Elegy (2008/I)

Director:

Isabel Coixet

Writers (WGA):

Nicholas Meyer (screenplay)
Philip Roth (novel)

Release Date:

18 April 2008 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Cultural critic David Kepesh finds his life -- which he indicates is a state of "emancipated manhood" -- thrown into tragic disarray by Consuela Castillo, a well-mannered student who awakens a sense of sexual possessiveness in her teacher.

Plot Keywords:

Student | Friend | Professor | Critic | Poet

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Penélope Cruz	...	Consuela Castillo
Ben Kingsley	...	David Kepesh
Dennis Hopper	...	George O'Hearn
Patricia Clarkson	...	Carolyn
Peter Sarsgaard	...	Kenny Kepesh
Deborah Harry	...	Amy O'Hearn
Charlie Rose	...	Charlie Rose
Antonio Cupo	...	Younger Man
Michelle Harrison	...	2nd Student
Sonja Bennett	...	Beth
Emily Holmes	...	1st Student
Chelah Horsdal	...	Susan Reese
Marci T. House	...	Administration Nurse
Alessandro Juliani	...	Actor #3 in Play
Tiffany Lyndall-Knight	...	Actor #2 in Play

Also Known As:

Elegy: Dying Animal (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #43893) | Ireland:16 | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-11 | Argentina:16 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:Btl | Austria:12 | Germany:12 | UK:15 | South Africa:16 | South Korea:18 | Australia:M | Mexico:B15 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Lakeshore Entertainment

Quotes:

David Kepesh: [interview on the Charlie Rose show] We're not all descended from the Puritans.
Charlie Rose: No?
David Kepesh: There was another colony 30 miles from Plymouth, it's not on the maps today. Marymount it was called.
Charlie Rose: Yeah, alright, you mention in your book...
David Kepesh: The colony where anything goes, went.
Charlie Rose: There was booze...
David Kepesh: There was booze. There was fornication. There was music. There was... they even ah, ah, ah, you name it, you name it. They even danced around the maypole once a month, wearing masks, worshiping god knows what, Whites and Indians together, all going for broke...
Charlie Rose: Who was responsible for all of this?
David Kepesh: A character by the name of Thomas Morton.
Charlie Rose: Aah, the "Hugh Hefner" of the Puritans.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References "The Charlie Rose Show" (1991)

Soundtrack:

Déjame Recordar

Aging

OK. Professor starts an affair with one of his students. You may have prejudices about that. Not about this kind of affairs, but about this kind of movies.

But it's a story about aging and jealousy and so far touching. The professor goes through hell, including all objections he's supposed to have about his own behavior in this certainly true love. A love which is regarded as ridiculous. Most so by himself.

Cruz and Kingsley are great as you could expect, but the greatest performance is delivered by Dennis Hopper. A certain amount of sentimentality is a little disturbing, but this film obviously takes aging as an emotional problem seriously.