Julesecosse
Tis a classic story of forbidden love told throughout the ages from ancient Greece up to the present day.I enjoyed it as much as it goes, with excellent performances from the cast. I would have liked to have seen more of the young theatre talent Shannon Tarbet, who plays the initial girlfriend of the protagonist.I thought that to update it for the modern audience an odd plot twist would have been good, especially for the men who might find this story somewhat ponderous.A must for those who like Jane Austen, male viewers may fall asleep!
Nina Berry
Perfect costuming and set decor. Alan Rickman is splendid and Rebecca Hall has won me over. But. The camera-work is negatively strange and distracting at times. The sudden zoom ins and (tragically trendy) shaky cam, not my cup of tea. I wish my remote control had a stabilizer button.
diisdesigns10
I watched this film and was anxious to see a period piece set in Germany pre WWI but it never quite got off the ground. There is no chemistry between the two lovers. The male lead is not somebody a wife would fall in love with even if he is there all the time. He had no personality. He does not make her laugh, is not all that great with the son and offers no sex appeal. Rickman offers the only acting spark. It would have been interesting to see more of what Germany was like leading up, during and after the defeat of the war. Would make for such wonderful material both in plot and theme. A feeble attempt was made to stir up the politico in a scene close to the end where there is an aggressive street demonstration with people wearing swastikas. The Nazi party did not come into existence at the time the film depicts (end of war 1918). The DAP which was the predecessor of the Nazi party came into being in 1919 but it was not known enough for a street demonstration in 1918 and not with Nazi swastikas. These are simple facts I found online. I would not have researched had there not been that street demonstration scene with swastikas. It was totally out of place for the rest of the film. There should have been more of these types of scenes as there were riots in Germany in 1916 because of shortages in fuel and food. The film totally missed the effects the war had on the German people. The kiss at the end was as passionless as the whole lifeless movie.
gradyharp
A PROMISE is an exquisitely beautiful very quiet film based on Stefan Zweig's novel 'Journey Into The Past', sensitively transformed into a screenplay by writer/director Patrice Laconte (Monsieur Hire, The Hairdresser's Husband, The Widow of Saint-Pierre, Intimate Strangers etc) and co-writer Jérôme Tonnerre (Intimate Strangers, Un Coeur en Hiver, My Father's Glory etc). The story is enhanced in the film version so well because of the cast of fine actors and because of the atmospheric, very important musical score by Gabriel Yared.Staying very close to Zweig's novel, the story is set in Germany just before WWI and is centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's protégé. Separated first by duties and then by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another. Young Friederich Zeitz Richard Madden) has humble origins, but rises to the attention of his new boss, Karl Hoffmeister (Alan Rickman). Karl is aging and suffers from severe heart disease and his impression of Friederich's brilliance grows steadily. As he volunteers to tutor his employer's son Otto (Toby Murray), he gets more and more attached to Karl's young wife Lotte (Rebecca Hall). She refuses however to betray her husband even when they learn Friedrich must go to Mexico for two years to supervise a mining project for Karl. Friedrich and Lotte swear one another they will stay true to each other, but the oncoming war keeps them apart for far longer than expected. After six years, Friedrich goes back to Germany and finally sweeps Lotte off her feet.Rickman, Hall and Madden deliver perfectly crafted performances, each revealing the difficulty of keeping a promise when personal needs are not being fulfilled. It is a pleasure to see a romance bloom, pause and then grow into a full bouquet as time and circumstances change. The impact of the period of pre-WW I Germany, then Germany at war and losing, and the gloom of silence after the war is over is underlined splendidly by Eduardo Serra's cinematography and Yared's Beethoven-infused score. This is a period piece, finely crafted by Patrice Laconte. Its mood lingers in the mind long after the film is over.
AD
