SYNOPSICS
The Paradise Suite (2015) is a French,Bosnian,English,Swedish,Bulgarian,Serbian,Dutch,Russian movie. Joost van Ginkel has directed this movie. Anjela Nedyalkova,Boris Isakovic,Erik Adelöw,Issaka Sawadogo are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2015. The Paradise Suite (2015) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
The Paradise Suite is a story about six people finding each other and, sometimes with just one glance, influencing each other's lives irreversibly. For the beautiful young Bulgarian Jenya, her journey to Amsterdam turns out to be the opposite of what she hoped for. Her grueling captivity forces the angelic African, Yaya, to fight for her freedom - a dangerous fight in which he loses everything but his beloved faith. The Serbian war criminal Ivica, who has just become a father, is painfully confronted with the fact that crimes will never go unpunished. Bosnian Seka has nothing left to live for except her vengeance but as it turns out, it's that same vengeance that brings love back in her life. And when the Swedish piano-wonder boy, Lukas, runs away from his new temporary home, his father Stig finally realizes that their mutual passion for music damages their relationship.
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The Paradise Suite (2015) Reviews
Masterpiece
A movie with parallel stories that meet each other in ingenious ways. An intense movie with very explicit scenes. A production with Swedish, Dutch, Swedish, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian actors. Shows many spots of the city of Amsterdam. The movie puts the spotlight on the dark side of Amsterdam's red light district and on problems related to immigration in Europe. Very natural acting performances. For me personally, this is one of the best movie I've seen in years and I'd say that with this masterpiece, Joost van Ginkel enters the circle of leading European directors like Vinterberg, etc. I would highly recommend this movie, especially to people from overseas and, in particular, the USA: widen your scope beyond Hollywood productions!
It's universal suffering without the 'universal' part
The Paradise Suite is Dutch director/writer Joost van der Ginkel's attempt at mosaic-type storytelling. We've seen this many times before, for example in Iñárritu's Death Trilogy. Yet their continued relevance testifies to their poetic potential. Van der Ginkel succeeds in crafting an excruciating, relentlessly intense tale and yet it's that same relentlessness that makes the film go from 'poetic tale of human suffering' to 'my God, how long will this continue' in the blink of an eye. We're first introduced to all the characters: the Bulgarian Senya lives in Sofia, but hopes to become a model. She and three others are selected to go to another photoshoot in Amsterdam, but they end up in the Red Light district. One of the kingpins is Ivica, a Serb who is just discovering the pleasures of being a father. Then there's Yaya, an African man, who tries to prevent a mother and two children from being evicted by promising to pay their rent, grieving mother Seka who's obsessed with revenge and a Swedish boy pianist Lukas suffering under his father who mixes up the roles of being a father and a music teacher. Whether by force or a mere glance, some of these people's paths will cross. These mosaic-films depend on emotional force and thematic unity. There's plenty of the former to go around, of the blunt force trauma kind. Nary a scene goes by without something unsettling happening, whether it's Lukas being bullied at school, his being unable to control his bladder, the mother in Yaya's apartment complex telling how she has been 'paying' the rent, Jenya 'working' in the Red Light district; the list goes on. Believe me, it does. Then again, I did like that certain characters embodied variations on a certain theme. For example, the notion of parenthood is shared by several characters. The film's true strength is acting. It's very much a multicultural cast, yet there's not one weak link, one weakly acted moment. The same cannot be said for the music, however, which tends to drone on and on. It's the kind of droning that's supposed to get you into the characters' heads, but ends up making you aware of the aches in your own. But in the end, it's the constant misfortune experienced by these characters that prevents The Paradise Suite from reaching the upper echelons of mosaic films. There's happy endings for some of them, but the film's overall negativity makes you leave the theatre not lost in poetic thoughts on universal suffering and how we're all one, but like you've just endured a brutal beatdown. In other words, the drama is definitely presented--and acted out--in a realistic fashion, but it never rises to a higher plane of existence, so to speak. It's universal suffering without the 'universal'.
Rewarding in an unexpected way
As a Dutchman I was really stirred by this movie, made by a Dutch director Joost van Ginkel. It left me pretty speechless really. It is a very dramatic movie in a raw slow kind of way, but it felt very pure and true-to-nature all the way through, portraying the live of different people (great acting!). However raw and realistic all individual stories are depicted in this movie, the director manages to blend in an otherworldly atmosphere by connecting all those stories in a strange but beautiful way, which makes this movie very rewarding to watch in my opinion. Thus I'd say it is strongly and smartly made and a great attempt on making a masterpiece.
If I were to see this one by myself I would have left the theater on many occasions
Well, it's not all bad but it's flawed from start to finish. Inconsistency and mediocrity is what bothers me the most. It lacks credibility also, for bad acting. The main characters were ok-ish, especially the kid, who I have to say, was in a league of his own, his drama had nothing to do with the rest of the film and can be judged as separate story, which I enjoyed. But the rest is like bad uninspired TV series, which you would enjoy only in the context of seeing how dreadful it can get. So, I would recommend this only as an experiment, if you are curious about dutch film making, or something... if not, avoid this one, or get ready to make fun of its mediocrity to help you get to the end.
a intriguing foreigners' view on Amsterdam
In 'The Paradise Suite', the Amsterdam region is deliberately pictured through the eyes of foreigners. Taking you to areas of Dutch society you do not visit every day, to say the least. These foreigners, about five of them, all have an own nationality, as well as their own individual story & history. The Amsterdam-places they visit, switch from the 'Concertgebouw' (a world famous venue for classical music) down to the city's equally famous red light district. This film's building up is pretty special: starting with five entirely different stories, in the course of its running these stories somehow get mixed up. Gradually melting themselves into a more coherent plot. The process truly makes watching 'The Paradise Suite' an intriguing experience. --- Apart from this all, this film's picturing of Amsterdam will endear everyone who know the place. And, oh yes, be prepared for a number of very hard and realistic ugly scenes. Revealing the hard, lonely and difficult life that comes with every big city.