Yes, but...
Added 3/2/2009
Though I am a great admirer of Medem's work, I found this movie very unsatisfying. Considering the movie's ending, the thick web of coincidences really lead nowhere.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Coincidence in Our Lives
Added 12/8/2008
In Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los Amantes del Cirulo Polar) Spanish director Julio Medem creates a love story that does not fall into melodrama the way that most of today's love stories fall.
Otto and Ana meet as children as a result of an incredible series of coincidences. As they grow up they become secret lovers and eventually they separate. Following the separation each feels a longing for the other that is unlike any love that they have ever known. Passing each other and intersecting with each other's lives over the years they never reconnect until it is too late.
Medem uses the device of coincidence to highlight the circular nature of our lives. This is a film that doesnt give all the answers to its audience. It is a film that makes you think and reflect upon the reasons things happen as they do. The first half of the film is one of the most romantic films that I have ever seen. Some of the emotion is lost in the second half as Madem tries to tie things up too neatly but this is still an international film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience.
The HVE disc presents the film in widescreen with a Spanish Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. There are no bonus features except for the trailer. Madem went on to direct the festival favorite Sex and Lucia. See this one to get a glimpse of an important director at the beginning of his career.
Recommended.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I didn't want to like it...
Added 10/23/2006
Ok just a bit about your reviewer here... I'm not a big fan of "chick flicks" and if you tell me you've got a great movie I should watch, but it's got subtitles, well then there's a certain place we all know of that's surely going to freeze over before I watch it.
That all being said, I just got a DVR and was recording a days worth of movies off of one of our HD channels and this was one of them.
Although it kills me to say it, I truly enjoyed the film. I speak enough spanish to get me by, but not enough that I could follow everything they were saying in the movie, so I was more or less reliant on the subtitles to get me by. I found it curious how when the focus of your attention is to what is going on, on the screen and your movie experience isn't solely driven by what you're hearing from dialog you tend to appreciate a movie much more. The film was definitely worth watching.
4 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Finnaly comes to dvd
Added 9/2/2006
Not like I have been looking to get this movie on dvd, but it is great to see that this movie from 1998 has arrived on dvd, and I bet on an all new video tape, for those of you that still buy video tapes regulary. The best thing Ican say, even if you know what the story of this movie, even through this movie is in Spanish, there are English subtitles. The movie is told from the eyes of both the 2 main characters of this movie, Otto, and Anna. If you don't know what the story of this movie is, well you should. Eight years old Otto (Peru Medem), is playing with a ball one day after school in the playground, and the ball gets away and into the woods, Otto chases after it, and meets Ana (Sara Valiente). He feels in love with her, and then the story goes back in a flashback to show how Ana got thier in the first place in first of the many chance meetings these 2 go through in the whole movie, Ana's father has passed away, and she runs away, and gets lost in the woods, and meets Otto, in her eys she thinks this is the her late father back from the dead, as a little boy. Then in one of these coincidences, Otto throws paper airplanes, and Ana picks one of up, and gives it to her mother, telling her it is from "that man" which is Otto's father. Otto's parents are dirvoced, and Ana's Mother is widowed. And then they meet and fall in love, and then Otto and Ana becomes step-brother and sister, and then lovers as teenagers. Then as adults they become seprated, when one of thier step-parents dies, and Otto finds himself gulity of it, and rins away, and becomes a pilot, guess where they meet once again, well let's just say I will not give it away for you, if you want to find out what happens, I urge you to watch this movie.
4 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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My fave film, and I've seen thousands
Added 4/21/2006
I've seen this movie multiple times, and it always astounds me. Worth every cent!
5 out of 8 people found this helpful.
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Yes, but...
Added 3/2/2009
Though I am a great admirer of Medem's work, I found this movie very unsatisfying. Considering the movie's ending, the thick web of coincidences really lead nowhere.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Coincidence in Our Lives
Added 12/8/2008
In Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los Amantes del Cirulo Polar) Spanish director Julio Medem creates a love story that does not fall into melodrama the way that most of today's love stories fall.
Otto and Ana meet as children as a result of an incredible series of coincidences. As they grow up they become secret lovers and eventually they separate. Following the separation each feels a longing for the other that is unlike any love that they have ever known. Passing each other and intersecting with each other's lives over the years they never reconnect until it is too late.
Medem uses the device of coincidence to highlight the circular nature of our lives. This is a film that doesnt give all the answers to its audience. It is a film that makes you think and reflect upon the reasons things happen as they do. The first half of the film is one of the most romantic films that I have ever seen. Some of the emotion is lost in the second half as Madem tries to tie things up too neatly but this is still an international film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience.
The HVE disc presents the film in widescreen with a Spanish Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. There are no bonus features except for the trailer. Madem went on to direct the festival favorite Sex and Lucia. See this one to get a glimpse of an important director at the beginning of his career.
Recommended.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I didn't want to like it...
Added 10/23/2006
Ok just a bit about your reviewer here... I'm not a big fan of "chick flicks" and if you tell me you've got a great movie I should watch, but it's got subtitles, well then there's a certain place we all know of that's surely going to freeze over before I watch it.
That all being said, I just got a DVR and was recording a days worth of movies off of one of our HD channels and this was one of them.
Although it kills me to say it, I truly enjoyed the film. I speak enough spanish to get me by, but not enough that I could follow everything they were saying in the movie, so I was more or less reliant on the subtitles to get me by. I found it curious how when the focus of your attention is to what is going on, on the screen and your movie experience isn't solely driven by what you're hearing from dialog you tend to appreciate a movie much more. The film was definitely worth watching.
4 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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