to america?

valkyrie from kent england , 19/09/2007

This is a beautiful, whimsical film which follows the seemingly interminable journey of a family of sicilian peasants from the wild hillsides of their homeland to the gates of Ellis island, and the american dream in all its sordid reality. 'Who do you think you are?' protests la nonna - an old healer woman and grandmother 'do you think you are god, to decide whether we are good enough or not to come into this new world of yours?'

While their dreams of giant vegetables, animals and fruit come crashing down around them, the would-be immigrants maintain a quiet dignity, to reach a world where things might just be better than what they left behind.

The photography is stunning, the soundtrack impeccable, and the gentle love story which runs lightly through is quite magical.

See it and be moved.

73 out of 79 people found this review helpful

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Brilliant

A customer from Edinburgh , 27/11/2007

Brilliant, subtle script. Doesn't feel like it's pushing buttons or patronising the viewer. Could be a stage play in its tightness. Spends some time developing wonderfully three-dimensional characters, not a maverick cop or weary FBI guy in sight!

Few sets, few characters and short timeframe, so not what I'd call an epic (I just mention as someone below seemed disappointed this 'epic' didn't have a crecendo!).

Also, yes it has subtitles. If you're one of those people who 'just doesn't like subtitles' then to be honest you might not like this film even if it were dubbed.

Golden Door

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