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Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996)

Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996)
Member Rating:  
Superb black-and-white photography highlights this independent drama. John Lee (Peter Alexander) is the son of a Chinese-American father and a French mother, living in California shortly after World War II. John's grandfather was a Chinese laborer brought to America to help lay tracks for the Continental railroad, and John has inherited an obsessive love of trains. When John discovers that the short-line railroad that runs from Merced, California, to the Yosemite Valley is soon to be shut down, he persuades his father to back him as he takes over the line and attempts to restore it. John hires two experienced railroad men to help him run his new railway: conductor Robinson (Henry Gibson and traffic manager Skeeter (Michael Stipe). As he tries to put the Yosemite Valley Railroad back on its feet, he becomes romantically involved with a beautiful park ranger (Jeri Arredondo) and exchanges subtle flirtations with both Skeeter and his sister Wendy (Diana Larkin). However, his all-consuming interest in the railroad prevents these relationships from going anywhere, and his family begins to lose patience with him as he digs himself deeper into a business that seems doomed. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Peter Alexander
Director(s):
Christopher Munch
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day

Superb black-and-white photography highlights this independent drama. John Lee (Peter Alexander) is the son of a Chinese-American father and a French mother, living in California shortly after World War II. John's grandfather was a Chinese laborer brought to America to help lay tracks for the Continental railroad, and John has inherited an obsessive love of trains. When John discovers that the short-line railroad that runs from Merced, California, to the Yosemite Valley is soon to be shut down, he persuades his father to back him as he takes over the line and attempts to restore it. John hires two experienced railroad men to help him run his new railway: conductor Robinson (Henry Gibson and traffic manager Skeeter (Michael Stipe). As he tries to put the Yosemite Valley Railroad back on its feet, he becomes romantically involved with a beautiful park ranger (Jeri Arredondo) and exchanges subtle flirtations with both Skeeter and his sister Wendy (Diana Larkin). However, his all-consuming interest in the railroad prevents these relationships from going anywhere, and his family begins to lose patience with him as he digs himself deeper into a business that seems doomed. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
85 mins

Complete Cast of Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day


Director(s):
Christopher Munch
Writer(s):
Caveh ZahediChristopher Munch
Producer(s):
Andrea SperlingRuth CharnyDonald Rosenfeld
Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day Awards:
  • 1995 - Independent Spirit Awards - Someone to Watch Award
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    Member Reviews
     
    Lee P.

    This is a good movie if you will take the time to stay with it.....for it is a thinking person's movie done in the "film noir" style and uses fifties style black and white filmmaking to the max. Look for the little details in the sets and archived film. The homosexual inuendoes were so typical of the times and the censorship. Slow moving, yes! A waste of time, Not! It isnt meant to be for those who like the car crash, overt sexual content of today's films.

    Yes   |   No

     
    Kurt S.

    A somewhat slow but beautifully composed film about an introspective man who pursues his love of trains at the price of meaningful emotional relationships with those closest to him.

    Yes   |   No

     
    James S.

    Like most of Munch's films, this one also explores love and loss - in this case, a young Chinese-American loves a railroad and loses it. Munch moves slowly, exploring the landscapes and contours of human emotions with deliberation and care. The black-and-white photography, meant to evoke the photos of Ansel Adams, is one of the film's major strengths but is comprised by a barely 3G transfer. For some, the film will be tedious, I fear. There are some missteps - why the hero flirts with everyone, men and women, seems to have nothing to do with the story.

    Yes   |   No

     
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