The Cherry Orchard (1999)

54% of critics liked it
(26 reviews)
33% of users liked it
(643 ratings)

Renowned Greek filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis wrote and directed this adaptation of the classic final drama by playwright Anton Chekhov, set in 1900. Lyubov Ranevskaya (Charlotte Rampling) left Russia to escape troubling memories of the death of her son. Now her family is riddled with debt and Lyubov… More Renowned Greek filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis wrote and directed this adaptation of the classic final drama by playwright Anton Chekhov, set in 1900. Lyubov Ranevskaya (Charlotte Rampling) left Russia to escape troubling memories of the death of her son. Now her family is riddled with debt and Lyubov and her teenaged daughter Anya (Tushka Bergen) have come home to the family estate, looking for a way to pay their bills. Much to their dismay, the Ranevskayas are forced to sell their land to Lopakhin (Owen Teale), a crude businessman who intends to build a housing development in what was once the family's cherry orchard. The international cast also includes Alan Bates as Lyubov's brother Gaev, Katrin Cartlidge as Lyubov's ward Varya, and Michael Gough and Frances de la Tour as the family's servants. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 21 min.
Directed By: Mihalis Kakogiannis
Written By: Mihalis Kakogiannis, Anton Chekhov
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Mar 18, 2000 Wide
On DVD: Feb 25, 2003
Studio: Kino International

Critic Reviews

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
Ms. Rampling, still beautiful well into her 50s, has an earth-bound weariness and lively spirit that convey a life fully and tragically lived.
Jonathan Perry, Boston Globe
Cacoyannis is perhaps too effective in creating an atmosphere of dust-caked stagnation and labored gentility.
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
Drags along in a dazed and enervated, drenched-in-the- past numbness.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Looking aristocratic, luminous yet careworn in Jane Hamilton's exemplary costumes, Rampling gives a performance that could not be improved upon.
John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune
Any Chekhov is better than no Chekhov, but it would be a shame if this was your introduction to one of the greatest plays of the last 100 years.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Essential viewing for lovers of Chekhov.
Prairie Miller, WBAI Web Radio
The film spars with a light touch and heavy heart among character, social friction and class contradictions.
Steven Leigh Morris, L.A. Weekly
In capturing the understated comedic agony of an ever-ruminating, genteel yet decadent aristocracy that can no longer pay its bills, the film could just as well be addressing the turn of the 20th century into the 21st.
David Jays, Sight and Sound
One of the film's most effective aspects is its Tchaikovsky soundtrack of neurasthenic regret.
Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan
Chekhov has never looked or sounded better.
Marta Barber, Miami Herald
While Cacoyannis' film may not be totally faithful to the master's pen, for literature students and theater lovers, this Cherry Orchard is a rare treat.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
The new film of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard puts the 'ick' in 'classic.'
David Elliott, San Diego Union-Tribune
A sometimes tedious film.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
Cacoyannis' vision is far less mature, interpreting the play as a call for pity and sympathy for anachronistic phantasms haunting the imagined glory of their own pasts.
Misha Berson, Seattle Times
Scrupulously acted (in English), visually perfected and skillfully complemented with Tchaikovsky piano music.
William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's not a bit stagy, yet it manages to be dazzling theater.