Sunshine

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Thomas S I discovered this film entirely by chance, while reading Smell of Humans by Ernő Szép — a haunting book about the siege of Budapest. The name Attila Petschaul came up, and curious to know more about him, I started digging. To my surprise, I found on his wiki page a film had been made about his life — which led me straight to Sunshine. I've lived in Budapest for six years, and I had never even heard of this movie, which is such a shame !!! Despite its nearly three-hour runtime, I was absolutely hooked. Maybe that's partly because of my love for Hungarian history — but not only. The film’s structure, the passage of time shifting from slow to fast, the multi-generational narrative, and the brilliant performance by Ralph Fiennes (in multiple roles!)—all of it was masterfully done. The film is also full of striking quotes. I rarely take the time to write down quotes from films — I usually reserve that for books — but some lines from Sunshine stayed with me long after the credits rolled. Here are some : "You must try to find joy in your life. Do you realize how delicious this coffee is with warm milk", "We are afraid to see clearly and to be seen clearly", "If there's no God, if there never was a God, why do we miss him so much?" Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/06/25 Full Review Alec B Profoundly moving because it doesn't make the central characters saints. Also I love the way time moves in this movie (slow at certain times, unbearably fast at others). Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/26/24 Full Review jordan m This reminded me somewhat of older movies like The Birth of a Nation and Cabiria in that they chose to have the primary characteristic of the movie be the sheer expanse of time that it covers. They could likely have made 3 less-interesting movies out of each timeframe they used but instead made one sprawling, mildly interesting saga and used Voldemort as the anchor that tied them all together. I think I would've preferred the entire thing be about the fencer as I've not seen a whole movie about that sport yet but I didn't hate the Nazi-hunter part either. They had a great list of actors in the supporting roles but with Ralph being in every scene they kind of fell by the wayside. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Certainly an epic based on runtime. It covers three generations of a Hungarian family across the twentieth century. The plot has enough going on to keep you engaged but strangely it never feels too emotively compelling. Hard to sympathise with any of these conflicted characters and never easy to relate to them. There's a strange emotional distance rendered by the directing and it takes the gloss off the film. Enjoyable enough but also forgettable. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review steve d I thought the cast playing other roles was distracting and the film dragged. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Not bad but a bit too long (3 hours). Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Sunshine

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