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List Price: $27.98 | | Label: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Salesrank: 27296
Released: July 22, 2008 |
| Our Price: $12.94 |
| Used Price: $2.92 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow, Gabriel Byrne and Christopher Plummer give powerful performances in this lyrical, moving drama about the consequences of war. The past has cast a long shadow over the present, reaching to the picturesque farm where the now-married Melanie (Sarandon) lives unhappily with her husband (Plummer). When Melanie invites fellow Holocaust survivor Jakob (von Sydow) to her home, he unexpectedly brings Christopher (Byrne), whose love for Melanie has never diminished since their confinement in an internment camp. Old feelings and long-suppressed memories are stirred up and revealed at a climactic, life-changing feast.
Autumn Hearts: A New Beginning Reviews:
The cast is everything! 
2008-12-05 - This is a fascinating story, as are stories about long lost loves and lives and coming to grips with what has been left unfulfilled. But it is even more than that, and this cast brings all of their exceptional skill and beauty to portraying the complex issues at hand. It's not necessary for me to rehash the story here since it has been done quite well by other reviewers, but the only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because it does actually drag in a few spots. Not that this is an action film, except for being emotionally active, but the energy flags now and again. Still, I would highly recommend this film for people who like the subject matter and who appreciate the outstanding acting skills of Susan Sarandon (my favorite), Gabriel Byrne (another favorite), Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow (excellent job here). Enjoy the movie. I have not read the book, but plan to.
Slow movie. Don't expect too much excitement. 
2008-10-05 - Gives an interesting viewpoint of victims of the holocaust. However, the movie is not all too exciting. I think I would prefer to read the book on a lazy afternoon.
where is the soundtrak? 
2008-09-19 - i agree with most of the praise around this film. i just wish they had issued a soundtrack to this film, which is absolutely fabulous.
Time Heals All Things
2008-08-02 - AUTUMN HEARTS: A NEW BEGINNING is another one of those independent films that lacks an audience until the DVD is released. Granted it is not based on subject matter that titillates the big movie house throngs, but it is a warmly tender film about the emotional effects of historical traumas and how each of our histories molds our lives. It is a superb work on every level. Director Paolo Barzman brings to life the novel 'Emotional Arithmetic' by Matt Cohen (as adapted for the screen by Jefferson Lewis) with a sterling cast of consummate actors. The impact is lasting.
Melanie Winters (Susan Sarandon) lives on a picturesque farm in Canada with her retired university professor husband David (Christopher Plummer) and their grown son Benjamin (Roy Dupuis), an unexplained single father of his own son Timmy (Dakota Goyo) and caregiver for his physically ailing father and mentally fragile mother. Melanie lives in the past: as a child in 1942 she was interned in Drancy, an internment camp outside of Paris where she bonded with a young man Jakob Bronski and an Irish lad Christopher - taking on the responsibility of maintaining the written history of the camp at Jakob's request so that atrocities such as they were witnessing would never occur again ('Always remember'). At one point Jakob turned himself over to the Nazis to allow Melanie and Christopher to be released.
Now, years later, Melanie is still cataloging all of the atrocities in the world as they appear in the newspaper and continues to attempt to find Jakob. Jakob writes to her and soon is arriving in Canada as an elderly man (Max von Sydow), traveling with his surprise guest, the adult Christopher (Gabriel Byrne). It is this visit that reunites Melanie, Jakob, and Christopher that allows closure to their turbulent history and a healing not only for the three survivors but for Melanie's family also. It is as though it took a quiet time in the beauty of nature and the life-sustaining atmosphere of a farm to cleanse these 'autumn hearts' from the anguish of the past.
Not all of the elements of the story are resolved: we never learn much about Benjamin and his state of solo fatherhood, David's private life that so incenses Melanie, etc. But these are minor exclusions in this beautifully sculpted story and film. The cinematography by Luc Montpellier and the musical score by Normand Corbeil capture not only the beauty of the Canadian landscape and lush colors of the farm in autumn, but also heighten the authenticity of the Drancy camp experience in the black and white flashbacks. This is an exceptional film that deserves a wide audience. Grady Harp, August 08
Something to Think About
2008-07-24 - "Autumn Hearts: A New Beginning"
Something to Think About
Amos Lassen
"Autumn Hearts" (originally entitled "Emotional Arithmetic" is the story of three people who formed a life-long bond while they were together at a detention camp during World War II. The three are reunited some 35 years later. Jakob Bronski was a young Jewish man during the stay in the camps and he took a liking to two youngsters. Melanie and Christopher met while they were detained by the Nazis at Drancy which was a housing complex near Paris which was used as a detention camp for Jews. Drancy was used as a way station and once there if a name was put on the wrong list it meant relocation to one of the death camps. When the three were separated at the camp, they were wounded quite emotionally and after liberation they each went their own way. They reunite years later and what ensues is mind altering.
Melanie Lansing becomes a 50 year old woman and married to a retired college professor. She balances her precarious emotional state with a very sharp and depreciating wit. Jakob Bronski is a senior citizen who is a dissident and former patient of a Soviet psychiatric hospital. Christopher Lewis is a novelist who still carries a torch for Melanie but he is constantly plagued by why he survived and why others did not.
When Melanie invites Jakob to her farm in Canada, he is accompanied by Christopher. Melanie's marriage was already falling apart because of her husband's cheating and the visit of the two men brings her back to life while arouses jealousy in her husband. One summer evening the past and the present collide and the result is a love story with fatal consequences. The characters struggle with the past and try to move on.
The opening line of the movie spoken by Christopher sets the tone for the film: "If you ask me if I believe in G-d, I am forced to answer does G-d believe in us?" The film is actually about the horrible scars left by the War on orphans and individuals who protest when wrong is done as well as on relationships which were forged during time of stress, loss and pain.
It is the cast that makes this movie--Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow and Gabriel Byrne and the amazing cast acts out an amazing script. The Holocaust is not an east topic to cover but Paolo Barzman, the director, has done an amazing job and gives us an amazing film.
