House of Fools

Amazon.com

It takes place during the Russian-Chechen war, but House of Fools has the aura of the 1960s about it, specifically the anti-war picture of the King of Hearts variety. Set in a mental hospital near the front lines, the movie poses the age-old question: what happens when the inmates take over the asylum? The doctors have fled from the fighting, so the patients create their own society. Julia Vysotsky, a livewire actress, plays the central role, a blissfully unbalanced woman convinced she is the girlfriend of the singer Bryan Adams (and, game for the challenge, Adams plays himself, endlessly crooning his hit "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman"). Director Andrei Konchalovsky (Runaway Train) finds suspense here, and also absurdity, but it's hard to see what the film adds to the roster of "war is hell" movies. The conflict in Chechnya deserves attention, but Konchalovsky overstates his case. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Understanding the Chechens.......2005-10-12

For most of us in the US it is hard to comprehend the Chechyna insurrection. This movie is worth watching if only to watch the interaction between the Russian soldier and the Chechen commander who have a unique bond from the past. The dance scene with the Chechen soldiers and how they slip into a powerful song is one of the best scenes in any movie I've seen. This movie is much more than a King of Hearts plot.

Absolutely Amazing........2005-10-01

This is my first review on Amazon after years of using it, because I just watched this movie, and was blown away by the visuals. I'm no big foreign film fan, I'm really not much of a film fan period, I bought this DVD because I'm learning Russian, and wanted some movies to watch as aids. This movie blew me away. There is a scene, where a helicopter crashes behind Janna while she plays the accordian that I could never in a million years forget.

Intensely Good and Beautiful Based on an Intense True Story .......2005-03-31

The beautiful images, sophisticated expression of mental illness without making it too depressing, and the perfect timing of story development make this film one of the best I have seen. The intense content and equally intense beauty mix together, forming the uniqueness of this film. It is based on a true story, triggering me to think and imagine how it would actually have been.

House of fools proves to be stunning. .......2005-03-31

While searching for a movie I was sure no one else in my family would want to see, I stumbled into the forgeign film section of Blockbuster. I was intregued by the title of this film and gave it a shot. This turned out to be one of the best movies I've ever seen! Unfortunatly, my family ended up watching it with me, but they loved it too. Though they are generally umm.. American in their ways and don't appriciate films from or about other cultures, they too loved this movie.

a rare beauty from Russia.......2005-02-20

This is like almost from Russia with love to Hollywood. The story of a mental assylum in the war torn Russia Chechnya border. This is one of the best war satires I have seen. The character cast can be compared to that Satyajit Ray and photography is superlative. The back drop of the movie is tragic but still there is a sense of carnival - as you compare the inmates of the assylum and soldiers you tend to see the similarities - the walls between the normal owrld and the world of insanity breaks down - war is after all measured insanity

Andrei Kochalovsky's film setting is a run-down psychiatric hospital on the Chechen border, where a Russian doctor (Vladas Bagdonas) cares for patients of a lunatic assylum. There is quite a mix of chareters among them are Ali (Stanislav Varkki), a large but reticent man who writes and wears a bulging backpack filled with his scribblings; Vika (Marina Politseimako) and a variety of other types-including a dwarf. But the central character is Janna (Julia Vysotsky), a fragile but vulnerable, sweetly-smiling person who is lost in her world of love with Bryan Adams. Janna is a musical sort--she plays polkas on an accordian--and her benign madness involves believing that she's the girlfriend of pop singer Bryan Adams (who periodically shows up playing himself in her mental ramblings). War breaks through and torns down the peaceful rambling of the assylum - chaos was already there but it becomes mortally danferous.Chechen rebels groups take over the assylum -one of whom jokingly offers to marry Janna, leading her to abandon her beloved Bryan and go off to him. In the disorder the inmates literally take over the asylum when the doctor disappears to secure a bus for the inmates to transport them to safety. I was touched by a scene where theRussian soldiers and Chechen rebels exchange corpses, money and munitions.
When it seems that the assylum will be destroyed then the doctor returns and a small twist to the story occurs which I am not going to mention. This movie is worth watching - better than most Hollywood flicks

House Of Fools (La Casa De Los Engaños) [NTSC/REGION 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]

Average customer rating:

House Of Fools (La Casa De Los Engaños) [NTSC/REGION 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Cops - 5. Success by a Nickname Pruha. The House of All Fools / Menty - 5. Udacha po prozvischu Pruha. Dom vseh durakov

Average customer rating:

Cops - 5. Success by a Nickname Pruha. The House of All Fools / Menty - 5. Udacha po prozvischu Pruha. Dom vseh durakov

Manufacturer: A-PRO VIDEO
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0002SP4RO

Product Description

LANGUAGE (AUDIO): RUSSIAN ONLY; SUBTITLES: NO SUBTITLES. ATTENTION: This movie is recorded on DVD-R media. Please make sure that your DVD player supports this media. The newest adventures of the everlasting five of Petersburg cops, the newest crimes and... certainly, their successful investigation, shootouts, chases and humor, in one word, the complete set grown fond to the audience in the newest block of a serial Cops 5. Producer: Alexander Kapica. Director: Grigory Zhiharevich. Music: Sergey Bobrov. Starring: Aleksei Nilov, Sergey Selin, Alexander Polovcev, Anastasia Melnikova and others.

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