Home > VHS  $70.00   UPC: 097361511436 Enchanted April (1991) Features : Closed-captioned Color NTSC Directors : Mike Newell Release Date:  13 April, 1994 Manufacturer:  Paramount Availability:  This item is currently not available. List Price:  $19.95   Accessories: (none) Similar Products: A Month by the Lake My House in Umbria A Room with a View (Two-Disc Special Edition) Widows' Peak Tea With Mussolini   This lovely, 1991 adaptation of Elizabeth Von Arnim's novel has a superb cast and a tone so mellow you can feel your pulse get slower. Josie Lawrence and Miranda Richardson play a pair of unhappily married women who rent an Italian villa for a month, sharing the rent with a crusty Englishwoman (Joan Plowright) and a lonely aristocrat (Polly Walker). Sun, rest, sinking into the green grass for long naps--they all have a soulful effect on the quartet, and then on the men in their lives who make a surprise visit. Mike Newell (Into the West) directs with seeming effortlessness, and it is impossible not to be swayed by the promise of restoration for these burdened characters--or for anyone alive. Wonderful performances all around, including a particularly sensitive one by Alfred Molina and a very funny one by Jim Broadbent. --Tom Keogh   Customer Reviews   Beautiful Dreamers Rating: 5 This movie is, quite simply, a classic. Imagine my surprise when I discovered, upon seeking for a DVD copy to gift a friend who has been ignorant of it all these years, that DVDs of this excellent little gem are not to be had. That seems to be a trend, as several movies that are must-haves in my collection have not been released to DVD. I've been perfectly happy with my VHS copy for years but it can't last forever - I was astounded to discover how much it was worth. But enough of the financial, practical side of this issue. Someone else said it well...when one is at the bottom spiritually, when the day is dark, when it is February and it has been spitting snow steadily for three days, THIS is the movie for you. I have wanted to go to Italy in the Springtime since I saw this movie in an art cinema when it first came out. It has always worked as a sinecure for depression for me (I found a $20 bill in the lobby the day I went to see it at the cinema!); the personifications of the four women at the heart of the story are absolutely superb. Lottie and Rose, the two caged-up housewives in post-war London, struggling to find some answer to the whys of life in charity work; the lonely old woman (played with great style by Joan Plowright), clinging to her memories of long-dead poets; and the bored, titled socialite (played well by Polly Walker), looking for a stimulus away from her stagnant, well-bred life full of ennui. They all stumble into an unlikely partnership in the renting of an Italian villa for a month and in that time learn more about themselves and the world they must live in than they ever thought possible. And the backdrop is stunning. I so want to visit this place. With every viewing of this movie I feel a deep peace and contentment. Everyone within the confines of the story blooms. The setting - and the personal discoveries - are pure magic. I always feel rather as if I have just gone on holiday when I watch it. This is truly one of those movies that belongs on the shelf of every movie buff, if not for how good it makes you feel, at least for the excellent acting of every member of the cast. If it takes purchasing a VHS copy to enjoy it, by all means. I hope at some point, however, it gains DVD status. Loves revived in the Italian sun Rating: 4 ENCHANTED APRIL is a very pensive and subtle approach to the awakenings of love for the disenchanted.Vacation does wonders for four women from London who rent an Italian "castle" in Post WW1.What also happens is the awakenings of their husbands and other men to "complete" the couplings.Sometimes vacations awaken love and then it languishes, but others will bloom and grow like the oleander and survive the stresses of returning to London.It always seems that Italy is the cure! (hence UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN). The performances from all principles are uniformly wonderful.IMO the movie, though a good one, still pales beside the stage play version which delves far deeper into the psyches of each character and their situation;whereas the film presents the gorgeous Italian countryside views which sacrifices some of the more substantial aspects of these delicious characters.Still, it is the only filmed version of this story.I do recommend,though, seeing the stage play if you can. The vhs print is perfectly adequate.The PAL dvd is identical as the exact same print is used with no color restoration; and if an American release happens, no doubt it will be similar.Don't toss your tapes aside folks until something better comes along! DVD, PLEASE, PLEASE!! Rating: 5 This is simply one of the best movies ever made. Perfect adaptation, perfect casting, perfect everything. Why it has not been put on DVD for the public is unexplainable. With today's prolification of movies containing violence, depravity and downright unpleasantness, why can't there be more that contain themes of hope, love, and yes, enchantment. Escapism? Perhaps, but then we need more movies like this that are healing to the soul.