Nastassja Kinski evokes something in the viewer. In Maria's Lovers, she is able to transform from an adolescent sexual lolita to a captivating experienced woman. I viewed the film in a foreign language so I just examined the characters, pacing, lighting, and what I witnessed was an obscure treasure from the 1980's. Nastassja Kinski was in her prime in 1984. She was an eccentric actor to the American audience, ravishing, spell binding, odd. Maria's Lovers is beautiful and lyrical, a film that lingers in the mind, asking questions and relating to moments of lovers. A fascinating study. The directing and cinematography are graceful. I love when we see Maria for the first time. She is so captivating and yet, something else...not sure what...something cool and refreshing. A Film for the Registry.

Set in the immediate post World War II in the small rural picturesque American town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania among Yugoslavian immigrants, `Maria's Lovers' follows a young soldier with the name of Ivan Bibec, played by John Savage, who has been discharged from the Army, into his home town. The film seems to unfold slowly upon first viewing, but that is misleading because it has been very tightly edited and one can only pick up some of the nuances of the film by watching it a second and/or a third time. Nastassja Kinski is Maria Bosic and is the central character in the film. The supporting cast is first rate with Anita Morris, Robert Mitchum and Keith Carradine. The film has a European feel to it because of the direction of Andrei Konchalovsky, meaning that it is sparse and compact, yet exquisitely framed. Early on, Ivan marries his sweetheart, Maria, and the rest of the film deals with love and infidelity and how it impacts the two main characters and their marriage.

1984 found Nastassja Kinski in four film releases: `Unfaithfully Yours' a nice light comedy, `The Hotel New Hampshire' (a Nastassja disaster in which she initially appears in a bear costume and is so happy to escape it that she does one cartwheel at the end of the film),the Wim Wenders' legendary `Paris, Texas' in which she appears in the last part of the film, and then there was `Maria's Lovers' in which she was the featured and marquee performer. In `Maria's Lovers,' Nastassja has to carry the film in a very difficult role that would stretch any actress's abilities and skills. Of the forty plus Nastassja movies that I have seen, this is probably her best role and performance. Nastassja's Maria is textured and rich with innocence, shyness, passion, vulnerability, and character strength. If anything, Nastassja Kinski is chameleon like because she so easily blends into the film and yet her character is quite distinctive with depth, dealing with the irrationalities of love, intimacy, and infidelity. In a sense, `Maria's Lovers' is an end point for Nastassja because she was finally able to integrate everything into one performance. There is little question that Nastassja Kinski is foremost a dramatic actress of unparalleled skills that can be subtle or dynamic or anything in between when on the screen. Coupled with her singular striking beauty and expressive eyes, she is a package that very few actresses can ever hope to equal. Nastassja intuitively knows how to move on screen, have the proper inflections in her voice, use her face and eyes as an ever changing canvas, project intelligence and sensuality, and be charismatic with great screen presence. This was nothing less than a superb performance.

One of two Cannon movies shot near my hometown of Pittsburgh* - actually Brownsville, West Brownsville and surrounding Fayette County using locations such as the long gone Fredericktown Ferry, the gorgeous Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in West Brownsville and now closed High Point restaurant in Coal Center - this movie amazes me as Nastassja Kinski and Robert Mitchum once walked the streets where I have tread. And the movie's premiere was at the Laurel Mall Cinema in Connelsville, a place that was turned into a wrestling building and where I bled and sweat for years.

Today, Maria's house is a refurbished BnB that I'm absolutely certain that Austin Trunick, author of The Cannon Film Guide Volume 1: 1980-1984, will be staying at. And according to this local article, Ms. Kinski coming to our small town had quite the impact, as she presented the Brownsville Elks with the Richard Avedon nude photo of herself with a live python wrapped around her. When she wasn't lounging at the Uniontown Holiday Inn with her chihuahua Paco like an old fashioned movie star, there was a rumor that she had an affair with a local miner, which I'd like to believe is true.

As for Mitchum, he stayed drunk - surprise - throughout most of the movie, stumbling through the streets of Brownsville - allegedly - clutching a bottle of tequila and shouting, "Does anybody know we're making a pornographic movie in your town?" I must confess that I would put my acid reflux to the test just for the opportunity to get blackout drunk with Mitchum.

While born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mitchum would tell Roger Ebert in 1971 interview while making Going Home, when asked how long he'd been in Pittsburgh, the great actor said, "I was born here and I intend to make it my home long after U. S. Steel has died and been forgotten. I intend to remain after steel itself has been forgotten. I shall remain, here on the banks of the Yakahoopee River, a grayed eminence...I used to come through here during the Depression. I don't think the place has ever really and truly recovered." The whole article is great, as Mitchum faces the realities of just how hard it is to drive and get directions in our City of Bridges.

Reports also say that he had ladies young and old line up for several blocks just for a hug or a kiss and man, Hollywood was once amazing, right?

The first Western movie by Andrei Konchalovsky - and potentially the first movie made by a Russian director with major American actors - this is the story of Ivan Bibic (John Savage, who is also the Beast in Cannon's take on Beauty and the Beast as well as being in another Western PA after the war movie The Deer Hunter**) and how his time in the war has destroyed him. His father (Mitchum) sets him up with a neighbor, Mrs. Wynic (Anita Morris) instead of allowing him to be back with Maria (Kinski),a woman now married to Al Griselli (Vincent Spano). Her memory kept him alive in a POW camp, yet still his father believes she's too good for his son.

The real issue that Ivan has, beyond his PTSD, is that he's put Maria on an impossible pedestal, seeing her as an unapproachable ideal and a chaste angel of purity when she just wants to experience their relationship as a normal woman with very healthy desires. That means that he can perform with Mrs. Wynic, but not her. She, on the other hand, can find herself finally seduced by Clarence (Keith Carradine) and this infidelity, strangely, may save their relationship.

Menahem Golan said that this movie came about quite simply: "Konchalovskiy was introduced to me at Cannes. He told me a story about a soldier in Yugoslavia who returns home after WWI with shell shock, not able to have sex with his wife. I told him, "Go downstairs, get some coffee and start thinking this way: He is not a Yugoslavian soldier, he is an American soldier, the war is not WWI, it's Vietnam, and make the story contemporary." Konchalovskiy would go on to make Runaway Train, Shy People and Duet for One for Cannon, but is probably best known for Tango & Cash***, a movie that seems like a long valley between his usual artistic films.

*The other is Rappin'.

**Which wasn't shot here, but in Ohio (Stuebenville, Struthers, Cleveland) and West Virgina (Weirton) doubling for our region.

***Which really feels like it could have been a Cannon.