Synopsis
The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.
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Cast
- Charlotte GainsbourgLucy Reed
- Vincenzo AmatoSalvatore Mancuso
- Aurora QuattrocchiFortunata Mancuso
- Francesco CasisaAngelo Mancuso
- Filippo PucilloPietro Mancuso
- Vincent SchiavelliDon Luigi
- Federica De ColaRita D'Agostini
- Isabella RagoneseRosa Napolitano
- Massimo LaguardiaMangiapane
- Filippo LunaDon Ercole
Recommendations
- 100
TV Guide Magazine
Sicilian-born filmmaker Emanuele Crialese takes a huge leap forward from his pretty but simplistic "Respiro" with this highly original, startlingly beautiful and emotionally resonant film. - 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The greatness of Golden Door is its tone; sympathetic but always wry. - 80
Variety
An imaginative, intelligent and attractive Italo pic precisely when the country needs it most, Emanuele Crialese's Golden Door reps a solid piece of cinema that neither panders nor preaches. - 80
Village Voice
With dialogue kept to a minimum, cinematographer Agnés Godard confirms her status as one of the most extraordinary visual artists working today. - 80
Wall Street Journal
After countless films in which immigration plays a central role -- one of the earliest was Charlie Chaplin's 1917 silent classic "The Immigrant" while one of the best, Jan Troell's "The Emigrants," has never migrated to DVD -- you'd think the canon was essentially complete. Yet this visionary work adds to it by combining harsh realities with magic-realist fantasies. - 80
The New York Times
What makes Mr. Crialese's telling unusual, apart from the gorgeousness of his wide-screen compositions, is that his emphasis is on departure and transition, rather than arrival. - 75
New York Post
The acting is superb, especially the always alluring Charlotte Gainsbourg as a mysterious Englishwoman taking the ship to America. Agnes Godard's lensing is painterly, and Crialese's direction is seamless. - 58
Christian Science Monitor
Draggy Italian epic that's big on production values but skimpy on inspiration.
