Torrents of Spring (1989)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Jerzy Skolimowski

Writers:

Jerzy Skolimowski (screenplay) and
Arcangelo Bonaccorso (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 February 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

In 1840, a young Russian aristocrat, Dimitri Sanin, is returning home after a long tour of Europe. In Germany...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Timothy Hutton	...	Dimitri Sanin
Nastassja Kinski	...	Maria Nikolaevna Polozov
Valeria Golino	...	Gemma Rosselli
William Forsythe	...	Prince Ippolito Polozov
Urbano Barberini	...	Baron Von Doenhof
Francesca De Sapio	...	Mrs. Rosselli
Jacques Herlin	...	Pantaleone
Antonio Cantafora	...	Richter
Krzysztof Janczar	...	Klueber (as Christopher Janczar)
Christian Dottorini	...	Emilio
Alexia Korda	...	Mrs. Stoltz
Marinella Anaclerio	...	Luisa
Pietro Bontempo	...	Man with Glasses
Thierry Langerak	...	La luna
Xavier Maly	...	Pulcinella

Also Known As:

Acque di primavera (Italy)
Les eaux printanières (France) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

USA:101 min

Country:

UK | France | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

Erre Produzioni

Movie Connections:

Version of Fantaziya (1976) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Don Giovanni

a very uneven wiggy melodrama

Warning: spoilers follow

"Torrents of Spring" is an HBO European, horse and carriage, costume drama from the late 1980's. Bought off of e-Bay for less than $7, it is an ex-rental VHS tape that immediately says something about the movie: the initial scenes show tape wear, indicating that the movie was watched for a few minutes and then quickly taken out of the VHS recorder/player and dumped back into its box. The entire movie is told in flashback in which the heart of the movie depicts a young nobleman, Timothy Hutton, in conflict over two women: Valeria Golino, in the role of a bakery shop owner's pretty daughter, and Nastassja Kinski, as a rich married woman who can buy anything.

"Torrents of Spring" has a running time of 102 minutes and neatly breaks into two parts. It would be charitable to characterize the first part of the movie as awful because descriptive phrases come to mind: stiff as a board, stuffed shirt, trite dialogue, awful framing, amateur hour, cardboard characters. Hutton has the look of Pierce Brosnan, trying to do the right thing. Very early on, he falls in love with Valeria Golino's character and after a series of events proposes marriage that he will finance by selling his estate and giving his serfs their freedom - thus drastically cutting the proceeds of the sale. Somewhere around the twenty minute mark, Nastassja Kinski appears in a dreadful looking wig. She takes a fancy to Hutton and through a telescope watches his courting of the pretty shop owner's daughter in a tethered balloon. It is difficult to suppress the thought that Nastassja has just escaped from a villainous role from "The Three Musketeers." Empty chatter and strained moments fill the first sixty minutes of the film, leading one to wonder how much worse "Torrents of Spring" can get. Some way or other, Nastassja finds out about Hutton's marriage and the necessity to sell his estate. But she is after him and sets a trap for him by offering to buy it. At this point, "Torrents of Spring" has risen to the top of the heap as potentially Nastassja's worst movie, ever.

There is a very clear break in continuity in which "Torrents of Spring" shifts from its lackluster veneer into a completely different phase that holds out the potential of vitality. Without her wig, Nastassja loses her hat while chasing Hutton on horseback through a forest. This is a transforming moment that leads into Nastassja's seduction of Hutton. From that moment in the forest, one sees and experiences what Nastassja can do on screen. She takes control of it and never lets it go. It would be very unfair to reveal how the movie ends. It is too bad that the same vision and energy was not invested in the first sixty minutes of the movie. "Torrents of Spring" has its problems or perhaps Nastassja can't act while wearing a wig?

This film looks a lot better on the DVD transfer because it is in widescreen format and gives a much needed added dimension compared to the restrictive full screen version on VHS tape.