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Elsa & Fred (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:27
Fresh:15
Rotten:12
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: Boosted by charming performances by the octogenarian leads, Elsa and Fred overcomes its schmaltzy premise to make for a satisfying romantic tale.
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis:
Elsa & Fred is a romantic comedy about the irresistible power and total madness of love when two people who, at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love… or to dream.
Elsa...
Elsa & Fred is a romantic comedy about the irresistible power and total madness of love when two people who, at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love… or to dream.
Elsa has dreamt for the past 60 years of the moment that Fellini had already envisaged: the scene in La Dolce Vita. at the Fontana di Trevi. Her dream however is not of Anita Ekberg, but Elsa instead rising out of the fountain in all her glory, and without Marcello Mastroiani, but with her true love that took so long to arrive.
Alfredo is a bit younger than Elsa, a reserved meticulous man who becomes the object of Elsa’s desire. After losing his wife, he feels lonely and confused and his daughter decides that it would be best if he moved into a smaller apartment where he meets Elsa. From that moment on, everything changes. Elsa bursts into his life like a whirlwind, determined to teach him that the time he has left to live—be it more or less—is precious and that he should enjoy every minute of it. Fred surrenders to Elsa’s frenzy, to her youth, to her boldness, to her beautiful madness. And this is how Alfredo (or Fred, as Elsa calls him), learns how to live.--© Mitropoulos Pictures
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Starring: Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla, Blanca Portillo, Roberto Carnaghi
Starring: Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla, Blanca Portillo, Roberto Carnaghi, Federico Luppi
Director: Marcos Carnevale
Director: Marcos Carnevale
Screenwriter: Marcos Carnevale,
Producer: José Antonio Félez
Composer:
Studio: Mitropoulos Films
Reviews for Elsa & Fred
Director Marcos Carnevale makes sure to get his ticket punched at every station in this journey through cinematic convention.
In the end, only the veteran actors playing Elsa and Fred make the movie watchable.
Who would have guessed that, in this age of excess and one-upmanship, when bigger is always better, the year's most romantic screen kiss would last a mere two seconds.
The dream fulfillment seems more silly than romantic, and it brings the movie to an abrupt end that is wholly unsatisfying.
This starts to get interesting in the homestretch, as the woman's chronic deception begins to catch up with her, but for the most part it's an extended Geritol commercial.
Elsa & Fred feels not substantial enough to bear the weight of its themes. It dissolves like cotton candy, making proper digestion impossible.
For some, the movie will be an emotional paean to love at the twilight of life; to others, though, it's a contrived, manipulative film calculatedly sentimental and -- except for poor Alfredo -- totally false to life.
When one thinks of on-screen chemistry, rarely, if ever, do you think of characters in their seventies.
This little gem will have the mature moviegoer completely under its spell.
Elsa & Fred is worth seeing just to admire how Argentine writer-director Marcos Carnevale avoids so much as a whiff of condescension.
Elsa is obsessed with the "Fontana di Trevi" sequence from La Dolce Vita, but that's only a reminder that the aging Fellini once accomplished far more effective films about old age and second chances.
Love is said to be blind, but this sweet Spanish romance suggests it may also be ageless.
Convincingly proves even to teens (not likely to be in the audience, unfortunately), that you're never too old for romance.
Credit director Marcos Carnevale with beautifully pulling off this schmaltzy premise, as well as restaging the famous scene at Rome's Trevi Fountain from La Dolce Vita with his elderly lovers in place of Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg.
Marcos Carnevale’s patronizing take on the relationship between an elderly widow and widower in Madrid unspools like the vision of a middle-aged person intent on propagating stereotypes about youthfulness and the golden years.
The absence of bite prevents the movie from leaving any kind of impression.
Latest News for Elsa & Fred
January 23, 2009:
Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices, and screen dreams sexing it up, La Dolce Vita style. ![]()
More...
January 19, 2009:
Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices, and screen dreams sexing it up, La Dolce Vita style. ![]()
More...
January 19, 2009:
ActorsandCrew.com: Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, and a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices. ![]()
More...
June 30, 2008:
Critics Consensus: WALL-E Is the Best-Reviewed Film of 2008
This week at the movies, we've got lonely robots (Pixar's WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton) and kinetic killers (Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, and Morgan... More...
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