Golden Door
Director: Emanuele Crialese. Screenplay: Emanuele Crialese. Cinematography: Agnès Godard. Film editing: Maryline Monthieux. Production design: Carlos Conti. Music: Antonio Castrigano. Producer: Alexandre Mallet-Guy. With: Vincenzo Amato, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Francesco Casisa, Filippo Pucillo, Aurora Quattrocchi, Vincent Schiavelli, Federica De Cola, Isabella Ragonese, Massimo Laguardia, Filippo Luna, Andrea Prodan, Ernesto Mahieux. Italy/Germany/France. In Italian/English. 120 min. Original title: “Nuovomondo.” 2006.
A poor farmer and his family emigrate from Sicily to the United States, via the classic Ellis Island route, around the turn of the 20th century; their quest for a new home is complicated by various factors, including the patriarch’s shipboard acquaintance with an Englishwoman who’s eager to acquire a husband. Although the story packs few surprises, the film is expressively shot and eloquently performed. At its best it recalls the naturalist cinema of post-neorealist Italian filmmakers like Ermanno Olmi, the Taviani brothers, and Gianni Amelio, whose powerful “Open Doors” may have indirectly influenced this picture’s title. Crafted with scrupulous care, Crialese’s fourth feature is steeped in a kind of hard-edged nostalgia the movies rarely give us anymore.
– David Sterritt
