Houston Chronicle Sunshine Article

October 7, 1999

Sunny prospects for Ralph Fiennes and his epic movie
BY: LOUIS B. PARK

Ralph Fiennes could be up for his third Oscar nomination for his tour-de-force performances in a new epic film, Sunshine.

Maybe this year, maybe not.

Sunshine, a tale of three generations of an upper-class Hungarian-Jewish family that spans almost the entire 20th century, was one of the most ambitious and entertaining films shown at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, where it had a gala world-premiere screening before an overflow audience.

Cast members Fiennes, Jennifer Elhe (Pride and Prejudice), Rosemary Harris (Hamlet) and William Hurt (The Accidental Tourist) attended. So did director Istvan Szabo, best-known to American art-film audiences for Mephisto and Colonel Redl. Rachel Weisz (The Mummy) also stars.

Sunshine traces not only the lives of members of the Sonnenschein ( Sunshine) family; it also follows the up-and-down times of Hungarian Jews through dictatorship, two world wars, the Nazi era, Soviet rule and eventual democracy.

The mix of history, politics, intimate romance and inner turmoil often brings to mind epics - such as Doctor Zhivago - that are seldom made anymore. Perhaps it is more than coincidence that the film's music is by Maurice Jarre, who did the Oscar-winning scores for Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia and A Passage to India.

Fiennes, Oscar-nominated for Schindler's List (supporting) and The English Patient (lead), ties the century together by playing three roles, one in each generation. His performance matches the epic scope of the film.

The morning after the premiere, he sounded a little awed.

"You realize you've been in a very hyper-state," the soft-spoken Fiennes said. "When the film's finished and you go home, you know you're never going to do it again. Looking at it last night, I thought, God, I had to do all those scenes and all those emotions and all those moments. Nothing in me now can understand how we got there."

It's a very romantic and impressive role for Fiennes, who has recently been overshadowed by his brother Joseph in Shakespeare in Love.

In addition to the oddity of Fiennes playing three parts, the main female character - whose life covers most of the story - is played by two actresses. Elhe plays the family matriarch in the first half of her life, then the role is taken over by Harris (Elhe's real-life mother) for the second half of the saga.

As of press time, the film's production company had not signed with an American distributor, but still anticipates Sunshine opening by the end of the year, making it eligible for Academy Award nominations. Time is growing short, and the subject matter makes the film a tricky one to promote, but it's hard to imagine no one grabbing this impressive film soon.