This makes beautiful music (Captain Corelli's Mandolin (DVD))

Member Name: christianfilm

Product:	Captain Corelli's Mandolin (DVD)
Date:	02/03/06 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful music, and wonderful story

Disadvantages: Not a straight adaptation of the book

Dr. Iannis (John Hurt) and his beautiful daughter Pelagia (Penélope Cruz) live and work on the beautiful Greek isle of Kefallonia. Pelagia is in love with handsome fisherman Mandras (Christian Bale) who is eager to prove his worth in the war against the Germans and Italians. He sets off too fight the enemy but after he leaves, the island is captured by the Italian forces. As expected, they are met with a lot of hatred, but the Italians show a compassionate side, and through their passion for life they start to gain acceptance.

When the passionate Captain Corelli (Nicholas Cage) is given accommodation at Dr. Iannis's home, the relationship between Corelli and Pelagia is somewhat frosty, but over time a bond between them forms which grows into a romance. Everything seems to be going well, especially as news comes through that the Italian leader, Mussolini, had surrendered to the Allied forces. The Italian forces are over the moon, and can't wait to go home. As the Italians surrender their weapons over to the German forces, trouble starts and some Italians get killed. In anger, Corelli and some of his men join the Greek resistance, which includes Mandras, to help free the island from the German invaders and to get revenge for the deaths of their friends.


This is an adaptation of Louis de Bernieres novel "Captain Corelli's Mandolin". The book is a very gritty and real account of the war, full of emotion and vivid imagery. The film has done a reasonable attempt at transferring it to the big screen, but in doing so has lost a lot of the grit and focused on the romance between Pelagia and Corelli. If you haven't read the book, then the film is indeed very compelling, but for those who have read the book it is a little bit of a let down.

The main stars of the film are Penelope Cruz and Nicholas Cage, but there are huge supporting performances from John Hurt and Christian Bale. Nicholas Cage (National Treasure) plays the music loving Captain Corelli, who has a huge passion for opera and also his mandolin. We are treated to numerous operatic renditions of Puccini from Corelli and his army colleagues as well as some truly beautiful mandolin pieces. Cage's performance as Corelli is one of his best; he delivers each scene with perfect sentiment even when the script gives him some very over the top romantic lines. Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky) plays the beautiful Pelagia, a very strong willed woman who finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls in love with Corelli, but also having feelings for Mandras. Cruz is not only captivating for her looks but also the emotion and sentiment that she displays in her scenes. John Hurt (The Elephant Man) is magnificent as Pelagia's father, who although loves the traditions of his beautiful island, he accepts that things change and he has to embrace them. Christian Bale (Batman Begins) delivers a great performance as Mandras, who realizes that Pelagia has fallen for Corelli and although it hurts, he would still do anything to make her happy.

The film is directed by John Madden, who previously directed the equally good "Shakespeare in Love". Madden has done an excellent job at creating a very good romantic film which could have quite easily become to sickly. As well as displaying the romantic side of the film, he has also done a reasonable job of displaying the travesty of war, without making the film overly dark and depressing. Along with this, there are some beautiful moments of subtle humour, such as when the Italians are putting on a show by detonating a mine on the beach but get it wrong, with out these light hearted moments the film could have been too serious for a lot of people. Although the film does not demonstrate the power of the original book, I feel Madden has done a good job of what really would have been an impossible task. There is no way that Madden or any other director would have been able to recreate the novel on the big screen.

The film is shot on the beautiful island of Kefallonia which is really picturesque. The areas of the island they have used seems to be pretty much untouched since the 1940's, which makes this film very realistic. Some of the scenes are nearly over taken by the sheer beauty of the landscape.

The original sound track to the movie is provided by Stephen Warbeck who had previously worked on Billy Elliot. The music of the film is very important as it helps to convey the beauty of the island, the growing romance between Pelagia and Corelli, and also the harshness of war. Along with this, there are some very good musical performances of pieces by Puccini, Cottrau, and Verdi, some of which were actually performed by Nicholas Cage. As well as this you get the beautiful mandolin pieces which include the enchanting "Pelagia's Song".


The Cast
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Nicolas Cage .... Captain Corelli
Penélope Cruz .... Pelagia
John Hurt .... Dr. Iannis
Christian Bale .... Mandras
Irene Papas .... Drosoula
Gerasimos Skiadaressis .... Mr. Stamatis
Aspasia Kralli .... Mrs. Stamatis



Technical Details
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Certificate: 15
Length: 124 mins


Conclusion & Rating
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This is one of my favourite films of the last few years, purely down to the great storyline, excellent performances, beautiful location, wonderful music and great sentiment (sorry if I'm gushing a bit). It may not be a direct adaptation of the novel, but in its own right is a really beautiful love story. If you have read the novel, I would suggest you don't watch this as you may be disappointed. But if you want a good romantic movie to watch whilst curled up with a bottle of wine and a box of tissues, then this is for you.

It is currently available for £5.97 on Amazon which is brilliant value for a film which will never become dated and will always have an audience who will love it.

Summary: Romantic movie set on a Greek Island during WWII