The Enchanted Grove (1980)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

it is easy to criticize it . the visual effects are horrible, the science of director to translate the beautiful story by Sadoveanu - far to be credible. but it has the chance of few good actors - the young Diana Muscă as Lizuca does an admirable job - , crumbs from the original text and a pretty dog - only its voice is absolutely a torture instrument -. sure, it could be better. sure, it must be better. but for many generations, the memories about the film, the atmosphere, ignoring the bizarre solutions for create the magical universe of the wood , are beautiful. the dialogues has not the original poetry and the delicacy of childhood, its miracles are lost. but something remains. the flavor of a try. not the greatest. but enough for a film who gives to the viewer the chance to imagine better solution for a beautiful story.

after years, only who remains is its spirit. because it is a very interesting adaptation. the joy of Draga Olteanu - Matei , a very important Romanian actress, for idea, the work as celebration of Mass, the difficulties, the compromises and ,after all, disappointing result.not special effects, not the expected help for a wonderful film. but the film is far to be lost cause.because it has extraordinary cast. because the magic is in heart of public for who childhood hours are not only memories.because the good intentions are obvious. because it is not exactly the Lizuca story but the fairy tale of everyone.nostalgics, miracles taste and a magnificent build world with poor materials but , in same measure, with extraordinary passion. so,in this case, after so many years, only who remains it is spirit. But it is so rich, delicate and glamorous...

I see only one viewer commented this movie,and this is quite odd,because the film is good;it's not outstanding,but good enough (it would take a mild,candid,uncynical Averty to direct this show).It is made after Sadoveanu's story,which is followed as far as the plot is concerned,but the atmosphere,the tone differs.Sadoveanu is more suave,light,smooth,tender and humorous.Sadoveanu asked,by his story,to things:who has a real access into the nature's heart;has physical nature any meaning at all?Sadoveanu's story implies also a chapter in the history of ideas. First,for the German romantics,on Kant's and Fichte's tracks,nature was reduced to a mere appearance,maybe beautiful,yes,but meaningless in itself(the nature seems to mean things;but it does not).That's why they thought any meaning may be but over imposed.Then,the materialism and the positivism deprived the nature of any deep interest and of any real meaning.This way,both idealism and materialism deprived the physical nature of any objective meaning,and of any sense. For Novalis,for Blake,for Goethe,for Eminescu,for LN Tolstoi,for Father Teilhard,for Klages,for all those who turn down solipsism,the physical nature is not a scenery,a set,something exterior,a decor,a deception,a convention,but has a true,objective and rich meaning.Sadoveanu is also of this opinion,by his innate and healthy,strong realism,although sometimes a little biased by the 19th. century's dull materialism and positivism;because,in the first instance,Sadoveanu,unlike Blake,Novalis,etc.,is an atheistic materialist,a skeptic,he speaks about the "everlasting darkness".(As a youngster,Sadoveanu has translated ...Taine!)All the natural elements mean,objectively,something:to the heart,to the mind.By that time,it took faith and courage to believe that nature is not just some scenery lacking all deep,inner meaning.A little girl,much pained by her fiddling and fiendish step mother,runs away with her dog.All this is very humanely narrated.Who caresses,who cares for an orphan girl?("Helpless,[...]/Like a fiend hid in a cloud",Blake--INFANT SORROW)The Sunflower does,and Saint Wednesday,and woods manikins ("And wondering behold/A spirit armed in gold",Blake-THE LITTLE GIRL FOUND),wild beasts who flee the men ("To this day they dwell/In a lonely dell,/Nor fear the wolfish howl/Nor the lion's growl.",Blake--THE LITTLE GIRL FOUND),a whole hidden world of fragrances.The Sunflower,Sun's sister and the corn's Empress("Ah Sunflower, weary of time,/Who countest the steps of the sun"--Blake,AH SUNFLOWER);and Saint Wednesday;all this is told with a seeming equanimity,like Creanga's.But behind that there is a tearing sadness,unknown to Creanga.Sadoveanu speaks about "a smoke of light".("When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,/And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;/When the air does laugh with our merry wit,/And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;//when the meadows laugh with lively green,/And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene",Blake--LAUGHING SONG).Sadoveanu was himself an orphaned child,although at another age than Lizuca's.( 'When my mother died I was very young,/And my father sold me while yet my tongue/Could scarcely cry "Weep! weep! weep! weep!",Blake-- THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER)."From his eyes of flame,/Ruby tears there came"(Blake,THE LITTLE GIRL LOST)

Based on Mihail Sadoveanu's story, "The Wonderful Grove" the movie brings to life images and sensations known to many of us, who spent their childhood or at least their holidays at our grandparents, in the countryside.Lizuca is a six year old girl, whose mother died and whose father remarried the true incarnation of all vile stepmothers in the world. Unwillingly, she has to leave her loving grandparents who offered her a peaceful and happy life in the countryside, because her new 'mom' needs the child's presence in order to get hold of a forest the little girl had inherited from her mother.With a father who is always absent and careless and an evil stepmother, Lizuca has only Patrocle, her faithful pet dachshund, to keep her going while enduring humiliation, beating and neglect. One day Lizuca and the dachshund escape the wicked stepmother and try to find the way back to her grandparents, over fields and woods and springs. They get lost and they spend the night into a hollow willow, that changes into an enchanted realm, populated by Snow White and her dwarfs, talking insects and animals, the four seasons, the giants of the mountains and all kinds of fairies. There she discovers that a trial is going on, judged by the Fairy of Imagination. The object of dispute is the right of possession over that enchanted corner of forest, claimed both by the evil stepmother (who wants to sell it and get rich) and by Lizuca and her fantasy friends. The trial is a metaphor for a world threatened by materialism, where only the children, in their innocence, see the truth and know that stories must never be forgotten as long as the human race exists. In the morning Lizuca founds herself in her grandparents' house who had found her with the help of the loyal Patrocle. The evil stepmother comes to claim her again but this time the grandfather has enough of her and so do the bees in his hives, so the witch is chased away and Lizuca gets to stay with her loving grandparents.The scenery is a combination of wonderful miniature nature scenes and artificial sets. One must be emotionally blank not to be touched by the scene where Lizuca asks the Fairy of Imagination to help her see her mother again.Ernest Maftei, the grandpa, speaks in a delicious Moldavian accent. Diana Musca is an adorable Lizuca, with her innocent eyes and sweet face. And Patrocle became the symbol of the most faithful pet dog for many generations of Romanian children (even I had a dog with short legs whose name was Patrocle).It may not be the regular movie today's children would like to see because it lacks special effects and episodes of dramatic chasing and explosions. However, it can touch their imagination and open our hearts to long forgotten times in our own memories. The movie was awarded at the Children Movies Festival at Gijon, Spain, in 1981 and the award for The Best Ecranisation of a Story at the Moscow Festival same year.