This is unbelievably underrated.

The structure of this film is wonderful. What we are given at the beginning is a number of totally unrelated people and stories in France, Germany, Russia, shortly before WWII, with a foreword that as humans all our stories repeat themselves and can find similar paths in one another. But by the end of the long 3 hour chronicle of these people, their children, and then their children's children, spanning over forty years, the characters and descendants finally all converge as the most noteable people at a Red Cross fundrasier in the year 1981 (performers, musical performers, organizer/tv host, etc.), and then it all makes sense. While the film seemingly played chronologically, it in reality was playing in reverse, taking a number of prominent people at a single random event in time, and tracing their unrelated origins back through time forty years. This is all done to tie into the message that picking out any person in the world at any time, you would find stories of people sharing similar paths of life, the same feelings and emotions that change over time, the same affiniation with music, the same feelings of love and family, the same devestating hammers that drop on our souls. Above all, it's a love letter to the kaleidiscope of being human and everything that statement means.

On that note, similar to Gone With the Wind or other historical fiction, it also works as a chronicle of people swept up through the uncomprimising tide of history and change, works as a film showing the devestation and horrors of war, and works as a film in one piece contrasting the changing lifestyles of the 40s, 60s, and 80s.

Of course, none of this work would if the movie wasn't fabulously charasmatic and entertaining, well performed musically (it's sort of a musical... a lot of the numbers are the same title song disguised, and a lot of the songs are classical/instrumental), well acted with the interesting decision to cast the same actors as the parents and children, well produced, well paced and directed, etc. One particular sequence I love is when David meets his mother at the end, it's a single shot from the perspective of a nearby window where the dialogue isn't heard, but it works simply beautifully.

Wonderful, wonderful movie. How it's been so overlooked over time is beyond me. It has 800 votes on IMDB and like 6 reviews on RT.

5/5

Nice review.

I'd never heard of this film till you requested the thread. Thanks for uncovering it as it looks like a gem. Its definitely on my must see list now.