Genres

Visitors Review

2013-05-15 23:35:28

a moving romantic tradegy for the modern day greeks!

I saw this film a few years ago and have ever since been trying to find it again. It is touching in the most strangest way and the moment i finshed watching it i started again. It is wonderfully moving and deffinately worth a watch.

2013-05-15 01:20:05

Excellent!

This movie is about one of those cruel story that life has! Love, beauty, passion, and a very hard and catastrophic crash! You will love the scenery, the actors, their acting, the love, the drama, simply stated a great story. I saw it a long time ago and I waited all this time for it to come in DVD!

Jim 2013-05-12 00:51:15

Relax and watch the movie.

Never mind the violent plane crash deaths, bloody suicide, venomous snakeattack, and other undisclosed disturbing subject matter. You won't mind oreven seem to notice with the relaxing vacation-like mood the movie createsalong with Sam Shepherd's cool 'whatever' attitude. This film followsWalterFaber on a relaxing voyage of air and sea around the world as he fatefullykeeps stumbling into people that are somehow connected to his ex-fiancé,Hannah.The film will reach a point where you will understand what has happened,thereby even the climax is rendered anti-climactic. But don't worry aboutthat. Just Sit back, relax, and enjoy the movie. All I can say is thatHannah has information that would have best been disclosed from the get-go(trust me), and that Julie Delpy is very sexy!

robert-temple-1 2013-05-11 14:36:30

Perhaps the saddest love story of the 1990s

This is an extremely moving and tragic tale of hopeless love between amiddle-aged man and a young girl, who ultimately discover that they arereally father and daughter. Such situations do arise. Many stories areknown of brothers and sisters, and less frequently, of fathers anddaughters, who have been separated all their lives, meet when adult,fall in love and even marry. It is because they are irresistibly drawnto each other for reasons they do not comprehend, and they have nopreviously existing incest taboo. In fact, it would be more usual thannot for such a couple to end up in love. This story is taken from thenovel HOMO FABER, published in 1957, by the famous Swiss author andplaywright Max Frisch (1911-1991). Several grumpy reviews have beenwritten by people complaining that the film is not sufficientlyfaithful to the original novel. Films rarely are, and we just have toget used to that. The only time a novel was perfectly translated to thescreen was in the case of that work of genius, THE FOUNTAINHEAD (1949),where the novelist Ayn Rand not only wrote the screenplay but was giventotal creative control, overriding even King Vidor as director, and wasable to choose her own leading man (Gary Cooper) as well. Butotherwise, it has never happened. As someone who has not read Frisch'snovel, I am free of the angst which so assails the distressed reviewerswho have. The film is made magical by the performance of the enchantingJulie Delpy, who at that age had stepped straight off a canvas byBotticelli. She achieves shadings of mood and emotion of infinite hue,and shows a true genius, whether it be purely instinctive or by design,but it was impossible for me to watch this, even for the second time,without being spellbound at what she brings to the screen. Perfectlycast as her father is Sam Shepard, though he is annoying for tworeasons: first, that he never takes his hat off indoors, which issimply infuriating, and second, that despite being supposed to beSwiss, he cannot pronounce the name Joachim properly. Those two sinsare hard to forgive. Otherwise he is splendid. But the main credit forthis dazzling creation must go to the director, the brilliant VolkerSchlöndorff, who has achieved a true work of art. Delpy's mother isplayed by Barbara Sukowa, who is a very famous actress in Germany,despite her Polish name. She is always fascinating. In this film,however, she is required to play an extremely irritating character, soshe is far from sympathetic. But she does it very well. Shepard gotSukowa pregnant when they were young, but she hysterically over-reactedwhen she imagined him to be marrying her without sufficient enthusiasm,and walked out on him just before the wedding and disappeared. She thenmarried a man she didn't love and gave birth to Delpy who ended upfatherless because Sukowa left the man anyway. The whole tragedy wasthus caused by Sukowa's headstrong and irrational behaviour. Twenty-oneyears later, Shepard meets Delpy on an ocean liner and they areirresistibly drawn to one another. He fights it but she is determinedthat she loves him, and who could resist Delpy, then or now? So lovehappens. They slowly make their way to Athens where Delpy's mother isworking as an archaeologist, and just before they get there it becomesclear that Delpy is Sukowa's daughter, but Shepard still does not knowwhether she is really his daughter yet. Then a tragedy occurs. Delpy isbitten by a horned viper (I didn't know they had them in Greece, Ithought they only had adders, but I must be wrong), and there is adesperate attempt by Shepard to get her to hospital and save her life.At this point Sukowa turns up. She is extremely unfriendly to poorShepard, before she even realizes there is any reason to be. They bothworry together about Delpy and Sukowa confirms that she is really hisdaughter, so the tragedy of his love for her becomes unescapable. Delpysurvives the snakebite but further tragic events unfold, and things getsadder still. I shall not reveal more. This is a long and deeplyengrossing film, made by a master, perfectly cast, and infinitely sad.What really makes it such a classic is the angelic waiflike quality ofDelpy. She really is unique in the cinema, and now she is also adirector, producer, editor, and composer as well. She did all that for2 DAYS IN Paris (2007, see my review). So she is a phenomenon. But asan actress, this film is one of her greatest achievements, perhaps thefinest.

2013-05-09 21:39:34

Machinery of fate undoes a technologist

If you can forgive a film based upon obvious coincidences to voyage into a regretful past,and a film maker who's prepared to take on a challenge,this is for you.Faber(Shepherd)had fallen out in his youth with the first woman he loved and deserted, Hannah(Sukowa)due to her becoming pregnant and him offering her marriage for `your baby'. Furious,Hannah instead marries their best friend Joachim. Faber is unable to work with feelings and emotions only probabilities. But fate intervenes when he meets a German,Henke,the brother of Joachim.They become stranded in the Mexican desert by a plane crash.Henke takes him to see his own best friend in the jungle,but find Joachim has committed suicide.Seeing this movie 20 years ago stayed with me until I bought the DVD to relive again that experience. Based upon a novel Homo Faber by Max Fritsch.What I remember most was the world-weary nature of Walter,his detachment from and control of nature and the environment,as a globe-trotting engineer,whose world view based on logic,probability, and technology is challenged when he falls victim to fate, or a series of incredible coincidences. Walter narrates with voiceover.We view the world and other characters through Walter's eyes.The freshness and spontaneity of Julie Delphy creates the innocence of Sabeth. Walter falls in love with this young girl he sees by chance,he catches the flick of her pony-tail in his cine-camera on board a ship crossing from America to France.She loves the arts,reads Camus and the existentialists.She wants to see ancient civilizations. The film captures the moment of falling in love well. Faber is concerned about Sabeth hitch-hiking to Italy,so he takes her by car.They make love in a motel,leading down a spiral to the destruction of the life of his own daughter.The tragedy is themes of incest are mixed in with Walter's rebirth as a romantic believer.Although aspects of the movie come across as far-fetched because the viewer cannot benefit from the additional information available to the reader of the book.However the movie has a grandeur and sweep,great acting superb camerawork,the movie brings across the immediacy of the tragic events much closer to home and resonate with a receptive audience. The novel and this movie try to show that life cannot be reduced to a simple formula and that the mind is not equipped to deal with the matters of the heart.The film moved me by its globe-trotting finesse and its un-Hollywoodised glamour.Sabeth's image is relived in Faber's cine-film, a film within a film.The 50s ambience is beautiful,the Oedipal tragedy at its heart heart-breaking.This opened up world cinema for me.

moonsofjupiter28 2013-05-09 04:48:36

Not faithful to the book

In comparison with the book, the film is in a scale from 1 to 10 a 3.On a good day a 5. In my opinion, for someone who has read the book andanalysed it, it will be easy to see all the awful flaws in thecharacters interpretation and actions. The hole set is nicely developedand explored, but a few details (in Hanna's apartment for example)don't actually match with the characters personality. The book has ahigh quantity of symbols and metaphors and they are almost not shown inthe film at all. The importance of small details like Walter constantlyshaving in the book is superficially explored in the movie. Walter'sdisgust to Nature isn't shown at all! I think the movie could be moreexciting. The plot has every spice it needed to be really great. Maybeif the actresses could have been better chosen, since Ivy is just toold, Hanna at the end just too young.. Only Sabeth fits perfectly intoher role. Congratulations to Julie Delpy, for once again performing sobeautifully. About Walter: Walter's interpretation of the role isunreal and unfaithful to the book. In the film Walter is a man full ofcharm, seductive and caring. Where is all the distance, cold-heartinessof the book's character..? The control-freak, the workaholic character?While having sex with Ivy, Walter usually thinks about planes andturbines, but in the movie he is an amazing lover. Hanna's importancein Walter's love life is also not given enough importance. In the bookwalter says that only with Hanna wasn't sex absurd. She was afterall,the true love of his life. The End of the film is an open ending, inthe book Walter eventually dies with Cancer, after a huge change in hisvision of the world. His relation towards nature totally mutates. Hebecomes a different man. Important details such as symbols that warnWalter about Sabeth's death (and his own death as well) are inexistentin the film.But in an overall, and ignoring the fact that i've read the book by MaxFrisch.. I've rated the film with 6 points, knowing how old it is, andhow the budget might have been, it's a nice Sunday-afternoon film, thatlet's you reflect about destiny.

2013-05-04 03:00:13

a movie worth watching 1000 times

it moved me soooooooooooooo much~ u must see!!

b-gaist 2013-05-03 19:25:44

Understated but very good

I saw this when it came out. All I can say, is I still remember thebasic plot, and the cinematography. Walter Faber is paradigmatic as thepost WWII individual, still blindly devoted to the goddess of Reason inhis personal attitude to life, but beset by the unconscious flood ofirrational experience: a real example of Carl Jung's warning that whatis not made conscious will be lived out as destiny. It is overall awonderful, understated film, beautifully directed and shot,representing in a gentle way what European directors (and alldirectors) should concentrate more on - literature, myth, relationship,culture. It's only fault, if I recall correctly, was that it was notlonger and deeper, because it really could have been a great film. Goahead and watch it!

2013-04-16 07:52:52

Better off reading the book

The book by Max Frisch (Homo Faber), latin for "Man the Maker", is the way to go here. Frisch was an existentialist, not a Buddhist, as someone earlier asserted. It is the story of modern man who believes in instrumental reason and has trouble with romantic or subjective feelings. Great book that can't really be made into an effective movie.

shu-fen 2013-04-15 09:49:53

Keep travelling around and leave no memory, no trail...

Film helps the sales of a book but seldom vice versa. Not until today Igot to know that Max Frisch was so famous and valued in Germany, thoughheavy European style can be sensed. In town, amongst all the public anduniversity libraries, we can only have three worn-out copies (Englishtranslation) in total. The last read date perhaps is 1960, who knows?Sorry, we are not into the book. If it's not the movie, no one herewould know who Frisch is. Gotta read the book to see what it's actuallyabout.I like beautiful things. Beautiful scenery of so many countries betweenEurope and South America, lovely love story, beautiful Julie, stillhunky Tom, Greek tragedy, why not? When I watched this in 1991, I feltso happy to see young Julie's sweet smiles and the reverse oedipalexpression. Even the Chinese name is tantalizing, "A Glassy Rose":something pretty, smooth and shiny but fragile, just like therelationship amongst Walter, Hannah and Sabeth.Walter is a chaser, he got lots to do one after one, one after oneuntil his heart was fateful hitched tight by a young girl. Voyagershould be without legs, they should keep flying on because once theystop and tread on the ground, that would be lethal.

2013-04-14 01:21:38

A review of the film HOMO FABER

This review is from: Voyager ( Homo Faber ) ( Taxidiotis, O ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ] (DVD) The film Homo Faber is based upon the classic bestseller book by the same name written by the Swiss writer Max Frisch and adapted for the screen by screenwriters Rudi Wurlitzer and Volker Schløndorff with Schløndorff as director. The story of Homo Faber, meaning "the man who creates his own destiny" begins in 1957 but make convincingly flashbacks in sepia tone to the war years in Zurich Switzerland where Faber meets the young Jewish girl Hannah and fall in love with her. Hannah gets pregnant with Faber, tells him about the good news and discovers to her disbelief that Faber sees the pregnancy as very inconvenient to him now that he has received a tempting business proposal to head the building of a hydro electric dam in one of the third world countries. Hannah gets an emotional chock and rejects Faber from the bottom of her heart. In anger and disappointment she now turns to Joachim (played by August Zirner) a common student friend of theirs for support and he marries the pregnant Hannah. (But Faber does not know this then)With a psychological thriller-like opening the story has set the tragic undercurrent which runs through the rest of the film like a dark river.The role of Faber is genuinely well played by the American actor Sam Shepard. Faber is a man of sciences who believes only in what is calculable and rational, he distrusts emotions and those things happening by chance.On a flight from Caracas, Venezuela to New York Faber's plane has to ditch down in the Mexican desert due to fire in two of the plane's four propeller engines. While in the Mexican desert Faber coolly opens his travel typewriter and sits down to write a letter of goodbye to his old New York girl friend Ivy (played with conviction by Deborah-Lee Furness). One of the fellow (and surviving) passengers is Herbert Henche (played by Dieter Kirchlechner) who happens to be the brother of Joachim from the student days in Zurich. Henche tells Faber that Joachim now owns a tobacco plantation in Central America and Faber decides to join him. Together they travel back to Central America to find Joachim. On arrival they sadly discover that Joachim has taken his own life. Upon returning to New York Faber is surprised to know that his old flame Ivy has created a special welcoming dinner for two in his apartment (she had a spear key) and she pushes Faber to make a commitment to her. This however is Faber's worst nightmare and he flees. He instantly books a ticket on a passenger ship headed for France. On board Faber meets the young and exciting woman Sabeth (played charmingly by Julie Delpy) and is instantly attracted to her. They fall in love and Faber offers to drive her to Rome where she will study art. In Italy they live out their romance among beautiful buildings and art. But now the dark undercurrent in the theme forces its way through and in a chocking revelation Faber now discovers that Sabeth is actually his daughter with Hannah, the unborn child he once, according to Hannah, "found inconvenient" to have and rejected. With an ugly twist of faith Faber takes Sabeth with him to Greece for a hollyday; it will prove to be their last together. Sabeth dies abruptly; Faber by chance meets Hannah again, also in Greece. There is a brief, but dark reunion between them as Hanna learn about Faber's involvement with Sabeth, their common child.The film Homo Faber is a fiest for the eyes, beautifully shot in many countries on three continents. With stunning sceneries like the ones of the four engine air plane, the wide fields in Italy and inside the Louvre Museum in Paris, just to mention a few. With his book Homo Faber, Max Frisch re-created a universal theme; the filmed version of the book extends this best seller to an even wider audience. Five shiny stars for a great tallent!

2013-04-13 13:59:30

Very good movie!

This review is from: Voyager [VHS] (VHS Tape) This is Sam Shepard's type of film, very well made, and ilegal love. Recommended.

lakeidamike 2013-04-10 10:45:51

Creepy

I thought this picture was nothing short of just plain creepy. I'venever read the book and doubt that I ever will. But the whole idea of aman through a series of accidents having intercourse with his daughteris pretty nauseating. The story line, as creepy as it is, is extremelyfar-fetched to the point of silliness. I felt as though I was watchingsomething almost as facile as "Somewhere in Time." One other point: ifa director is intent on making a movie set in another decade, in thiscase the late 50's, I wish he would take some care to watch over someof the small details. The street scenes in New York are full of modernday cars. Worse yet, there is a scene in which baseball scores areheard over a radio involving the Angels, the Blue Jays and theRoyals--none of which were major league teams in the time this story isset in.

2013-04-09 17:36:33

Thought provoking film

"Voyager" has the look and feel of a foreign film, yet its dialogue is in English (chiefly because of Sam Shepard's lead role). All the more to make it accessible to viewers of very though-provoking cinema. It starts out as a look at the 1950s man-of-science, played by Shepard. An engineer of dams on a UNESCO project, he quickly steps into a series of coincidences that circle tighter and tighter into his past. Along the way he meets a beautiful, innocent young girl (Julie Delpy) and a love story develops, neatly but deftly, aboard a steamer to France and a car trip through Europe to Greece. The film's themes are coincidence and the final reckoning of life's events, be they random or chosen. The sometimes dizzying effects of what we call "destiny" ring out loudly in "Voyager", perhaps too harshly at times, but with skillful scene cutting and casting, it manages to offer a sobering ending without being maudlin. As with most non-blockbuster films, the score is understated yet touching. Delpy is just right for her role as Sabeth, the fresh girl away on adventures, yet adds a touch of melancholy that some of today's Hollywood actresses lack. I wish she'd have skipped things like "American Werewolf in Paris". And Shepard plays Walter Faber with expert detachment. He's the older man, devoted to all things proven by technology, whose world comes apart as he tries to find love with Sabeth.

suzanneoxford 2013-03-28 22:33:49

Mesmerizing plot.

This is probably one of the best love stories I have ever seen becauseinevitably it is doomed. With a stellar cast and gorgeous scenery, themovie instantly grabs your attention. Sam Shepard as always gives anintriguing performance as Faber, a civil engineer traveling across theEurope. He has a dry wit and cynical sense of humor, seeming reluctantto make friends with his fellow passengers until he meets Sabeth playedby Julie Delpy. With her charm and outspoken personality, he is soondrawn to her. The passion of their love affair and strong physicalattraction makes this story all the more tragic as it unfolds. It isheartbreaking to witness the coolness and detachment which consumeFaber as the realization of who this woman really is, hits him. Ialmost cried to see how devastated Sabeth was at Faber's rejection ofher. This is a truly great performance and have always admired SamShepard as one of the great actors of our time. Julie Delpy does afantastic job portraying the young woman. Also her mother gives a goodperformance.I would highly recommend this film, but to a more mature audience whois not easily shocked.

2013-03-28 02:37:24

Julie Delpy and Sheperd's Beautiful and Shocking Journey .

Ever since Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, Julie Delpy had became probably my top 10 European actresses. I have already seen some of her earlier works including Three Colours: White, An American Werewolf in Paris, and listened to her self-titled Album. Recently, I am tring to watch more of her pre-famous movies, and I ended up seeing her in Voyager, a film she starred opposite veteran American actor Sam Sherpard, and she was probably just 20 years old in it, looking beautiful, fragile, and vulnerable. Like her fellow French actress Juliette Binoche, one of the Divas of Three Colours, also made a disturbing sexual and love film called Damage(Jeremy Iron) more than a decade ago, a film which was far too heavy-duty for me digest at the time, Voyager will no doubt leave a strong mark to her fans whether they like it or not.The story took place in the '50s, and it's the voyager of an American in Europe played by Sam Sheperd. In the begining, we see his flashbacks of some events and characters that involved him a few decades earlier. He meets a pretty young French girl(Julie Delpy) on a ferry, and they instantly established a strong conection that eventually lead to intimacy. Julie Delpy fell in love with him after a while without revealing enough details of her profile. The days and nights they shared were erotic, introspective, and happy, but the closer they got to each other, the shocking truth was inevitable to reveal itself to the unawared Shepard when he learned about her mother's identity, and the remain of the film's tone will be turned upside down from that moment on....Delpy's signature ability as seen here and Before Sunset is that she looks vulnerable and she acts that way perfectly, that's why she's so real and captivating. This is a hard and tragic role to play, and to some viewers it might be disgusting, but things like this(unintensional incest) do happen in real life. I don't think she was anymore unlikeable here than White where she played a nasty newly wed. Being a victim of an unawared circumstance is purely innocent. OK, so she has a thing for father-figure and goes for older men, that's her right to chose.Even though Sam Sheperd anchors this film from start to finish, and he was great especially near the end, it's Delpy who gave a more heartbreaking performance, and she was so young at the time!

a-cornlover_1988 2013-03-17 17:58:10

Frisch didn't deserve this

Schloendorff at his worst. All his movies are badly acted, awfullystaged and directed, but this adaptation of Max Frisch's fabulousclassic novel is just ... I can't even tell you HOW bad it was!!Schloendorf didn't understand the novel at all, he seemed to be morethan confused, and the actors! Poor Sam Shepard, poor Julie Delpy!Schloendorff hunts them through various (admittedly lovely) locations,lets them talk a lot and loses the paths of the author too often. Thismovie is no entertainment, it's not thought-provoking, it's just anassault on good taste. The only good thing about this movie is thetitle song sung by Ute Lemper, the jazz standard "Careless Love Blues".But for that it might suffice to buy the soundtrack. My, this movie isawful!

Michael Neumann 2013-03-17 04:14:01

a missed opportunity

A laconic engineer/adventurer, with a fear of chance and coincidence,courts both when he meets a young waif half his age who reminds him ofhis lost love, and not without good reason. The final surprise plottwist is telegraphed well in advance, but after a clumsy introduction,with too many flashbacks within flashbacks and odd, impulsive changesin scenery (Europe to South America to New York City), theglobetrotting story settles down into a haunting parable of memory andfate, showing how one can be forgotten but the other never avoided. Theonly other flaw to the film is Sam Shepard's annoying and unnecessaryvoice-over confession, which sounds as if it were added for the benefitof slow thinking American audiences. The narration spoils what couldhave been a minor romantic masterpiece; notice how much more enigmaticand involving the story becomes without it.

2013-03-13 17:22:21

Good film adaptation of a great book

Homo Faber is one of my all-time favorite novels. I was skeptical that the movie wouldn't live up to the book (despite the director and cast). But it turned out to be one of those rare movies that successfully captures the original spirit of the author. Great love story.

micheal 2013-03-13 12:55:43

Five Stars

I give Homo Faber 5/5, it captivates from the start. The movie is set insome beautiful places namely (France, Germany, South America and Italiancountryside)which does justice to its aka title "Voyager." A carefullystructured plot which unravels beautifully with a touch ofadventure,nostalgia and mystique. Sam Shepard really shines in this role.The rest of the cast is up to the job.