Cheap Left Luggage (DVD) (Laura Fraser (II)) (Jeroen Krabbé) Price

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Customer Reviews of Left Luggage

The film centers around a beautiful, free spirited, young woman in Antwerp, Belgium during the early nineteen seventies. A philosophy student and daughter of holocaust survivors (Maximilian Schell and Marianne Sagebrecht), Chaja (Laura Fraser) is in denial of her jewish heritage and is totally secular in her approach to life. Her relationship with her parents, for whom she has little understanding, is strained. Struggling on her own, she is in need of a job. A friend of the family (Chaim Topol) hooks her up with a job lead, that of nanny for a Hassidic family, the Kalmans.

Desperate for help with her household, Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rossellini), who is at first hesitant upon meeting the nubile, pants clad Chaja, hires her as nanny for her three boys. Chaja, when confronted with the lifestyle of these ultra orthodox Jews, filled with rules so alien to her own life, hesitates in accepting the position. Her heart is stolen, however, by adorable four year old red head, Simcha Kalman (Adam Monty), whose heartbreaking smile causes her to accept the position. It marks the beginning of changes for both the Kalmans and Chaja.

Through her developing affection for the shy Simcha and her relationship with Mrs. Kalman, she becomes accepting of her own jewish identity and more understanding of her own parents ideosyncracies, born as a result of being holocaust survivors. Chaja also learns how painful love can be, when tragedy touches her life in a way that she never envisioned. Trust me, when I say that the viewer will feel her pain, so poignant and profoundly moving is the pivotal, tragic event.

This is simply a beautiful film. Isabella Rosellini gives a an exquisite and sensitive performance as the ultra orthodox wife and mother, Mrs. Kalman, who is trying to achieve harmony in a household steeped in traditions at odds with the outside world. It is no wonder that she won the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for her portrayal. Laura Fraser is a sensational and delightful breath of fresh air, luminous as the gorgeous young woman, Chaja, who is struggling with her jewish identity and her discovery that life is not always a bed of roses.

Chaim Topol is engaging as the kindly and wise family friend who quietly leads the way to Chaja's eventual embracement of her jewish identity. Maximilian Schell and Marianne Sagebrecht are affecting as Chaja's parents and holocaust survivors, who live their lives under the torment of memories of long ago. Double kudos to Jeroen Krabbe for his wonderful direction of this film and for his fine portrayal of the uncompromising Mr. Kalman, whose personal tragedy broadens his understanding of lives not bound by the strictures of his own. Last, but not least, is the very adorable Adam Monty, whose portrayal of Simcha will break the viewer's heart.

This is a superlative, internationally acclaimed film that should draw all those interested in other cultures and those who simply love a great film experience. Bravo!

Little Gem of a Movie!
I had never even heard of this movie until this year. I was in the mood to see a Jewish movie...and then did what I always do...I go look for a movie with Maximilian Schell. Interestingly, Max Schell was born Catholic. Yet, he is in every one of my favorite Jewish movies, with the exception of "Fiddler on the Roof".

Ah, he once again led me to a wonderful little movie. It is his search that gives the movie its name...he is looking for 2 pieces of luggage he buried in a backyard, before being sent to a concentration camp. His wife was also in a camp. And now in the early 1970's, they deal with their memories in very different ways; he wants to search for his left luggage; she does not want to think about the past at all.

The movie, though, is mainly about their daughter, who wants no part of Judaism, until she gets a job as a nanny in an Hasidic family. She was desperate for rent money. Isabella Rossellini, the Hasidic mother, was desperate for help with 5 children. It's a wonderful mix of humor and sadness. And the end was a complete shock to me. (And one review here at Amazon does reveal the ending, so do be careful of your reading, if you don't want to know.) I think it was great performances all around--Max Schell, Marianne Sagebrecht, Isabella Rossellini, Chaim Topol, Jeroen Krabbe, and Laura Fraser, as Chaja--with her British accent! (Yes, it's a wild mix of accents!)

If your a duck park lover, the movie will seem especially special. And for me, it was also especially haunting when Chaja is staring at the photo of the Hasidic father's own father and little brother...and sees what she sees...because I believe we all have many lifetimes before we return to God. If you are someone who gets frightened or sick by graphic Holocaust memories or by anti-semitism, this movie is safe for you to view; nothing is graphic or truly frightening. It does have two scenes of nudity, however, which keeps it from being a family movie, unless edited. So, I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5.

GRATUITOUSLY PAINFUL
A quick glance at all the reviews of this movie clearly shows the repeated mention of two words: "Haunting" and "Sad". It couldn't get any truer than that.

It's about a couple of survivors of the camps. The woman is in denial and keeps herself bustling around her kitchen. The man is looking for a suitcase of lost mementos which he buried in the garden but cannot find because, well, things had been ever so meaningfully "changed forever".

Their daughter, Chaja, is an attractive woman in her 20s who wants to forget her bitter Jewish roots by getting involved in student demonstrations, having a romantic interest in a student rebel leader, and living with her gentile friends away from her nagging and eccentric parents. Turmoil happens when she loses her job, and goes to work as a nanny for a "Hassidic" family which claims to be ultra-orthodox (strict dress codes and all). Sad, sad things ensue.

Apart from the wooden supporting cast (Chaja's dazed parents and the janitor villain are staid, one-dimensional characters) the movie is pushingly, gratingly, compellingly tragic. Several jabs at anti-semitism are hammered home continually.

Which is my gripe. I left the movie with a feeling not of having watched a moving drama, but that of having sat through a lecture on Heritage and Angst. In a shot towards the end, when the father and daughter are hopelessly digging for the lost luggage, one has the impression that no one in the film learned anything about themselves or the past. That seems strange, since I thought that that was in fact what this film was supposed to be about.

The prime aim here seems to have been to make the audience cry. And in that, it succeeds, big time. Recommended if you are into melodrama, and have a good stock of Kleenex handy.