Arizona Dream

Axel works in the Department of Fish Resources in New York . His cousin Paul is coming from Arizona to bring Axel to Uncle Leo’s wedding. Although Axel does not want to go, Paul manages to get him drunk and take him home.

Uncle Leo wants Axel to continue the hereditary Cadillac business. Axel first wants to return to New York, but, feeling a duty to his uncle, who raised him after the tragic death of his parents, remains.

While working in the store, Axel through Paul meets the forty-year-old widow Helen and her stepdaughter Grace. In the conversation, Grace confesses to Axel that she constantly comes up with the idea of ​​suicide, and that she is frightened by her growing resemblance to Helen. Axel and Paul come to visit Helen and witness the quarrel between the stepmother and stepdaughter. Soon, a romantic relationship begins between Axel and Helen. To realize Helen's dream, Axel tries to build an airplane, but almost every evening Grace crashes the plane, which makes Axel furious. Paul and Uncle Leo come to Helen, they are trying to persuade Axel to return.

Axel notices an old revolver in the hangar. The very first successful flight of an airplane ends in a crash - Axel and Helen crash into a tree. Axel recalls the words "one Russian" about a gun hanging on the wall and decides that the revolver should fire. He sneaks into the bedroom of Grace and puts a revolver to her temple. Grace wakes up and offers him to play Russian roulette .

Paul goes to acting tests, where he reproduces the scene with a maize from the film " North through Northwest " by Alfred Hitchcock . After Paul’s performance, Uncle Leo’s bride appears and reports that his uncle became ill. Axel accompanies his uncle in an ambulance. On the way, uncle dies.

After a couple of weeks, Axel returns to Helen. The meeting is accompanied by a quarrel and clarify the relationship.

Helen's birthday is coming. Grace gives her an airplane. Grace and Axel, hanging illuminations on the roof, understand that feelings have appeared between them.

In the evening there is a celebration. Climbing up with Grace into her room, Axel offers to run away. Grace agrees to do it later, arguing that she has unfinished business.

Grace, Paul, Axel and Helene are sitting in the living room and singing songs to the music of invited Mexicans. Gradually, everyone disperses, Paul stays in the living room and watches The Godfather . Grace in her dress in a white dress, takes a revolver and goes out. Axel and Helen notice her from the window and rush after them, but they do not have time - Grace shoots herself in the mouth.

It takes some time. Axel enters his uncle's abandoned store. His voice-over says that he knows nothing about life, and that he likes life.

There is also an alternative ending, which appeared in additional materials for the film. Axel marries Millie. From his uncle he gets a salon for the sale of Cadillacs, only Axel sells small European cars in it. Paul starred in the film and became a celebrity. At a wedding at Axel autographs.

Dreams of movie heroes

Each of the characters in the film dreams of something:

• Paul dreams of becoming a great actor and literally repeats scenes and dialogues from cult films.
• Helen wants to build an airplane and fly to Papua New Guinea .
• Grace wants to become a turtle and live forever.
• Uncle Leo's father dreamed of building a staircase from Cadillacs to the Moon itself.

• 1993 - Special jury prize ( Silver Bear ) and nomination for the Golden Bear Prize of the Berlin Film Festival
• 1993 - Golden Camera 300 prize awarded to Vilko Filach at the Manaka Brothers Film Festival
• 1994 - Audience Award at the Warsaw Film Festival

• Marlon Brando , Al Pacino , Robert De Niro and Johnny Depp are on the list of actors Paul enumerates to the girl in the cinema while watching “Raging Bull” .
• In the film, the famous scene with a corncob from the film “ To the North through the North-West ” by Alfred Hitchcock , as well as dialogues from the first and second parts of “The Godfather” are quoted several times. At the beginning of the picture, the famous documentary " Nanook from the North " is cited.
• The name and surname of the main character comes from the name of the lead singer of Guns N 'Roses ( Axl Rose ) and the surname of the guitarist of Deep Purple ( Richie Blackmore ) in a distorted form.
• Kusturica mounted the Arizona Dream for several years; in the end, despite the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival , the film failed at the box office. French producers, who spent a lot of effort, money and time on the project, recognized the idea of ​​collaboration between Kusturica and Hollywood actors as a failure.
• In the song “This Is a Film” the words of the hero of A. Platonov ’s novel “ Chevengur ” are quoted: “Look - wisdom. The fish stands between life and death, therefore it is dumb and looks without expression; after all, he thinks, but there is no fish - she already knows everything. ” Kusturica admitted that Platonov’s work had a great influence on him. ^[one]
• The music for the songs "This is a film" and "In the Deathcar" is a quote from Enrico Macias ' Solenzara song.
• The song "Gypsy Reggae" cites a song by James Thornton (James Thornton) "The Streets of Cairo".

1. Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop - In the Deathcar
2. Goran Bregovic - Dreams
3. Goran Bregovich - Old Home Movie
4. Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop - TV Screen
5. Goran Bregovic - 7/8 & 11/8
6. Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop - Get the Money
7. Goran Bregovic - Gunpowder
8. Goran Bregovic - Gypsy Reggae
9. Goran Bregovic - Death
10. Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop - This Is a Film
11. Johnny Depp - American Dreamers - Old Home Movie

• “Arizona Dream” (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database  
• Arizona Dream on allmovie