MAX

Year: 2002
USA: Lions Gate Films
UK: Pathe Distribution
Cast: John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Molly Parker, Ulrich Thomsen, David Horovitch, Janet Suzman, Andras Stohl, John Grillo, Anna Nygh, Krisztian Kolovratnik, Peter Capaldi, Julia Vysotskaya, Janos Kulka, Katalin Palfy, Kevin McKidd, Heather Cameron, Joel Pitts, Tamas Lengyel, Attila Arpa, Daisy Haggard, Gabor Harsay, Paul Rattray, Derek Hagen, Caroleen Feeney, Mike Kelly, Ben O'Brian, agnes Becsei, Tibor Soltenszky, Kerric Macdonald, Matt Devere, Judit Hernadi, Kerry Shale, Heather Hermant, Laszló Borbely, Peter Linka, Laszló Görög, Andor Timar, Tamas Puskas, Pandora Colin, Rabbi Robert Fröhlich, Róbertne Banky, Miklós Dörögi, Marianna Kovacs, Peter Bognar, Istvan Erdös
Director: Menno Meyjes
Countries: Canada / Germany / Hungary
USA: 108 mins
UK: 109 mins
USA Rated: R for language
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and violence
USA Release Date: 27 December 2002 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 20 June 2003

Synopsis

Munich,1918: In a world reeling from World War One and the shock of the new, everyone's mind is on the future. It is a time of high-octane debate and dreams of drastic change, a time when the lines between art, politics and personal beliefs have been blurred beyond reckoning. The only question that remains is this: now what? In what direction will things turn next?

For Max Rothman (John Cusack), a soldier just returned from the Great War, the present has certainly turned out radically different from what he imagined. He returned from the war, one of the walking wounded, a damaged man trying to sort out his life. Once a promising artist, he lost his right arm and with it, his ability to paint. Yet the future still draws Max like a magnet, fuelled by the restlessness, typified by the birth of modernism. Now, he opens up what quickly becomes an acclaimed art gallery. Also caught in the Post-War struggle are his beautiful wife (Molly Parker) and children, a once picturesque family, now torn by uncertainty and Max's infatuation with his alluring artistic mistress (Leelee Sobieski).

But then, at a celebratory party for the opening of his new show, Max meets another man interested in the future: a fellow war veteran and aspiring painter, a man with no family, no home and no friends. His name: Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor), and his decision to transfer his creative talents to politics, where at last he finds an outlet for his raw beliefs, sets into motion the most catastrophic period of the 20 th century.

From Oscar-nominated screenwriter Menno Meyjes (THE COLOR PURPLE) comes MAX, a story of two unlikely friends facing an uncertain future and one's fateful decision to embrace a nightmare vision of evil. Deeply unsettling, defiantly humorous and ultimately, tragically moving, MAX is more an historical fable than a straight-ahead historical drama -- a tale that careens through art, politics, love, hope, intolerance, obsession and destructive malevolence to provide an original and intimate portrait of a major turning point in modern history.

MAX is the directorial debut of Menno Meyjes, who also wrote the screenplay. The film is produced by Andras Hamori (SUNSHINE, THE SWEET HEREAFTER, EXISTENZ).

The DVD boasts an audio commentary by Meyjes, an art gallery of modernist paintings, plus the theatrical trailer.

DVD EXTRAS

Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Original Aspect Ratio: (16X9) 1.85
Sound & Picture Quality: Dolby surround 2.0