A Walk in the Clouds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| A Walk in the Clouds | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
|
| Directed by | Alfonso Arau |
| Produced by | Gil Netter David Zucker Jerry Zucker |
| Written by | Robert Mark Kamen Mark Miller Harvey Weitzman |
| Starring | Keanu Reeves Aitana Sánchez-Gijón Anthony Quinn and Giancarlo Giannini |
| Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | August 11, 1995 |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 (estimated) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Walk in the Clouds is a 1995 romance film directed by Alfonso Arau and produced by the Zucker brothers; it is a remake of a 1942 Italian film of the same title. It stars Keanu Reeves, Giancarlo Giannini, Anthony Quinn and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón. The original music score for the film is composed by Maurice Jarre. The film's tagline is: "A man in search. A woman in need. A story of fate."
Contents |
[edit] Main cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Keanu Reeves | Paul Sutton |
| Aitana Sánchez-Gijón | Victoria Aragon |
| Anthony Quinn | Don Pedro Aragon |
| Giancarlo Giannini | Alberto Aragon |
| Angélica Aragón | Maria Jose Aragon |
| Freddy Rodriguez | Pedro Aragon, Jr. |
| Debra Messing | Betty Sutton |
[edit] Plot summary
The film is set in 1945, when Paul Sutton, a World War II veteran returns home to his wife Betty (Debra Messing) whom he married the day before he left. He comes home with all these dreams and hopes, one being to quit his former job. His wife has different plans and sends him off to his former job as a door to door candy salesman, during his trip he accidentally meets Victoria Aragon, a Stanford student who belongs to a Mexican-descent family which owns a vineyard in Napa Valley, California. As she is pregnant by her professor, Paul offers to introduce himself to the very traditionalist family – especially her raging father Alberto – as her husband and leave the day after. Instead, he stays one more day – supposedly for the grape harvest – and more, until they eventually fall in love. He comes home, only to find out that his wife is involved on a separate relationship, and she proposes an annulment of their marriage. Paul happily returns to Victoria's home. Evangelina Elizondo, plays the grandmother, in charge of the annual foot grape squeeze, always busy running the household's kitchen and help.
[edit] Differences from the original
A Walk In The Clouds is a remake of a 1942 Italian film by Alessandro Blasetti, starring Gino Cervi and Adriana Benetti as the male and female leads. The original title was Quattro Passi Fra Le Nuvole (literally, "four steps in the clouds"), which has the same meaning as the title of the 1995 American remake; when the latter was distributed in Italy, a completely changed title was chosen for it (Il Profumo del Mosto Selvatico, "The Smell of Wild Must").
The original film was set somewhere in rural central Italy, and makes no mention of either World War II (which was still raging at that time) or of the vineyard subplot. While the basic premises of the film stay the same, the ending is completely different. The male protagonist never falls in love with the pregnant girl. Once the girl's unmarried state is revealed, unknown to her, the male protagonist begs the father to accept her back anyway, stressing how doing otherwise would forever poison his family life, and how happiness in family matters is too great a blessing to be thrown away. The father is ultimately convinced, and when the girl finds the two talking, he pretends he never learned of his daughter's ruse and that he is still convinced the two are a married couple. At that point, the male protagonist can finally leave for his city, returning to his unloving wife and spoiled kids, and tragically understands how very far from happy his own family life is and will be.
[edit] Trivia
- Keanu Reeves was injured during a friendly game of hockey with his friends during spare time. His lip was split, requiring six stiches. In his next scheduled scene, a love scene with Debra Messing, he was quoted as saying to her: "Please don't hurt me."
- This film was shot on location in Napa Valley and Pasadena, California.
- Won the Golden Globe Award for score.
