Golden Door.

"In its basic outline the story told in Golden Door, Emanuele Crialese's beautiful dream of a film, is hardly unfamiliar," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "Some version of this immigrant's tale - setting out from the old country, crossing the Atlantic in steerage, arriving at Ellis Island - is part of the family history of millions of Americans. But what makes Mr Crialese's telling unusual, apart from the gorgeousness of his wide-screen compositions, is that his emphasis is on departure and transition, rather than arrival."

"The movie is a blessing," writes David Edelstein in New York. "We know about Ellis Island at the beginning of the last century: from books, maybe, or our grandparents or great-grandparents. But Golden Door makes it tactile.... The greatness of Golden Door is its tone; sympathetic but always wry."

"With dialogue kept to a minimum, cinematographer Agnés Godard confirms her status as one of the most extraordinary visual artists working today," writes Jean Oppenheimer in the Voice.

"Golden Door is a tad overlong and mostly short on historical revelation, but Crialese peppers it with unexpected phantasmagorical flourishes," notes Akiva Gottlieb for Nerve.

Jennifer Merin talks with director Crialese for the New York Press.

Posted by dwhudson at May 25, 2007 2:18 AM