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Movies / On DVD / Elsa & Fred
Elsa & Fred

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Elsa & Fred (2008)

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Reviews Counted: 27

Fresh: 15

Rotten:12

Average Rating: 5.4/10

Consensus: Boosted by charming performances by the octogenarian leads, Elsa and Fred overcomes its schmaltzy premise to make for a satisfying romantic tale.

Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for some mild thematic elements and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: Elsa & Fred is a romantic comedy about the irresistible power and total madness of love when two people who, at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love… or to dream. Elsa... Elsa & Fred is a romantic comedy about the irresistible power and total madness of love when two people who, at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love… or to dream.

Elsa has dreamt for the past 60 years of the moment that Fellini had already envisaged: the scene in La Dolce Vita. at the Fontana di Trevi. Her dream however is not of Anita Ekberg, but Elsa instead rising out of the fountain in all her glory, and without Marcello Mastroiani, but with her true love that took so long to arrive.

Alfredo is a bit younger than Elsa, a reserved meticulous man who becomes the object of Elsa’s desire. After losing his wife, he feels lonely and confused and his daughter decides that it would be best if he moved into a smaller apartment where he meets Elsa. From that moment on, everything changes. Elsa bursts into his life like a whirlwind, determined to teach him that the time he has left to live—be it more or less—is precious and that he should enjoy every minute of it. Fred surrenders to Elsa’s frenzy, to her youth, to her boldness, to her beautiful madness. And this is how Alfredo (or Fred, as Elsa calls him), learns how to live.--© Mitropoulos Pictures
[More]

Starring: Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla, Blanca Portillo, Roberto Carnaghi

Starring: Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla, Blanca Portillo, Roberto Carnaghi, Federico Luppi

Director: Marcos Carnevale

Director: Marcos Carnevale
Screenwriter: Marcos Carnevale,
Producer: José Antonio Félez
Composer:
Studio: Mitropoulos Films

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Release:

Jan 20, 2009

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Reviews for Elsa & Fred

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Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Director Marcos Carnevale makes sure to get his ticket punched at every station in this journey through cinematic convention.

Full Review Source: Playback:stl | comment Comment
09/19/08
Sarah Boslaugh
Playback:stl

In the end, only the veteran actors playing Elsa and Fred make the movie watchable.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
08/01/08
John Hartl
Seattle Times

Who would have guessed that, in this age of excess and one-upmanship, when bigger is always better, the year's most romantic screen kiss would last a mere two seconds.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
08/01/08
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The dream fulfillment seems more silly than romantic, and it brings the movie to an abrupt end that is wholly unsatisfying.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
08/01/08
Steve Davis
Austin Chronicle

This starts to get interesting in the homestretch, as the woman's chronic deception begins to catch up with her, but for the most part it's an extended Geritol commercial.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
08/01/08
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Elsa & Fred feels not substantial enough to bear the weight of its themes. It dissolves like cotton candy, making proper digestion impossible.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
07/31/08
Dan Zak
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For some, the movie will be an emotional paean to love at the twilight of life; to others, though, it's a contrived, manipulative film calculatedly sentimental and -- except for poor Alfredo -- totally false to life.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
07/24/08
Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

When one thinks of on-screen chemistry, rarely, if ever, do you think of characters in their seventies.

Full Review Source: Kaplan vs. Kaplan | comment Comment
07/22/08
Jeanne Kaplan
Kaplan vs. Kaplan

This little gem will have the mature moviegoer completely under its spell.

Full Review Source: Kaplan vs. Kaplan | comment Comment
07/22/08
David Kaplan
Kaplan vs. Kaplan

Elsa & Fred is worth seeing just to admire how Argentine writer-director Marcos Carnevale avoids so much as a whiff of condescension.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
07/18/08
Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A sweet but inconsequential romantic comedy.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 1 Comment
07/18/08
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Elsa is obsessed with the "Fontana di Trevi" sequence from La Dolce Vita, but that's only a reminder that the aging Fellini once accomplished far more effective films about old age and second chances.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
07/17/08
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Love is said to be blind, but this sweet Spanish romance suggests it may also be ageless.

Full Review Source: NPR.org | comment Comment
07/01/08
Bob Mondello
NPR.org

Convincingly proves even to teens (not likely to be in the audience, unfortunately), that you're never too old for romance.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
06/28/08
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Credit director Marcos Carnevale with beautifully pulling off this schmaltzy premise, as well as restaging the famous scene at Rome's Trevi Fountain from La Dolce Vita with his elderly lovers in place of Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
06/27/08
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Elsa & Fred is both a movie about love and a love letter to movies.

comment Comment
06/27/08
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Marcos Carnevale’s patronizing take on the relationship between an elderly widow and widower in Madrid unspools like the vision of a middle-aged person intent on propagating stereotypes about youthfulness and the golden years.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/27/08
John P. McCarthy
Boxoffice Magazine

The absence of bite prevents the movie from leaving any kind of impression.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
06/26/08
Noel Murray
AV Club

Yes, it’s formulaic and shamelessly manipulative. But Zorrilla and Alexandre have chemistry to burn; only a hard heart could resist their bittersweet romance.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
06/26/08
Maitland McDonagh
Time Out New York
 
 
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Latest News for Elsa & Fred

January 23, 2009: Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices, and screen dreams sexing it up, La Dolce Vita style. Opens in new window
More...

January 19, 2009: Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices, and screen dreams sexing it up, La Dolce Vita style. Opens in new window
More...

January 19, 2009: ActorsandCrew.com: Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, and a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices. Opens in new window
More...

June 30, 2008: Critics Consensus: WALL-E Is the Best-Reviewed Film of 2008
This week at the movies, we've got lonely robots (Pixar's WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton) and kinetic killers (Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, and Morgan... More...

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