Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990 TAG: 9005190393
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This Yugoslavian production won director Emir Kusturica a best-director award at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. It's easy to see why.
Kusturica has created a magical and poetic movie that can easily be compared to the better efforts of Fellini and Bergman.
As the movie opens, a gypsy fiddler looks at the camera and says "When God came down to earth, he could not deal with the gypsies and took the next flight back."
But as the movie unfolds, we learn that even gypsies cannot deal with gypsies. Lacking divine frequent flyer points, they cope with each other by following their own rules and philosophy. Though gypsies are traditionally cast as outsiders, this movie doesn't address cross-cultural clashes. It focuses on the gypsies themselves and it leaves the impression that Kusturica is an expert on the exotic and fascinating ways of the gypsies.
The movie focuses on Perhan, an unlikely hero. Perhan is a teen-ager who wears glasses with one permanently fogged lens and spends much of his time talking to his pet turkey. Perhan's grandmother has supernatural powers and he's inherited them to a small degree: his specialty is telekinesis and he amuses other gypsies with his ability to send spoons dancing up walls.
Perhan's family makes lime for a living and his grandmother is determined to keep Perhan honest despite the bad influence of a philandering and gambling uncle. The picture begins as a coming-of-age story and Perhan is involved in a sweet romance with a gypsy girl whom he intends to marry.
But his sister is lame and Perhan's grandmother persuades the wealthy, powerful and crooked Ahmed to take the girl to a hospital. Among other deplorable methods of obtaining money, Ahmed buys children to put on the streets as beggars.
Perhan reluctantly falls into Ahmed's world of corruption and deceit, thinking his ill-gotten goods are helping to pay for his sister's medical care.
At its most basic, "Gypsies" is a simple story but it's wonderfully bountiful in the details of gypsy life and it's at times visually magnificent. The scene during the celebration of the Day of St. George in which Perhan and his girlfriend express their devotion is as haunting and lovely as anything on film.
For that matter, the whole movie casts a hypnotic spell through its richness of detail, its marvelous performances and its visual charm. `Time of the Gypsies' A Columbia release at the Grandin Theatre (345-6177). Two hours and 15 minutes long and rated R for nudity, violence, sexual content and language.
by CNB