Rachel, Rachel (1968)

Rachel is a 35 year old school teacher who has no man in her life and lives with her mother. When a man from the big city returns and asks her out, she begins to have to make decisions about her life and where she wants it to go.

Director:

Paul Newman

Writers:

Stewart Stern (screenplay), Margaret Laurence (novel)

Stars:

Joanne Woodward, James Olson, Kate Harrington

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joanne Woodward	...	Rachel Cameron
James Olson	...	Nick Kazlik
Kate Harrington	...	Mrs. Cameron
Estelle Parsons	...	Calla Mackie
Donald Moffat	...	Niall Cameron
Terry Kiser	...	Preacher
Frank Corsaro	...	Hector Jonas
Bernard Barrow	...	Leighton Siddley
Geraldine Fitzgerald	...	Rev. Wood
Nell Potts	...	Rachel as a child
Shawn Campbell	...	James
Violet Dunn	...	Verla
Beatrice Pons	...	Florence
Dortha Duckworth	...	Mae (as Dorothea Duckworth)
Simm Landres

Storyline

Thirty-five year old spinster and virgin Rachel Cameron is a sad, lonely woman. She lives in the small town of Japonica, Connecticut where she grew up. She teaches second grade at Japonica Elementary School and lives with her highly demanding widowed mother (her funeral director father passed away fourteen years ago) in the same apartment above a funeral home where she grew up, despite the home now not owned by them. Rachel often uses her mother as an excuse not to do things. Rachel represses her emotions, and is prone to daydreaming to envision alternate paths for herself in certain situations if she only had the nerve to do those things. Even when Nick Kazlik, a childhood acquaintance who has returned to Japonica for a summer visit with his family, makes it clear that he wants to have fun with her while he's in town, she can't act on his request out of fear of the unknown. But after a couple of incidents with her only real friend Calla Mackie, who is a fellow teacher at the school, ...

---

Plot Keywords:

teacher | elementary school | connecticut | female protagonist | pentecostalism | 

---

Taglines:

Who was she? Sometimes she was a child skipping rope. Sometimes she was a woman with a passionate hunger. And one day the woman and the child came together...

---

Genres:

Drama | Romance

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 August 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Jest of God

Filming Locations:

Bethel, Connecticut, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kayos Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jim Morrison was asked personally by Paul Newman to write a song for this movie, but it didn't work out.

---

Goofs

Rachel's hair pattern changes in two continuous shots on the hospital bed. The front camera angle shows her hair in front of her ears but the side camera shows her hair behind her ears.

---

Quotes

[Last lines]
Rachel Cameron: [Thinking] Where I'm going, anything may happen. Nothing may happen. Maybe I'll find a friend. Maybe I'll even marry a middle-aged widower and have children in my time. Most of the chances are against it, but not, I think, quite all. It may be that my children will always be temporary, never to be held. But so are everyone's. I will be afraid, always. I may be lonely, always. What will happen? What will happen?

---

Alternate Versions

Joanne Woodward's character's name, Rachel, is changed to Jennifer for the Italian version in order to make it sound more American

---

Connections

Referenced in Stella (1990)

User Reviews

Much in little

It's amazing to me how far and how fast we've fallen in the realm of cinema. I caught this movie midway and was gripped by the intense emotion Joanne Woodward conveys with her distraught portrayal of an emotionally inexperienced "middle-aged" woman (35 years old and middle-aged!). Naturally, the acting was so compelling that I found the film and watched it through.

The direction is wonderfully simplistic and the portrayals deep and rich with emotion and confusion. There's not a film that's been made in the past 25 years, perhaps with the exception of The Apostle, that captures the emotion of a common person with such depth.