One From The Heart Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

A huge nostalgia trip

I saw this film shortly after it came out in 1983 - I was only 12 - and loved it. I had a huge crush on Nastassia Kinski afterwards and you can see why. I rented this out because I wanted to find out whether, 22 years later, I would like it so much. Well, the answer is probably no, it HAS dated terribly, but it's still an entertaining view and does not deserve all the smarmy cricisism it gets. It's one of those films that people love to hate, mainly because it was a flop - Francis Ford Coppola spent some 26 million dollars on it, and got back very very little. He spent so much money on rebuilding Las Vegas and still making it look as though it was painted by a child. Some of the scenery (particularly the mountains) is so unrealistic, you can almost see the lights bouncing off the cardboard mountain ranges! But this is surely part of its charm. For me, this film is only let down by the ending, which is not satisfactory - surely the wrong people end up getting together? you decide! The music by Tom Waits won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is really very cleverly scored, earning him an Oscar nomination for it in 1983 (eventually won by Henri Mancini and Leslie Bricusse for 'Victor/Victoria', incidentally). However, there are a couple of songs that certainly could have been Oscar contenders for best song, although unlikely any of them would have beaten the winning song from 'Officer and a Gentleman' - which even beat 'Eye of the Tiger' from Rocky III! Real fans of the score can, with this DVD, choose Language Option 3 (score only) and then by putting English subtitles you could listen to just the music, and know what is going on from the subtitles. A wonderful option to have on this release, hats must go off to the distributors for this.

This is a sweet and quirky film that is clearly a labour of love. Ms Kinski is divine, and you may be interested to find out (I only found out by listening to Coppola's commentary, which is on Language Option 2) that Kinski had no circus background or training at all - she couldn't do acrobatics, tightrope-walking, juggling, or any of the things she does around Hank's parked car. Such as shame she's not in the film for longer - unfortunately, she disappears like - she says - 'spit on a griddle'. What a wonderful line. Real fans of 80s kitsch, Tom Waits, or Kinski, will LOVE this film. Everyone else will despise every second.

Curious Coppola Vanity Project

Originally scheduled to be shot on a budget of $2 million, Coppolas neon-drenched 80's labour of love eventually spiralled to a cost of over $25 million due to the massive studio sets and ultra-complicated wiring and lighting designs. When final US box office receipts totalled less that $1 million Coppola faced financial and artistic ruin, and spent the remainder of his film-making career paying back the debts, before (seemingly) retiring to the safer prospect of overseeing a vast Californian vinyard.

In many ways the background story of 'One From The Heart' is considerably more interesting than the film itself. From a 21st Century perspective the stylised look of the film resembles nothing so much as an overblown 80's pop promo (in the style of Xanadu, but without the roller skating & ELO....)

Deliberate artificiality for it's own sake can be a wonderfully rich and fertile technique, and films like Fellini's 'And The Ship Sails On' or Jeunet & Caro's 'City Of Lost Children', for example, employ the same sound-stage bound production idea to create lavish and thrilling fantasies than could never have been shot in any other way.

The essential problem here is the very ordinariness of the proceedings. The two leads are both complete non-characters, never allowed to develop anything that might make the viewer care about their fates. The story is so cliche ridden, bland, predictable and lacking in drama that we know how things will turn out almost before the opening scene is over, whilst the painstaking recreation of real Las Vegas locations begs the question why Coppola didn't simply shoot on location instead.

Finally, given that this is a muscial, the songs are remarkably unmemorable and, indeed, hard to distinguish from one another, which is astonishing considering that it's semi-genius Tom Waits who wrote them all.

It's Still One From The Heart

It must be 20 years since I last saw this film and I'd even started to persuade myself that maybe it wasn't as great as I remembered – after all it was a real flop at the box office. But no. It really is a great film. Uterly gorgeous photography, stunning design, beautiful soundtrack by Tom Waits, great performances and a universal story of love and desire. The movie was Copolla's own One From The Heart – the film he sank everything into from his payday on The Godfather movies. And it's a triumph.

A truly beautiful tale.

Curious Coppola Vanity Project

Originally sceduled to be shot on a budget of $2 million, Coppolas neon-drenched 80's labour of love eventually spiralled to a cost of over $25 million due to the massive studio sets and ultra-complicated wiring and lighting designs. When final US box office receipts totalled less that $1 million Coppola faced financial and artistic ruin, and spent the remainder of his film-making career paying back the debts, before (seemingly) retiring to the safer prospect of overseeing a vast Californian vinyard.

In many ways the background story of 'One From The Heart' is considerably more interesting than the film itself. From a 21st Century perspective the stylised look of the film resembles nothing so much as an overblown 80's pop promo (in the style of Xanadu, but without the roller skating & ELO....)

Deliberate artificiality for it's own sake can be a wonderfully rich and fertile technique, and films like Fellini's 'And The Ship Sails On' or Jeunet & Caro's 'City Of Lost Children', for example, employ the same sound-stage bound production idea to create lavish and thrilling fantasies than could never have been shot in any other way.

The essential problem here is the very ordinariness of the proceedings. The two leads are both complete non-characters, never allowed to develop anything that might make the viewer care about their fates. The story is so cliche ridden, bland, predictable and lacking in drama that we know how things will turn out almost before the opening scene is over, whilst the painstaking recreation of real Las Vegas locations begs the question why Coppola didn't simply shoot on location instead.

Finally, given that this is a muscial, the songs are remarkably unmemorable and, indeed, hard to distinguish from one another, which is astonishing considering that it's semi-genius Tom Waits who wrote them all.

[Highly rated reviewer]

True Romance

There's love, and there's sex. There's what we want, there's what we have, and there's what we need. The reality of home, the simplicity and mundaneness of the domestic, is drowned out by the dazzle and electric brilliance of Las Vegas, in this heartfelt movie. Lovers Franny and Hank collided five years previous, now they're a couple balancing between 'in love' and 'loving'. She misses the fizz of newness, of excitement and adventure. He carelessly enjoys the home comfort of sharing a life. It's their anniversary, she buys them tickets to Bora Bora, he purchases the Deeds to their house. They break apart. What happens next is the movie. Counterpoint to Hank and Franny, there's the dueting of Tom Waites and Crystal Gail on the soundtrack, an integral part of the narrative. There's a constant symmetry at play, she has her best friend, he has his, she meets someone, so he meets someone, but the mirroring is skewed. They are always played for the individuals they are, not as halves of a whole - here, one and one is two.

The film was shot on the stages of Coppola's Zoetrope Studio. The camera shfts effortlessly about sets that blend in the manner of cut-aways, as transitions. Art direction is foremost, again integral to the narrative. Colours and objects tell the story as much as actors and script and song, and dance. You might call it 'heightened realism'. Not a date movie, not for newbies - it's a sofa-date for lovers well-embedded in each others' lives. A cross between the stories of Raymond Carver and the cinema of Baz Luhrmann.

Got to see it at last!

Strange that this was released to DVD so long after the film came out (and unfortunately bombed), but I'd been keen to see it after discovering the Tom Waits soundtrack many years back. Shot entirely in a studio with vast sums being spent on overblown sets, I must admit to being underwhelmed by the quality of acting (with the exception of Nastassia Kinski). Such is the brilliance of Waits's CD that you know the story without seeing the film, but to see it all put together into one package was a real treat. Perhaps those approaching it purely as a film (i.e. without knowing the Tom Waits/Crystal Gayle album) - as most presumably will - should give the soundtrack extra attention, as there are very few examples of a soundtrack being so much better than the film (another one is Paris, Texas by Ry Cooder).

Glorious failure

One of the great failures in Hollywood history, this is still worth a look. Coppola's reach exceeded his grasp, but any movie set in Vegas about doomed love and redemption, and scored by Tom Waits has to be worth a look!

so disappointing

Hard to believe that one of the world's greatest ever directors could come up with something so lame. The music is wonderful. The story is bilge.

What was I thinking in my tewnties?

I remember watching this film in the eighties and wiping away a small tear at the end. I loved it then and hated it now. I'm not sure whether that says anything about me; have I grown more cynical with age? No, I've just got better critical faculties.

Apart from the wonderful Tom Waits soundtrack (an interesting musical bridge between his jazz/blues of the 70s and his artsy dada cabaret sounds of the 80s to today) the film is really quite dreadful. Abysmally acted, scripted and directed with a pointless plot. The whole thing looks like some tacky piece of neon eighties disposable garbage.

Nostalgia can play strange tricks with memory. Avoid this film at all costs even if you thought it was amazing at the time. Believe me, the critics got it right on its initial release. Awful stuff.