SnoopyStyle 12 year old Emmanuel Sonnenschein left his village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after his father died in a distillery explosion. Using his father's recipe, he creates a successful brew called "Taste of Sunshine" in Budapest. He has two sons Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes) and Gustave (James Frain). He also adopts his orphan niece Valerie (Jennifer Ehle). Ignatz becomes a prominent judge and marries Valerie. Gustave becomes a communist. The family struggles continue over the years as Ralph Fiennes plays different characters in each generation of Sonnenschein.This is a big ambitious movie. The idea of playing three generations within the same family may be compelling to Fiennes but they may be better off doing a trilogy. This could be also be a good TV series. There is simply too much material to contain in one sitting. Nevertheless Ralph Fiennes does a great job and the sweep of the whole experience is quite compelling.

edwagreen Ralph Fiennes did it again. Six years after his memorable turn as Nazi Amon Goeth in the award winning "Schindler's List," he is at it again, but this time as a member of a Jewish family, taking several parts through the ages leading to the holocaust in Hungary as well as life there after World War 11.The picture is absolutely amazing. It makes you wonder when the family is seen as ultra-religious in years past and then getting progressively less religious with the passing years. You think you've reached the ultimate after the intermarriages begin to take place, only to be followed by the holocaust, where even Baptismal certificates did the newly converted Christians any good. They met their fate in a horrible way. The films proves that you really can't change who you are.

robert-temple-1 This superb film by Istvan Szabo is everything one could have hoped for from him. He and Marta Meszaros have been the leading Hungarian film directors for decades. This is his masterpiece. Nearly three hours long (although eight minutes have been cut from the released version for the DVD version), it still seems incomplete, as if it should have been a six-hour television series. It is in the great tradition of German and Central European 'family saga' stories, of which the most famous is the novel 'Buddenbrooks' by Thomas Mann. Although the family in this film is Jewish, named Sonnenschein ('sunshine'), this is absolutely not a holocaust film. There are no scenes in concentration camps, but one extremely harrowing scene at a round-up point for Jews bound for one. If the Jewish theme is anything, it is that of the futility of attempts at assimilation. The Sonnenscheins of Hungary do everything they can to assimilate, changing their name to Sors (a Hungarian name), and even converting to Roman Catholicism. But it is all to no avail. The anti-Semitism is so ubiquitous, so relentless, so maniacal, that all efforts are dashed. However, the Nazi era is just one era in this family saga. We are taken through the Imperial era, and later the Communist Era both pre-1956 and post-1956 up to 'the present'. Ralph Fiennes accomplishes one of the greatest feats possible, of playing three successive generations of men of the same family! He does this with total success, and thereby proves himself a true acting genius. Valerie Sonnenschein/Sors is played when young by Jennifer Ehle, and when old by her real-life mother, Rosemary Harris. It is hard to remember a finer performance by either. Szabo must be a truly inspiring director for his actors. This film was very personal to him, and the huge flat where the Sonneschein/Sors family live is the one where Szabo himself grew up as a child. Bill Paterson delivers a wonderful performance, and as someone who is so quintessentially British, to appear successfully as a Hungarian was an astonishing feat. Rachel Weisz gives an intense and passionate performance, as one would expect from her. The story is original from Szabo, who did the first version of the script, but the final screenplay was evidently by that friend of my youth, Israel (Artie') Horovitz. I still have the hand-mimeographed copy he gave me of what I believe was his first one-act play, 'The Hanging of Emmanuel', asking for my opinion at the time. I can give him one of this film now: if he had done nothing else in his lifetime but write this magnificent screenplay, he could walk tall and proud through all of his days. If only this film could be shown in schools, to educate the ignorant young who now know nothing about what happened more than five minutes ago! This film is a testament, and testaments are what we need above all today when he have a failure of collective memory in society, and when people live only in a present of a few minutes' duration, oblivious of both past and future as if they were dumb beasts or even insensate plants.

Malki Baby This movie started off great.... but left me disappointed....It paints a beautiful tapestry of a Jewish family living in the Austro - Hungarian Empire...It is in essence a quality picture... from the actors to the script to the scenery and so one... one word impeccable...but I am disappointed...The focus on the Holocaust was quite meagre...which was disappointing. The characters we grew to know and love in the movie are dismissed with short explanations... Like Greta, Rachel Weisz and her husband and so one... We don't see how the characters struggled and fought for there lives.. they should at least have put 20 minutes of that in the 3 hour movie... They focused too long on the life of Ivan Sors and you just get mad and frustrated looking at it.. He just came back from Auschwitz and hes collaborating with anti-semits how dumb can you be... they make him look quite dumb from his political position to his selection of woman.... then they end the movie making him look even stupider..he destroys everything in the house! and the famous Sonnischien book..that was past down generation to generation.. how insensitive... oki he changed his name at the end.... But this movie could have been great...but because of its faults is just alright..If you appreciate a beautifly filmed movie with quality acting and the art of story telling then see this film..other wise if your like me you'll just be left in discontent...