http://www.susangranger.com/
Susan Granger's review of "LEFT LUGGAGE" (Trident Releasing)
Set in Belgium in 1972, this Dutch film explores the emotional journey of Chaja Silberschmidt, a Jewish, yet thoroughly assimilated, 20 year-old student (Laura Fraser). Her parents are Holocaust survivors who seem, to her, obsessed with the past. Her father (Maximilian Schell) spends his time digging all over Antwerp to find two large suitcases that he buried when he fled from the Nazis; they contain his violin, family silver and photographs. Meanwhile, her mother (Marianne Sagebrecht), in denial, compulsively weaves a blanket and makes pound cake. Since she's in need of rent money, a family friend (Chaim Topol) finds Chaja a job as a nanny to five children in a Hasidic family, headed by Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rossellini) who teaches her about orthodoxy. Though initially intolerant of the seemingly pointless traditions and strict rules under which the family operates, Chaja bonds with the youngest child, Simcha (Adam Monty), a five-year old, who refuses to speak, ! much to the chagrin of his formidable father (Jeroen Krabbe).
The culture clash and survivor-guilt concept comes from Carl Friedman's novel, "The Shovel and the Loom," adapted by Edwin De Vries. In interviews, director Jeroen Krabbe revealed that he was attracted to the story, meaning both emotional and literal baggage, because he came from a mixed (Jewish-Gentile) marriage and was, for many years, unaware of his own family's wartime travail. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Left Luggage" is a sensitive, somber 7, although I suspect it's more suited to video or cable TV than the big screen. And, if you're curious about Hasidic tradition, I recommend Boaz Yakin's "A Price Above Rubies" (1998), starring Renee Zellweger as an unhappy Hasidic housewife who yearns for liberation.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews