This is the film of Kusturica that I like less, and still it tells what a fine film maker he is.
Pay attention to the year it was made. 1993 was a year of war in the series of wars that lead to the disappearance of former Yugoslavia. With his country split in pieces that were fighting one another Kusturica traveled to the US, took with him his team of musicians, the genial Bregovic, and tried to do an American film. What resulted is a more a Kusturica film than an American one, despite of the American team of actors and of the landscape where the story happens.
Yet, it is not one of his best. Emir did not really resonate with the American reality. There are many beautiful scenes in this film, from the flying fish to the emergency medical car taking off to the sky with a dead soul inside. The film also enjoys superb acting from Johnny Depp, painfully young and handsome at his first major role after Edward Scissorhands, Faye Dunaway mature and yet so beautiful, and Jerry Lewis probably in his last great role. The problem is that the story is much too thin for a 140 minutes film, and that many of the tricks that work so well in Kustirica's Balkan movies do not pay off too well here. The film is simply too long, the story is not interesting enough, and despite the many beautiful moments the film leaves the impression it is too long and boring at some instances.
Soon after making this film Emir Kusturica return to his tragic and torn up country to make one of his masterpieces, 'Underground' a reflection on the whole history of Yugoslavia in the last half of century. 'Life is a Miracle' was to follow a few years later. There are film makers like Polanski whose move to the West succeeded and they became as big or bigger creators there as they were in their native countries. Some other are destined to make their great movies only in their local ambiance and relating to the stories and history they know too well. Kusturica may be one of these, which does not make him a lesser creator, quite the opposite.
