Farewell, Home Sweet Home (1999)

It reminds me of Keanu Reeves in My Private Idaho, but this is a European version which is of course more "humane" and very "european". The style is like "the Stream of Consciousness", the shooting of the movie seems like the director's casual flowing of ideas, which is not very much arranged, anyway, I like anything that is off the track and extraordinary. Lastly, the gist the movie tries to unveil is that life is a circle, it repeat itself all the way. Seems like the director understand the Chinese philosophy- Taoism, which said that everything is developing is its own track, which is a circle. I think the end of the movie is very meaningful, though it's the father's turn to leave the rich home to look for his own dream, it is clear that unlike his son, his must be a successful escaping. I appreciate the regular using of the rainy weather in the movie. I just love everything about the movie.

Otar Ioselliani's masterpiece about pursuing life's dreams and remaining true to your beliefs combines a wonderful sense of warmth and an exceptional sense of humor as it paces along in its very own, unconstrained fashion while inviting us for a ride into its pleasant and touching world.Scenes of often over-the-top situation comedy are juxtaposed with soulful explorations of the human heart, where staying honest to oneself as a person is the only way of avoiding life's inevitable cruelty.Both entertaining and thoughtful, it is the most enjoyable film to-date by Ioselliani.

I saw this immediately following the same director's Falling Leaves and found it much more accessible. The twenty-odd year gap between the two films and the fact that this one was made in France as opposed to Georgia may, of course, have something to do with it. Again, the Georgian-born director (he made a point of saying he was Georgian and NOT Russian) introduced it - in fluent French yet - and described it as his most complicated film. It's a gently, meandering piece and at least half a dozen times you think, OK, that's it, a logical ending, only to have it spin out yet moor gossamer thread. There's a distant relationship with Renoir's The Rules Of The Game but only around the edges. It's about a disparate group of people whose lives intersect and sometimes, but not always, connect. Bizarre, eccentric, both could be fairly employed to describe some of the characters. Again the director chooses to spin his web around a young male, this time around the scion of a wealthy family who, for reasons best known to himself, works as a dishwasher in a restaurant - and an inept dishwasher at that; he's fired halfway through the film - and chooses friends from among the outcasts of society (again, we could, if we wanted to stretch a point, find a link with Boudu Saved From Drowning). Characters come and go on this patchwork quilt and some we find more interesting than others. None of the actors are well known but most are fairly competent and overall the film holds the attention.

with only little dialogue the film reveals several parallel lives and focuses on two young men, one of them son of a wealthy family the other of poor origin, who resist their social heritage and design themselves. unfortunately, the wealthy guy who prefers to work as a dishwasher and spend his life with chlochards has to learn, that he will not get the girl he fancies. she prefers to take the other other guy, who, despite of his poor upbringing, shows up in expensive clothes riding an expensive motorbike. director/ writer iosseliani himself plays the very funny part of a jolly drinker, father of the rich family, who prefers not to be part of a society, that is only interested in success. though not fast this is an intelligent and entertaining film.