Product Description

The star power of Cate Blanchett (THE SHIPPING NEWS, THE LORD OF THE RINGS) and Giovanni Ribisi (GONE IN 60 SECONDS, BOILER ROOM) propels this luminous and intensely haunting motion picture from the acclaimed director of RUN LOLA RUN and WINTER SLEEPERS. Philippa (Blanchett), a British teacher living in Turin, Italy, has watched helplessly as her husband and friends have fallen victim to drug overdoses. To compound her desperation, the police -- who are complicit in the actions of Turin's biggest drug dealer -- have completely ignored Philippa's repeated offers of information. So, with the unexpected help of a sympathetic police officer (Ribisi), Philippa feels she has nothing to lose by taking divine justice into her own hands. A probing exploration of the modern world and its moral choices -- you'll be mesmerized by Philippa's transformation from grieving widow to wanted fugitive on a journey through retribution and redemption, innocence, and crime!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16715 in DVD
• Brand: BLANCHETT,CATE
• Released on: 2003-06-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.com
The luminous Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, The Lord of the Rings) stars as a British teacher living in Italy who's driven to plant a bomb on a drug dealer in cahoots with the police. When she is arrested and interrogated, she learns that her bomb went awry and killed four innocents; a young policeman (Giovanni Ribisi, Saving Private Ryan) is so struck by her grief that he falls helplessly in love with her and throws aside his entire life to help her. Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) from a screenplay cowritten by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (Trois Couleurs, The Double Life of Veronique), Heaven is a film with an astonishing compassion for the power and fragility of human relationships, coupled with a faith that forces beyond our understanding can shape our lives. It's a stunning, mysterious movie that may affect you in surprising ways. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
The opening sequence, in which Cate Blanchett deposits a bomb in an office building, is a self-contained masterpiece of editing, and the rest of the movie works well-within its own preposterous logic. Tom Tykwer has a roving, fluid camera, and the buildings and streets of Turin seem depopulated and spare, suggesting that we've landed in the middle of a fable. (That's perhaps the best way to describe the script, written by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, which tells of a place where true love gets communicated through a single hand clasp, and a prisoner and a sympathetic cop can flee police headquarters by hiding in the attic.) What keeps the movie grounded is Blanchett's expressive performance, and the fearful symmetry of her face, all the more stark when she shaves her head. Giovanni Ribisi plays the policeman who aids her escape, and together the two develop a murky chemistry out of the script's simple, sometimes cryptic dialogue. This is the first installment of what Kieslowski, who died in 1996, planned as a trilogy. The ending offers one of the great existential escapes, via helicopter-just don't ask too many questions. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Tom Twyker is a master of mise en scene
German-born Tom Twyker, director of many successful films, is perhaps best known for 1998 classic, "Lola Rennt" ("Run Lola, Run").

In "Heaven" Cate Blanchart is cast as Philippa, an English school teacher working in Turin, Italy. This film has both English and Italian parts (with subtitles), lending to it's authenticity. Blanchart's male counterpart, Filippo, is played by Italian actor, Giovannis Riblisi. He is cast as a 20 year old police department employee who becomes sympathetic to Philippa's cause, springs her from jail; and manages to outwit the police and run, ride and fly (!) to safety, in the mean time falling in love with her.

Philippe and Filippo, though from different cultures, become unified in fate, and seem to become two halves of the same whole. Through much of the film Blanchart and Riblisi appear together, both wearing white t-shirts and slim-fitting blue jeans. Later, Philippa is shaved bald, presumably to help her to evade capture by altering her appearance. No big surprise. But then, the camera again shooting from above, reveals that Filippo is also shaved! Several scenes are shot in such a way that they appear to really belong together.

Which brings me to my initial point: Twyker's brilliant usage of mise-en-scene. By that I mean that the set-up of the individual scenes --in addition to having visual style and beauty--convey meaning and information above and beyond what is seen in other types of cinamatography, plus the dialog itself. I find this to be clever and artful. Just by observing how the characters, props and scenery are set up, we see another level of meaning and understanding. For example, how he sets up the scene in the barn as they eat together and then gaze at each other from either end of the film frame. Well, this is not a thing that can easily be described in words; you just have to see the film!

Lastly, I love how the film ends, and how it ties together the beginning scene in a helicopter simulator and also the enigmatic name of the film, "Heaven". Bravo!

Excellent and intriguing film!
Heaven is a gem that I discovered in a magazine that covers upcoming films. Director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run)provides a wonderful script that is only paralleled by excellent acting on the part of Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi. I highly recommend this film!

Heaven
Although the film photography is compelling and Kate Blanchett's acting hits a high mark, the film is disappointing in that its depiction of an unexplainable sudden love falls short of credibility. The movie is boring and the only value it has lies on the showing of beautiful scenes of the Italian countryside.