A Walk in the Clouds

A Walk in the Clouds

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alfonso Arau
Produced by
Screenplay by
Based on Four Steps in the Clouds 
by Piero Tellini, Cesare Zavattini, and Vittorio de Benedetti
Starring
Music by Maurice Jarre
Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by Don Zimmerman
Production
company
Zucker Brothers Productions
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • May 27, 1995 (Japan)
  • August 11, 1995 (USA)
Running time
 102 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million
Box office $50,008,143[1][2]

A Walk in the Clouds is a 1995 American romantic drama film directed by Alfonso Arau and starring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Giancarlo Giannini, and Anthony Quinn. Written by Robert Mark Kamen, Mark Miller, and Harvey Weitzman, the film is about a young soldier returning home from World War II who is looking to settle down and start a family with the woman he impulsively married just before enlisting. After learning she is not the woman he imagined her to be, he heads north alone to Sacramento in search of work. Along the way he meets a beautiful young woman who is heading home from college to her family vineyard to help with the grape harvest. When he learns she is pregnant and was abandoned by her boyfriend, he offers to stand in as her husband so she can face her Old World domineering father. During his stay at the family vineyard, they fall in love and face the angry rejection of her father together. A Walk in the Clouds is based on the 1942 Italian film Four Steps in the Clouds, written by Piero Tellini, Cesare Zavattini, and Vittorio de Benedetti.

Plot

In 1945, United States Army Sgt. Paul Sutton returns to San Francisco to reunite with his wife Betty, whom he married — following a whirlwind courtship — the day before he departed for the Pacific. The war has left him with emotional scars, and he experiences flashbacks on a regular basis.

Paul's reunion with Betty is strained, especially after he discovers most of the letters he wrote her were set aside unopened. He is determined to make a go of the marriage however, and hopes to establish a new career for himself. Betty insists he continue to sell chocolates door-to-door, and he sets off to Sacramento. En route, he meets fellow train passenger Victoria Aragon, a graduate student whose Mexican-American family owns a vineyard in the Napa Valley. When he learns the unmarried woman is pregnant by her professor, Paul offers to introduce himself to her very traditionalist family as her husband.

Victoria's father Alberto is infuriated, not only that she married a man below her social standing, but without his permission as well. Paul's initial plan to quietly slip away and continue on his journey, leaving Victoria's family to believe he abandoned her, is derailed when her grandfather, Don Pedro, encourages him to stay and help with the harvest. During the harvest, Paul (an orphan) grows closer to the family and learns the joys that come with their tradition, roots, and way of life. Paul and Victoria try to ignore their growing attraction and feelings for each other, but with little success. However Paul's honor prompts him to attempt to salvage his marriage and return home, but when he does he discovers his wife is involved with another man. She has applied for an annulment, to which he happily agrees, and he returns to the Aragon estate to ask Victoria to marry him.

When Paul returns, an argument with an angry and drunk Alberto leads to a disastrous fire which destroys the vineyard. However, Paul remembers one plant that may still have its roots intact, and races off to retrieve them and bring them back to the family. The disaster (as well as Paul's bravery and dedication during the fire) has brought Alberto to realize his errors, so when Paul returns with the plant, Alberto accepts him, telling Paul that this is "his family" and "his roots". The family sets out to replant and rebuild with the help of their newest member.

Cast

Production

Screenplay

The screenplay for A Walk in the Clouds was written by Robert Mark Kamen, Mark Miller, and Harvey Weitzman. It was based on the 1942 Italian film Four Steps in the Clouds, written by Piero Tellini, Cesare Zavattini, and Vittorio de Benedetti.[3]

Filming

A Walk in the Clouds was filmed on location among the wineries of Napa Valley and in the towns of Napa, St. Helena, and Sonoma. The Napa wineries included Mayacamas Vineyards and Mount Veeder Winery. The St. Helena wineries included Beringer Vineyards, the Redwood Cellar of the Charles Krug Winery, and the Duckhorn Vineyards. In Sonoma, the Haywood Vineyards was also used.[4]

Additional filming outside the Napa Valley region took place in San Pedro, the harbor to the south of Los Angeles. The wine festival scene was actually staged in the Large Courtyard of Pasadena City Hall in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles.[4]

Soundtrack

The film score was written by Maurice Jarre, and included four songs:

Critical reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars, his highest rating, writing:

A Walk in the Clouds is a glorious romantic fantasy, aflame with passion and bittersweet longing. One needs perhaps to have a little of these qualities in one's soul to respond fully to the film, which to a jaundiced eye might look like overworked melodrama, but that to me sang with innocence and trust ... At a time when movies seem obligated to be cynical, when it is easier to snicker than to sigh, what a relief this film is![6]

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:

A couple of turns of plot—including the histrionic ending—seem less magical than overwrought, but A Walk in the Clouds is for the most part a beautiful, well-acted and emotionally rich picture ... In this very warm-hearted film, Reeves' face is the movie's focus of kindness and decency—and he stands up to scrutiny. There's not just sweetness there but depth.

[7]

Hal Hinson of the Washington Post called it "a phenomenally atrocious movie—so bad, in fact, that you might actually manage to squeeze a few laughs out of it ... The film has the syrupy, Kodak magic-moment look of a Bo Derek movie, and pretty much the same level of substance."[8]

Variety described the film as "a glossy, fairy-tale romance that's longer on wishfulness than believability" and "a modest but sharply mounted comedy/melodrama."[9]

Awards and nominations

Maurice Jarre won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Reeves's performance in the film earned him a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor.

Box office

Starting with a budget of $20 million, A Walk in the Clouds earned $50,008,143 in gross revenue in the United States.[1][2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "A Walk in the Clouds". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "A Walk in the Clouds". The Numbers. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Alfonzo Arau (director) (2009). A Walk in the Clouds (DVD). Beverly Hills, California: 20th Century Fox.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "A Walk in the Clouds Film Locations". The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  5. ↑ "A Walk in the Clouds (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Discogs. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  6. ↑ Ebert, Roger (August 11, 1995). "A Walk in the Clouds". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  7. ↑ LaSalle, Mick (August 11, 1995). "Reeves Takes 'Walk' And Runs With It". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  8. ↑ Hinson, Hal (August 11, 1995). "A Walk in the Clouds". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  9. ↑ "A Walk in the Clouds Movie Review". Variety. January 1, 1995. Retrieved August 19, 2013.

External links