Henry & June (1990)

In 1931 Paris, Anais Nin meets Henry Miller and his wife June. Intrigued by them both, she begins expanding her sexual horizons with her husband Hugo as well as with Henry and others. June ... See full summary »

Director:

Philip Kaufman

Writers:

Anaïs Nin (book), Philip Kaufman (screenplay),

Stars:

Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, Maria de Medeiros

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Fred Ward	...	Henry Miller
Uma Thurman	...	June Miller
Maria de Medeiros	...	Anaïs Nin
Richard E. Grant	...	Hugo Guiler
Kevin Spacey	...	Richard Osborn
Jean-Philippe Écoffey	...	Eduardo Sanchez (as Jean-Philippe Ecoffey)
Bruce Myers	...	Jack
Juan Luis Buñuel	...	Publisher / Editor (as Jean-Luis Bunuel)
Féodor Atkine	...	Spanish Dance Instructor (as Feodor Atkine)
Sylvie Huguel	...	Emilia
Artus de Penguern	...	Brassaï
Pierre Étaix	...	Henry's Friend No. 1
Pierre Edernac	...	Henry's Friend No. 2 - Magician
Gaëtan Bloom	...	Henry's Friend No. 3 - Magician (as Gaetan Bloom)
Alexandre De Gall	...	Henry's Friend No. 4 - Clown

Storyline

In 1931 Paris, Anais Nin meets Henry Miller and his wife June. Intrigued by them both, she begins expanding her sexual horizons with her husband Hugo as well as with Henry and others. June shuttles between Paris and New York trying to find acting jobs while Henry works on his first major work, "Tropic of Cancer," a pseudo-biography of June. Anais and Hugo help finance the book, but June is displeased with Henry's portrayal of her, and Anais and Henry have many arguments about their styles of writing on a backdrop of a Bohemian lifestyle in Paris.

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Plot Keywords:

adultery | unfaithfulness | unfaithful wife | cheating wife | sex in bed | 

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Taglines:

A True Adventure More Erotic Than Any Fantasy

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 October 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Henry y June

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Gross:

$11,567,449 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walrus & Associates

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Fred Ward wore blue contact lenses over his brown eyes to better resemble Henry Miller.

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Quotes

[Late at night in bed with Anais]
June Miller: I don't know why, I keep on thinking of this little Chinese restaurant that Henry and I used to go after I got off work. He'd wait for me outside the dance hall at two in the mornin', then we'd rush through the freezin' cold holding each other tight. We'd get there just before closing time sit in a booth by the window eatin' chow mein, watchin' the snow swirl by. There was some kind of unbelievable thrill in the air between us. I feel kinda haunted by it now. ...

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Connections

Referenced in Kwik Stop (2001)

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Soundtracks

Barnacle Bill The Sailor
Composed by Frank Luther
Performed by Fred Ward

User Reviews

Nudity doesn't necessarily equate with eroticism

In 1931 Paris, French authoress Anaïs Nin, doing a study on D.H. Lawrence, finds herself intrigued by different variations of sexuality; she and her husband Hugo Guiler are drawn into friendship with Americans Henry Miller and his volatile bisexual wife, June. Miller, the unpublished New York writer just on the verge of a breakthrough with "Tropic of Cancer", sees Anaïs as a sexy child and has a half-hearted affair with her, but June Miller's feelings seem to go much deeper. Maria de Medeiros as Nin has a marvelous face and graceful manner that nearly manage to keep this handsome but unenlightening sexual odyssey together. Director Philip Kaufman hopes to be as uninhibited as his characters but, despite an NC-17 rating, his sexual sequences feel truncated (and when nudity is trotted out--as in the whorehouse sequence--it fails to stand in for true eroticism). Fred Ward, always worth a look, seems held back as Miller, restrained, and he's not helped by a bald plate which at times looks unconvincing; Uma Thurman has a smaller role as June, and Kaufman allows her to pose and smolder a bit too much, but she's looser on the screen and brings the narrative some much-needed danger. The picture has a lot of ambiance and is briskly paced and fancifully told, but it just doesn't succeed at being a risk-taking exploration of human sexuality simply because Kaufman takes so few risks. ** from ****